3 ms·

The military has acceptance standards along the dimensions of height, strength, intelligence, mental health, and I don't know what else. Project 100000 experime

by wrp 3y ago

The military has acceptance standards along the dimensions of height, strength, intelligence, mental health, and I don't know what else. Project 100000 experimented with relaxing the requirement on intelligence, and found negative results from lowering it as much as they did. The change was based on perception of changing nature of warfighting. Something to consider is that more recently the military has been relaxing physical requirements, based on not unsimilar reasoning.

wolverine876 3y ago
Relaxing physical requirements is a different issue. Those people are fully capable and cognizant of deciding whether to join, and can handle the extreme emotional and mental load as well as anyone. Also, they can get themselves into sufficient physical condition. Putting people in that extreme situation without the mental and emotional capability is a nightmare of cruelty.
- cooper_ganglia 3y ago
  Someone who was not physically capable of joining the military before they relaxed the physical requirements may be able to handle the mental load, but not necessarily the physical load. That presents just as many problems and dangers to fellow soldiers as someone with a lower IQ.
  - wolverine876 3y ago
    > That presents just as many problems and dangers to fellow soldiers as someone with a lower IQ. That's a big assumption, and I doubt it applies broadly: Many military jobs do not depend much on physical fitness: Drone pilot, mechanic, truck driver, radar operator. Front line service is only one small part. Also, it omits the point that less-than-physically-fit can understand the risks, made their own decisions, and also improve their fitness. Imagine drafting people with physical handicaps - that would be the equivalent of McNamara's horrible program.
  - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    Relaxing physical requirements is absolutely mandatory if they expect to give a good shot at recruiting women and putting them in all roles, including combat. It's a rather immutable law of biology that the most physically fit women can't meet the bar of fitness for military men, so we approach the lowest common denominator.
    - cooper_ganglia 3y ago
      > It's a rather immutable law of biology that the most physically fit women can't meet the bar of fitness for military men I honestly have no idea how this thought leads to the conclusion that we need to lower the physical standards for military services, rather than simply disallow any woman who can’t meet them from serving in a combat role. We shouldn’t relax the standards to make it easier for women to join, we should be holding women to the exact same standard as anyone else. If an individual can’t sling a wounded soldier over their shoulder and carry him, why are we allowing these people to enlist at all, regardless of sex? You can’t start accepting blind people into combat roles just to meet diversity quotas. If you can’t meet the basic standards of sight, you can’t enlist. If you can’t meet the basic physical standards, you can’t enlist. That just makes sense.

by wrp 3y ago

wolverine876 3y ago

Relaxing physical requirements is a different issue. Those people are fully capable and cognizant of deciding whether to join, and can handle the extreme emotional and mental load as well as anyone. Also, they can get themselves into sufficient physical condition. Putting people in that extreme situation without the mental and emotional capability is a nightmare of cruelty.

cooper_ganglia 3y ago
Someone who was not physically capable of joining the military before they relaxed the physical requirements may be able to handle the mental load, but not necessarily the physical load. That presents just as many problems and dangers to fellow soldiers as someone with a lower IQ.
- wolverine876 3y ago
  > That presents just as many problems and dangers to fellow soldiers as someone with a lower IQ. That's a big assumption, and I doubt it applies broadly: Many military jobs do not depend much on physical fitness: Drone pilot, mechanic, truck driver, radar operator. Front line service is only one small part. Also, it omits the point that less-than-physically-fit can understand the risks, made their own decisions, and also improve their fitness. Imagine drafting people with physical handicaps - that would be the equivalent of McNamara's horrible program.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  Relaxing physical requirements is absolutely mandatory if they expect to give a good shot at recruiting women and putting them in all roles, including combat. It's a rather immutable law of biology that the most physically fit women can't meet the bar of fitness for military men, so we approach the lowest common denominator.
  - cooper_ganglia 3y ago
    > It's a rather immutable law of biology that the most physically fit women can't meet the bar of fitness for military men I honestly have no idea how this thought leads to the conclusion that we need to lower the physical standards for military services, rather than simply disallow any woman who can’t meet them from serving in a combat role. We shouldn’t relax the standards to make it easier for women to join, we should be holding women to the exact same standard as anyone else. If an individual can’t sling a wounded soldier over their shoulder and carry him, why are we allowing these people to enlist at all, regardless of sex? You can’t start accepting blind people into combat roles just to meet diversity quotas. If you can’t meet the basic standards of sight, you can’t enlist. If you can’t meet the basic physical standards, you can’t enlist. That just makes sense.