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We have entered an era when rules such as “no politics in polite conversation” belong to the quaint past. Political talk is welcome, but the polite conversational thing to do in 2025 is tacitly agree that this (disgust and fear over the worrying observation about how things are going out there) is what we—those of us gathered here—all think and feel; indeed, what any Good Person necessarily thinks and feels.

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I now realize the extent to which I’ve allowed teenagers and the imperialism of pop culture establish new, impoverished standards for what I’d been raised to understand was good, not bad: the desire and capacity to articulate nuanced experiences, ideas, and feelings, yo.

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Are there bad teachers? Sure. Are there racist, antisemitic, sexist, clueless, mean, and/or agenda-driven teachers? Of course, because teachers are human, and humans, well, we’re a mess of good, bad, and ugly. But, most professors do not take on the steep challenges of research, scholarship, publication, service, and teaching (it’s not for money, believe me, that they do what they do) because they’re evil, ignorant, or care nothing for positive social change or for student wellbeing. On the contrary.