Happy New Year. Maybe. We’ll see!
Let’s face it: We are not in a good place. And by we, I mean this country. A country that claims it is the best in the world (the “hottest country in the world,” one dipshit might say), but is working overtime to prove that we, in fact, are fucking terrible.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Mel Curth, a graduate student instructor at the University of Oklahoma, who gave a failing grade to a student for writing an essay about how being trans is demonic because the Bible says so.
I’ve read the essay. It is bad. It does not address the assignment. Honestly, it reads like something a student would dash off real quick so they could get to a social event.
Which is apparently exactly what this student did.
“I read the topic and I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be so easy, like, you know I have a very strong opinion on this topic,” she says in an interview clip posted to Bluesky by journalist Parker Molloy. “And then I wrote it in maybe 30 minutes. It was really easy to come up with things to say.”
Now, look. I’m a professional writer. It’s rare that I can just sit down and abracadabra a fully realized essay of original thinking in 30 minutes. Having taught writing at the University of Michigan, I guarantee you that there aren’t undergraduates creating works of genius in less time than it takes to watch an episode of “Stranger Things.”
There are, however, undergraduates who think that they can. Part of the college experience is learning that you actually know very little and that critical thinking is not just an expectation, it’s a requirement.
So the fact that this student is claiming religious and political discrimination over a bad grade on an essay that she is publicly saying she did not work hard on is ridiculous on its face.
That the university has announced that Mel Curth no longer teaches there is absolutely beyond bullshit.
This entitled and ignorant student has snagged a seat on the right-wing grifter express as a reward for derailing a trans person’s education and/or career. And she is so proud of herself.
But that’s how power works in the U.S. The people with the most power are those who claim to be the most aggrieved and want revenge.
Illustrating this point, Vice President J.D. Vance said at a Turning Point USA event, “In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.”
Obviously, no one is apologizing for being white, especially not white supremacists (I accidentally typed “shite supremacists” and that is the truth) like Vance. What he means is that white people no longer have to apologize for being racist.
U-S-A! U-S-A!
It’s only a matter of time before the shitty essay student is shaking Vance’s hand and being introduced as a brave young woman who risked it all by speaking her truth and rejecting trans ideology. It’s stunning to watch these people continuously succeed by being absolute failures. They amass power by hurting vulnerable people. It’s their only job.
“Look at how little effort it takes for someone on the conservative grievance circuit to destroy a life,” @rincewind.run put it on Bluesky. “Millions of college kids have half-assed an assignment at the last minute, you eat the F and move on, but the effort to push trans people out of public life will use whatever it can get.”
I can’t help but wonder if this student will ever look back on this part of her life and feel remorse. Will the people at the University of Oklahoma who pushed out this trans instructor feel remorse? Will J.D. Vance? Will Trump?
Not likely. We are living in a post-empathy world. Not that empathy doesn’t exist, but it isn’t valued by the people in power. In fact, it’s seen as a weakness. I mean, look at the people in the Trump Administration. They DGAF about anybody but themselves. Pete Hegseth is killing people on boats for sport. RFK Jr. is shitting on generations of science to roll back vaccines in an effort to kill children and immunocompromised folks. Trump let Elon Musk trash USAID, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.
These are not good people. It’s hard to imagine worse people, actually.
I’m really hoping that in 2026 we stop rewarding murderously hateful freaks. I’m hoping that Democrats sweep the midterms and actually do something to stop the fascists in charge.
Granted, I don’t have a lot of hope. But I do want bad things to happen to bad people. And that’s as close to hope as I can muster.