Conservatives need to stop saying stupid stuff.

Candace Owens claimed, and I quote:

I would be terrified if I got onto a plane and I saw a woman flying the plane.

Madison March, Air Force Officer and fighter pilot, and Miss Colorado.*

Oh, horsecrap, she would not be.

And that's just a stupid thing to say on multiple levels. 

For one thing, if you "got onto a plane" and saw anybody flying it, apparently you are engaging in some fancy movie gymnastics a la Sisu, as when you get on planes, you might see the pilots in the cockpit, but they're sitting there waiting for people to board the planes. 

And unless you last got on an airplane in about 1979 or so, you've seen women flying them.

What Owens is attempting to say is that United Airlines' CEO was quoted regarding a desire to hire female pilots on an employment diversity basis, and her point is that this means they aren't hiring some qualified male employees in order to fulfill the quota.

Well, okay, but that requires a little more attention to presentation and detail to say that. First of all, in order to be a commercial airline pilot, you have to have a lot of hours.  American rules are so strict that compared to the rest of the world, introductory commercial pilots are much more experienced than those of other nations.  

Secondly, while I do have a problem with women in combat (I have an old post on it I've never finished), women have been flying aircraft since Raymonde de LaRoche took it up in 1910.

The former actress and engineer did die in an airplane wreck in 1919, but if you look at the history of early aviators and find those who lived very long, they're the exception to the rule.  At any rate, by World War Two flying female aviators were so common that the US was using them to ferry every type of aircraft we used to the combat recipients, and even the Germans, who famously sought to avoid using women in anything but the home making and baby creation department, used some female aviators (and oddly enough, as anti-aircraft gun crew members).

Which brings me to this.  I'm familiar with efforts to readjust the scale on occupations through gender based selection personally.  I can't say for certain, but a couple of appointments that I put in for over the last thirty years went to women because that probably weighted in their favor for this reason. But, having said that, they weren't bad choices at all, and are really good in their jobs. Same thing at work. They were qualified to start with. Too bad for me, I guess, but that doesn't mean the choices were bad ones at all.

Which gets to this.

I am a conservative, and a real one. But saying stupid stuff, to include anti-scientific stuff, makes all conservatives look dumb, and frankly weighs the scale towards dumb.

Most people hearing Adams say this will just think, "well that's dumb", but somebody somewhere, as Adams is a populist hero, will in fact think; "doggone it. . that's right. . wimmin ain't outto be flying them big machine, why they'll panic and crash everything. . hand me another Bud, will ya".

Now, mind you, the left does this too, but with Donald Trump being the flag bearer for the political right, right now, and Trump regularly saying stuff that is dumb, the political right really has attention drawn to itself on these sorts of statements.  Indeed, as real conservatives have fled the party, or gone into seclusion, those who are willing to say real stupid stuff, such as the US is going to "liberate" Canada, or that the January 6 rioters were tourists, have become numerous. As the tolerance for their statements grow, they become more numerous in and of themselves.

There is a real place for conservatism in this country.  That's being completely lost.  Unfortunately, as it looks more and more like Donald Trump will return to office, people willing to tolerate him and things said in his support are increasing, when it is already well established he cannot be controlled, and that his followers cannot be either.

Saying stupid stuff doesn't help that.

Footnotes:

*Hey, just so we can show we're no slackers, in 2023 Sgt. Rebecca Bridger, a bandsman, of the Wyoming Army National Guard was our state's Miss Wyoming.

Okay, she's not combat arms and doesn't fly planes, but still.