Panic and palaver about age and age discrimination are all over the media, polls and political chatter. Joe Biden’s age is Topic #1. Recently, marginal Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley stooped to a new low, predicting Biden’s death before completion of his second term.

Fact check: According to the Social Security Administration, American men who reach 80 on average will live nearly eight more years. Experts stress that affluent, healthy “Super Agers,” like Joe Biden, likely will live beyond the average.

As longtime anti-ageism advocates, perhaps we should relish this teachable moment. But so universal is the noise that little can be taught or learned. The simple truth that cuts through this uproar is what countless geriatricians and anti-age bias activists have said so simply and for so long: “If you’ve seen one octogenarian, you’ve seen one octogenarian.” Gross generalizations are just that.

In the political realm, no matter how pressing issues of age might seem, they pale in comparison to major threats to our democracy, communities, families and self-images. These more essential matters include inflation, misogyny, racism, crime, gun violence, immigration and reproductive choice, among others.

What accounts for this obsession with the end of life over the quality of our days? As a nation, we are uniquely fearful of death, surrounding it with rituals and mythology designed to keep it at arm’s length. The worship of youth and its many attributes are everywhere. We consume vast quantities of anti-aging skin cream and feature the young and smiling in virtually all advertising. Leaving aside progress in healthy longevity, we still consider youth to be the gold standard of life.

A wonderful example of this phenomenon is a comparison of the presidential approval ratings of the young and glamorous John F. Kennedy and the elder Biden at the end of their first years in office. The young and dashing Kennedy accomplished little in his first year in office — few programs and little legislation. Yes, he started a modest Peace Corps and declared the intent to go to the moon within a decade. But with his young and glamorous wife at his side, he ended Year 1 with a near-90% positive approval rating.

Biden, on the other hand, had what is widely seen as one of the most productive first years in office and never broke 40% approval. The most frequently aired TV image of him is his stammering speeches or stumbling up the stairs of Air Force One.

There you have it. Young, vigorous, telegenic, TV-friendly — all superior traits in our “modern” world. Competent, productive, wise, worldly — not so much.

A useful observation comes from Lisa Berkman, a professor of public policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, who studies health and aging. She notes the conclusion of many studies that one size fits all does not apply here as a predictive device. Older people with good health, a defined purpose and social supports may actually be at what amounts to midlife. “And at the same time, there is so much variability. People who are doing well and are in the top level of functioning have the odds of going for another 10 years, of doing really well during this time and making very important contributions.”

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All the leading global authoritarians — from Russia to China to Turkey et al — can claim to be younger than Biden. Should we join that vicious club in valuing age above values? Should that standard corrode our own politics?

Perhaps we would be better off following the lead of the charming TV spokesperson for a dietary supplement who ends her pitch saying: “Age is just a number … and mine is unlisted!”

Paul Rupert is CEO of Respectful Exits, the nation’s leading advocacy organization for aging workers. Its goal is to fight age bias in the workplace and extend its decadeslong and pioneering fight for remote work to widespread use of phased retirement for older workers.