Mr Sebesta

I feel you should re-read your post to see that your contribution is worse than any other contribution in this thread. It is crafted to inflict maximum possible reputational damage and is largely based on many strawman arguments and replete with fashionable put downs, such as: "and this outdated masculine toxicity", I am sure that may bring few likes on Twitter, but if you wish to be saddened less, do you not think, it would be productive to bring people around by the voracity of your argument, rather than tired cliché?

Do you really think that "the next generation of glider pilots" is not capable of making up their own minds and do not need your intervention to smooth their path through life? How condescending of you to think that you have to do it for them. I also note how careful you are to tie the name of the previous poster to his crime of speaking his mind. Was it to make sure that as many readers as possible will see his crime and think less of him and to maximise his humiliation? I am not sure what he said and I do not care. I and your hypothetical "next generation of glider pilots" are perfectly capable of making up our own minds.

And then you went one better. You have smeared him by associating him with Harvey Weinstein. Well done, I can see that you are truly gifted in bringing "the general toxicity” of RAS down.

And then the strawman argument: Somebody that does not share your views could not be a safe pilot and we should not share the skies with them. Really?

The utter character assassination you have deployed here is contemptable. Statements such as "the reckless attitude toward others on the ground is certainly the same attitude carried into the air." So how exactly do you know that? You are condemning someone on nothing more than your say so. Then you go on "If they physically hurt someone through their ignorance", so now you have escalated to physical harm, without a skerrick of evidence. Yes I can see that you are trying hard to minimise the "toxicity" of RAS.

I was born and lived the first part of my life in a communist country, I found it both astounding and utterly frightening how well you have mastered their language, eg:
“someone who is so hidebound on not progressing and so stubborn in their world-view” might have progressed to :should be moved to a re-education camp, to realise what his world view should be.
“please reach out to your club officers and fellow members so that you can stage interventions” and “come together as a community to stamp this out before it does any more harm”. Well we used to have committees in large dwellings that would do precisely that. Often on nothing more than a suspicion or a deliberate report by someone who did not like you. In my opinion, that is precisely what you are attempting to do.

So to summarise, in my judgement, you are a contemptible person who enjoys hurting others in order to make himself feel morally superior.

Paul Bart



On Monday, 2 November 2020 at 1:31:14 pm UTC+10, Kenn Sebesta wrote:
I can't help but be saddened by this thread. RAS has developed a reputation for general toxicity, and this outdated masculine toxicity on display furthers the impression.

It is extremely disturbing that B. Youngblood is exposing the next generation of glider pilots to this attitude. The program directors at his club might want to sit him down for a real-life intervention, so that he can understand how extremely harmful this is to the future of our sport. Certainly donating time, energy, and money counts for something, but it smacks of a Harvey Weinstein defense to say that these past contributions justify the ongoing damage.

Excellent points have been made by so many other posters, and I don't want to repeat them in detail. One sticks out, however, and that's, "As a pilot, always being willing to learn something is paramont[sic] to safety, no matter what your experience." Truer words have not been spoken.

Consider what it means to be flying in the vicinity of someone who is so hidebound on not progressing and so stubborn in their world-view. The reckless attitude toward others we are witnessing here on the ground is certainly the same attitude carried into the air. In an emergency, will these pilots second-guess a woman? In an ADM capacity, will they disregard safety advice if it's not delivered by an older white male? If they physically hurt someone through their ignorance, will they take any more responsibility for it than they are for the emotional pain they are causing here and now?

If you are in a club with any of these men, please reach out to your club officers and fellow members so that you can stage interventions-- sometimes it's only in person that aggressors can understand how badly they've hurt others. It is crucially important that we come together as a community to stamp this out before it does any more harm. It's far more widespread than I think any of us realized. I hope the SSA can work with the WSAP to devote future articles to tackling this subject head-on.

A big shout-out to those who have consistently and eloquently pressed the point that accidental and intentional degradation of women is wholly unacceptable. Keep up the good fight.