Game show question: Is this the right talking about how to get better teachers, or the left talking about how to get better police?

This 100%. To not care about politics means to not care about how the entity with a monopoly on violence wants to take your money against your will and allocate it. If you don’t care about that, then you and I are not going to get along.

Definitionally not journalistic malpractice because words have meanings. Carry on.