Why are kids these days always saying things are “subjective”? In the papers I’m grading, on this hellsite… just because disagreement is possible, even reasonable disagreement, doesn’t mean it’s merely subjective. Saying “it’s subjective” just ends the conversation, whether that’s about different cultures’ standards of morality, different interpretations of texts (including popular movies), or different tastes in art. Chocolate vs. vanilla ice cream, that’s subjective. About other things, there are facts that can be agreed on, there are rules of rational engagement, there are interpretive constraints and some basic principles that the interlocutors probably have in common. I’m getting to be as sick of the word “subjective” as I am of “problematic.”