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Cursed Knowledge is our latest podcast that explores how narratives, for better and worse, have shaped our world without us noticing. The world is full of people pushing their version of reality on us and it’s time to expose the truth. No matter how much you might wish we hadn’t.
Locks of Love is one of the most well known and well regarded charities in America. But things aren’t always what they seem. Sometimes the smokescreen of Common Knowledge can obscure what’s really going on. So join me in a look behind the curtain at America’s most beloved charity.
My take on Locks of Love is that they’re not an outright fraud of a non-profit, as (IMO) I would characterize, say, the American Medical Association, but that they intentionally take advantage of a primary feature of our modern Fiat World: that it is more important to FEEL like we’re doing good than to actually DO good.
It’s scams like these that make people not really trust what “everybody knows” about the charity in question. As a result, many worthy charities don’t really get to fulfill their promises. Example: A nursing organization affiliated with the Thomas Jefferson hospital network here in Phila is trolling for donations to help nurses further their educations.
As a patient at TJ who has been very well taken care of by their nursing staff, I wanted to contribute. The letter extolling their virtues was wel- written and made sense. Made me want to give something.
Then I started asking around among the office nurses I know and none of them had ever heard of this outfit. Yet, per the letter, “everybody knows” about their good work, Well, I don’t and nether do the handful of nurses I know and trust. And so I did not contribute.
Thanks for a great podcast.
Roy
Stumbled across this, and can’t help but think how - in a narrative sort of way - it’s adjacent to, say, a currently-hyped movie starring a conservative celebrity playing the part of a heroic former .gov employee who recently (and perhaps inexplicably) left the “doing good work” organization they created…
Certainly a teapot sized tempest of tribally organized Cursed Knowledge around the event and topic.