Zinke tells employees diversity isn't important

[Adam Griffin]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Looks like nobody's going to be saying "Konichiwa!" to him anytime soon!

[Perlen vor den Schweinen]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Looks like nobody's going to be saying "Konichiwa!" to him anytime soon!

Seems that being from the same city as Richard Spencer is rubbing off on him.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

When Zinke thinks about diversity in the Interior Department, he thinks about having some regulators poached from coal, some from gas, and some from oil.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Any problem here is not that he won't focus on diversity. It's what he might focus on instead.

[Joey1996]

Gaffe after gaffe with this clown.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Unsurprising.

[Bismarck]

Diversity isn’t important for most tasks although in public policy I think it is.

[DavidB.]

Gaffe after gaffe with this clown.

Only in the left-wing lala world is that a gaffe. "What's important is having the right person for the right job" is a good statement. Zinke is completely right: diversity for the sake of diversity is nonsense. Just hire the best people regardless of their color, religion etc.

[junior chįmp]

Gaffe after gaffe with this clown.

Only in the left-wing lala world is that a gaffe. "What's important is having the right person for the right job" is a good statement. Zinke is completely right.

That's ironic considering he's doing a terrible job while grifting at the tax payers expense

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Gaffe after gaffe with this clown.

Only in the left-wing lala world is that a gaffe. "What's important is having the right person for the right job" is a good statement. Zinke is completely right: diversity for the sake of diversity is nonsense. Just hire the best people regardless of their color, religion etc.

Even if this was actually true, in practice "having the right person for the job" is an excuse for not hiring women and minorities.

[DavidB.]

Gaffe after gaffe with this clown.

Only in the left-wing lala world is that a gaffe. "What's important is having the right person for the right job" is a good statement. Zinke is completely right: diversity for the sake of diversity is nonsense. Just hire the best people regardless of their color, religion etc.

Even if this was actually true, in practice "having the right person for the job" is an excuse for not hiring women and minorities.

It's not.

[Indy Texas]

Gaffe after gaffe with this clown.

Only in the left-wing lala world is that a gaffe. "What's important is having the right person for the right job" is a good statement. Zinke is completely right: diversity for the sake of diversity is nonsense. Just hire the best people regardless of their color, religion etc.

Because a member of the Trump Administration - home of Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson, and Jared Kushner - is in such a good position to be talking about the importance of hiring people based on merit.

[DavidB.]

Gaffe after gaffe with this clown.

Only in the left-wing lala world is that a gaffe. "What's important is having the right person for the right job" is a good statement. Zinke is completely right: diversity for the sake of diversity is nonsense. Just hire the best people regardless of their color, religion etc.

Because a member of the Trump Administration - home of Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson, and Jared Kushner - is in such a good position to be talking about the importance of hiring people based on merit.

Bad picks, absolutely agreed. Trump didn't pick the best people. Doesn't make the concept of picking the best people any less valuable. It makes Trump bad at picking the best people.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Gaffe after gaffe with this clown.

Only in the left-wing lala world is that a gaffe. "What's important is having the right person for the right job" is a good statement. Zinke is completely right: diversity for the sake of diversity is nonsense. Just hire the best people regardless of their color, religion etc.

Even if this was actually true, in practice "having the right person for the job" is an excuse for not hiring women and minorities.

It's not.

Hmm, you have convinced me. Offices that are staffed with exclusively upper middle class white guys suddenly seem pretty good to me.

[kyc0705]

Gaffe after gaffe with this clown.

Only in the left-wing lala world is that a gaffe. "What's important is having the right person for the right job" is a good statement. Zinke is completely right: diversity for the sake of diversity is nonsense. Just hire the best people regardless of their color, religion etc.

Even if this was actually true, in practice "having the right person for the job" is an excuse for not hiring women and minorities.

Correct. Separating "diversity" with "hiring the right person" creates the implication that a diverse staff can't also be filled with qualified employees.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

Gaffe after gaffe with this clown.

Only in the left-wing lala world is that a gaffe. "What's important is having the right person for the right job" is a good statement. Zinke is completely right: diversity for the sake of diversity is nonsense. Just hire the best people regardless of their color, religion etc.

Even if this was actually true, in practice "having the right person for the job" is an excuse for not hiring women and minorities.

It's not.

Statistically, assuming systemic biases don't exist,  the "best person for the job" would only be a straight white dude about 30-35% of the time. Funny how that doesn't happen.

[Devout Centrist]

what is it with orange avatars and contrarianism

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

what is it with orange avatars and contrarianism

Comes with the package. Would a Ryan Zinke, for some reason committed to diversity, but with the exact same policies otherwise, be any better?

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

what is it with orange avatars and contrarianism

Comes with the package. Would a Ryan Zinke, for some reason committed to diversity, but with the exact same policies otherwise, be any better?

A diverse workforce provides benefits, mainly from (but not limited to) diversity of experience. E.g., it would be shameful to have an Interior Department which had no input from Native Americans on land use issues and monument protection (and of course the department's overall policy with Native Americans). Even if decisions at the executive level are run through Zinke, he doesn't micromanage the agency such that the decisions of every single employee are run by him. An agency where every member is from the Texas Oilfields will not have an expansive, holistic view of how to execute policy.

Additionally, on a personal level for the employees there, having a diverse workforce makes employees who are not from a majority group feel more welcome and personally satisfied than a non-diverse workforce does.

[Famous Mortimer]

This is a very tepid statement that 20 years ago all conservatives and half of liberals would have taken no issue with. Only the hard left would have been opposed. Of course, now all liberals and half of conservatives are hard left (at least on "diversity" issues). Hope for race blind meritocracy is all but dead. The left think it's "racist". They don't even know what they want in its place but it will probably end up being a Bosnia or Lebanon style situation.

[Devout Centrist]

what is it with orange avatars and contrarianism

Comes with the package. Would a Ryan Zinke, for some reason committed to diversity, but with the exact same policies otherwise, be any better?

The answer is no, but that isn’t the point I’m trying to make.

[Alabama_Indy10]

Gaffe after gaffe with this clown.

Only in the left-wing lala world is that a gaffe. "What's important is having the right person for the right job" is a good statement. Zinke is completely right: diversity for the sake of diversity is nonsense. Just hire the best people regardless of their color, religion etc.

[Sestak]

His last statement here is actually a reasonably good one.

But the orange avatars et al are missing the point. The issue isn't when you prioritize "hiring the best person" over diversity. It's when you obsess over branding yourself as "anti-diversity".

[dead0man]

ya know, when people say "it seems like a new stupid thing every day, why don't you focus on the big, actually harmful things Trump is doing?"?  This is the kind of sh**t they're talking about.  Now, I'm not telling you guys that you shouldn't post things like this as I'm not your mother nor "that kind of asshole" (though I'm pretty sure some of you have been "that kind of asshole"), I'm just saying perhaps focus on, ya know, actual bad things.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

ya know, when people say "it seems like a new stupid thing every day, why don't you focus on the big, actually harmful things Trump is doing?"?  This is the kind of sh**t they're talking about.  Now, I'm not telling you guys that you shouldn't post things like this as I'm not your mother nor "that kind of asshole" (though I'm pretty sure some of you have been "that kind of asshole"), I'm just saying perhaps focus on, ya know, actual bad things.

Too bad I used up all of my oxygen pointing out how dumb this thing Zinke said was. If only I still had my breath, I'd be able to talk about the actual bad things. But alas, I can't. If only there was a way we could talk about more than one thing simultaneously.