We must shield education from the growing miasma around us

The very foundation of education is at threat and thus also the ability of students to think critically

- ANURAG BEHAR

A poisonous miasma pervades the world today. Slop isa part of that miasma. ‘Slop’ was picked as ‘word of the year’ for 2025 by some publications. Its sound evokes what it means—low-quality, high-volume digital content generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

The word once meant ‘wet food waste or mud,’ but now in its new avatar, it fills an urgent void and helps us label what we are inundated by.

Across the world, there is also a deluge of utter nonsense that makes the poison around us more lethal. Often in the form of slop, but in too many other forms to list comprehensively here.

For example, the speeches of some self-proclaimed gurus, politicians and businesspeople, media articles and shows that masquerade as research, and unsolicited directions from self-anointed leaders of neighbourhoods. Various outlets have been spewing this stuff at us.

I wrote about the philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s book On Bullshit and its core concept a few months ago. This newspaper, out of politeness, preferred to call that core concept ‘talking nonsense,’ although it is one of the two words in the name of the book and does not fully capture what it conveys. ‘Utter nonsense’is also inadequate, but since it is closer, that is what I will use.