I Would Rather Elevate the Good Than Play Whack-a-Mole With the Bad

Some thoughts on platforming, encouragement, and what we can learn from the Secret Service’s money memorization.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

I thought about calling this piece “For The Love of Everything That is Good In This World, Stop Quote-Tweeting Marjorie Taylor Greene” but I felt that using MTG’s name in the title kind of defeated the purpose of my thesis.

Instead of invoking names of conspiracy theorists, then, let me ask you this: if we all have a responsibility to call out what is wrong and unjust and ugly in this world, don’t we also have a responsibility to elevate what is good and true and beautiful?

I’m not prepared to answer the question of which one is more important, but I am pretty comfortable with comparing one to cultivating a garden, and one to running on a hamster wheel.

You’re pretty smart. I think you already know which is which.

Bear with me as I walk us both through a very overused analogy. (My apologies if you’ve heard it in a dozen motivational speeches or sermons or Ted Talks already. If that’s the case, feel free to skip ahead a few paragraphs.)

When agents for the U.S. Secret Service train to spot counterfeit money, they go…