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This is part of the plan to make folks dumber, it’s easier to do, opposite making people smarter.

I disagree. A degree doesn't make a person smarter. My Hubby was an elevator trouble-shooter. He was 50 hours short of an engineering degree but they hired him anyway. He was known as the best in the business and called "The Wonder Boy" before he was 30. During Obamas term, the company he worked for was downsizing. They could hire 2 know-nothing kids and train them for what he was paid. Problem was, they were calling him on the phone to troubleshoot. He finally told them to GTH.

I knew a senior test technician like that. A former mid-level Navy NCO that had been to most of not all of the Navy’s electrical schools. Could run circles around book-smart but business-ignorant college graduates.

He was replaced with several lower cheap and inexperienced college grad engineers. After receiving repeated calls for assistance, he started giving them patently wrong advice, which they apparently followed through with.

When he was called back to the company as a consultant at roughly 6X his rate at termination, the cheap engineers were no longer with the company.

There are absolutely some jobs where a degree (or some incredibly bright self-starter, e.g. someone who taught themselves integral calculus or thermodynamics) IS needed. I don't want my brain surgeon to be someone who peaked in high school and just read a few books and watched a few YouTube videos.

That said, whenever I have an open req in my shop, I always say "degree in ____ OR EQUIVALENT." Because, sometimes, for some jobs, I'll take a HS graduate with relevant experience and fire in his/her belly vs a well-credentialed slacker.

As for HR....I've had this discussion. They may push wokey nonsense AND when I was younger they seemed like deadweight loss. But as I aged, they've been invaluable partners in hiring people asap, helping me negotiate the minefield of regs, and showing "cancers in the office" the door without triggering a lawsuit.

Some corporate HR folks have drunk from the woke kook aid. But there are literally tens of thousands of larger firms and millions of middle market firms that don't worship at that alter. And I can't speak for your experience, but in my experience the average black/brown/plaid HR officer is interested in the firm (and them...) making money and not dying on the hill of wokeness. To be sure, they want me to review a diverse group of candidates, and to be fair most of the time many of us just want to nab the first guy that trips the Affinity Bias wire.

I've had good and terrible white guy hires, and good and bad "people of color" employees. I've worked with terrible men and awful women and visa versa. I've heard of guys who groped women colleagues, and women who are mean girl bosses. It can be a snake pit: Collectivism never works - individualism wins the day.

Ultimately, it all works out IF you have the right employer.