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> Again, you're begging the question. You're assuming that the original admission process measured "merit" in the first place. He (that is, yock) did not beg t
by lliamander 13y ago
> Again, you're begging the question. You're assuming that the original admission process measured "merit" in the first place.
He (that is, yock) did not beg the question. I quote "If gender is to be elevated above merit, all we've done is exchanged one form of discrimination for another". Perhaps the old policy favored prior exposure in contrast to merit; now the new policy favors gender over merit. Perhaps aroch is assuming that the original process was merit based, but yock's argument in no way reflects or depends upon such an assumption.
>No, it's not. It's not worse for a small number of marginal male candidates to be denied admission as a side-effect of a larger effort to counteract the impact of centuries of discrimination against women. Not even close. Not even a little bit. Not on any day of the week.
The root of the problem, at least as far as I understand the Feminist Movement to be saying, is that an attitude of discrimination based upon factors which aren't inherently relevant to the issue at hand (such as choosing not to serve someone food just because of their skin color) is wrong, regardless of any history of transgressions.Vengeance is not justice. Besides, we don't actually know the net number of people who are unfairly (i.e. for reasons other than merit) prevented from entering CS as a result of this policy change.
> The fact that a few workers might get killed doesn't stop you from building the skyscraper...
While not an unreasonable analogy regarding the trade-offs and risks of progress, it is not the most flattering of you. More than a few movie plots have villains who take more or less the same attitude. Of course, they were less scrupulous about prevent unnecessary worker deaths, especially when they "had it coming"...
Full Disclosure: I worked at a plywood mill that, in the past, suffered a few too many workers deaths until the workers formed a union and OSHA stepped in.