It’s a Pissing Match and We Won

 

Warning. I’m veering off course today for a bit of a rant. If yesterday’s post leaned cheery and aspirational, today’s will be…shall we say…edgier?

Howard County, Maryland beat out all other contenders in the inaugural Well-Wishers Won’t! campaign. The award was created to honor communities where people are: highly motivated to disbelieve positive news reports, zealously criticize the bearers of good news, and gleefully denigrate and mock fellow community members.

Based on a nationwide survey, the Well-Wishers Won’t! award is an initiative of the You Can’t Make Me foundation, founded in 1954 to seek out and destroy rose-colored glasses everywhere. The foundation’s work has largely flown under the radar until recent years when social media has provided opportunities for enormous growth.

How’d we win? I know you’re curious. Howard County received high marks in the following areas when responding to positive news in the community:

• Posting patently racist dog whistles 
• Disparaging the presenter, questioning motivation and credibility 
• Harassing positive responders 
• Spamming positive announcements with complaints not pertinent to the topic
• Staying on message to poison the well and nullify any positive outcomes 

In particular, the survey found that the motivation to fulfill the Well-Wishers Won’t! mission was consistently highest among the following groups:

• People who don’t live in the area being lauded
• The area/initiative being honored contains an uncomfortable number of non-whites
• The leader of local government is a Democrat 

Not surprisingly, the survey found that the rates of attacking good news in the community were highest when the leader of local government was a Black Democrat.

“Frankly, we weren’t suprised to see the correlation but Howard County was off the charts,” said a representative of the foundation who declined to be named. “It’s an exceptionally disciplined response to an onslaught of good news that we all know to be an insidious diversion from The Truth.”

Efforts to reach the You Can’t Make Me foundation for written documentation of The Truth have so far been unsuccessful.

Responses to Howard County’s win have been mixed. I hear that some folks in Baltimore are hopping mad.

*****

Below you will find the social media post which brought out the Well-Wishers Won’t! crowd this week. I don’t think you are required to believe or agree with everything you read on social media. Plenty of people take these kinds of awards with a grain of salt. 

I do find it concerning that we have so many locals who derive such delight in pissing on positive images of our community. All communities have challenges. An announcement like this one isn’t meant to deny that. 

If you love where you live, that’s what makes you determined to work on the challenges. It’s also why a little good news now and then is so precious. 

And, if you don’t love where you live…how is this behavior helping?

Image from hocogov social media 

Columbia has once again been named the best city to live in Maryland! Located in the heart of Howard County and home to great schools, a thriving arts and cultural scene, a plethora of pristine parks, trails and lakes, and a focus on sustainability, Columbia is a community that blends nature, culture, and innovation. 

As we continue to build a diverse and inclusive community that offers the best life to our residents and all who visit us, it is humbling to see Columbia and Howard County once again recognized for its greatness. I am so proud to be a part of a county that continues to set the highest standards for living not just in our state, but in our country.

Learn more here.