To your last point, no, you wouldn't be biased towards divorced people. Last time I checked, divorced people are not a protected class nor the subject of considerable discrimination and over-generalized attributions. Can't remember the last time I heard someone say "ah you know them divorced people, they tend to be XYZ." In this case, that is not what was being discussed, it was this professor's age and his supposed abilities that may or may not have been instrumental in his performance review by his students that may or may not have influenced him being fired. To your first point, there are several risk factors associated with MCI and dementia, and not all of them include age. Metabolic syndromes, history of head injuries are among several. But that is neither here nor there. People have automatically jumped to the conclusion that based on his age, that his poor performance and subsequent firing must have been due to age-related cognitive decline. That is a significant over-generalization being made by folks. It completely omits other variables not being entertained. Maybe he does have dementia. We don't know this, but the comments that were coming up were mentioned in a context that came off in what some could say were derogatory. That's the main point being made here. Also, some folks have mentioned porn stars and athletes, etc. and that we wouldn't expect them to perform so great in their older adult years. This is a very good example of what I am pointing out.
Frankly, neuropsychology is still catching up in the literature regarding ageism. Much of the prevailing concepts understandably have influenced implicit or overt ageist attitudes.
Many of society's systemic implicit biases against older persons predate COVID-19. A perfect storm of these biases now rages against older persons much more explicitly and visibly during the COVID-19 pandemic. They comprise of blends of discrimination ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov