I Believed These Four Lies

I'm so nervous about this video. It's weird to admit getting duped by something, but there's nothing that scares me more than people who think it never happens to them. Examing why and how it happens...like, what's going on in my own brain, and also in the systems I'm interacting with, is very important in my work. Creating content based on definitely bad / misleading information is one of my big worries.
These are all really weird and complicated examples that I could spend a further hour or two discussing. Like, for example, that (depending on your start date and the data set you use) the relationship between rent and income can be shown to diverge substantially or stay very close together (though, not in 2022 or 2023, where all data sets show them diverging in the US.)
The NOAA data one is the most fascinating to me as I honestly think that the internet's response to the information is a kind of classic misinformation / degradation of trust cycle where an organization says something that is then misinterpreted by people online and then the misinterpretation is assigned to the authority (who never said it) and used to degrade the authority of that organization.
A CHALLENGING INFORMATION LANDSCAPE
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[@lauraelaineallen21]

"I was alright with someone putting it in my head, but turns out I was not alright with putting it in someone else's." Good line. Good man

[@sylva5359]

I have done that! It’s great to question something when I start sharing it.

[@Xanderj89]

I take this to the extreme and second guess even things that I intimately know, so I’ll often fact check before saying anything just to feel secure saying it at all even if it’s like something I’m very sure about. But I think that’s the self worth trauma so not sure if that’s a good thing

[@jkbrown5496]

And that is why the best way to really learn something is to try to teach/explain it to someone else. You'll find the holes and many don't like potholes in their beliefs.

[@garyco766]

@@sylva5359 I've done exactly this, only to find that what I was about to share was, in fact, made up. Thankfully, my friends group is incredibly smart and informed, and it makes me double check myself before embarrassing myself.

[@OK-pi6fq]

I feel like this

[@johnesco]

Intelligence begins with "I don't know", and it flourishes with "I was wrong."

[@grannypeacock]

My mum is confused about me getting excited to share when I was wrong. I think I need to share this quote with her

[@surfwriter8461]

Not exactly. Intelligence begins with curiosity, open-mindedness and judgment developed through careful comprehension of what's received and critical thinking about it. Intelligence isn't just a storage of information and gathering of more information but a matter of thoughtful exploration, sound judgment, receptivity to new ideas, and critical thinking skills that allow us to assess what we hear and read, eliminate what proves baseless or "wrong," etc.

[@reignman30]

Well I must be a god damn genius then because I don't know shit and I'm always wrong.

[@surfwriter8461]

@@reignman30 Nah, it means you're still at the starting line and have yet to move on.

[@WatchTheTitles]

... and #reichWing theists try to scam us into thinking that scientists and especially EVOLUTIONARY scientists claim to be infallible... just like their gawd does. They try to religionize science. So they can ignore it like Hinduism or Jewish beliefs.

[@dominiquedoeslife]

When an honest man discovers he is mistaken, he either ceases being mistaken or ceases being honest. Thank you for being the man who ceases being mistaken!

[@melodylauer4231]

I’m writing this down.

[@alchemistapollo]

My favorite quote is, “This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question.” - Orson Scott Card

[@turkeykaiser]

That's hiliarious considering what a giant piece of trash it's coming from.

[@PaulMDavidson]

“The worst person you know just made a great point.”

[@weavrmom]

@@PaulMDavidson OSC really is, isn't he? Thanks for making this comment, so I don't have to.

[@Swenglish]

Coming from Orson Scott Card, that's probably more of a self-criticism than he intended it to be.

[@James-iu2km]

Hence why I have very *FEW* beliefs, period. Why "believe" something when you can simply (most of the time) ding into the actual data and *KNOW* instead.

[@TatharNuar]

When I hear "you are not immune to propaganda" I think of stuff like this.

[@mism847]

Well, I am immune to propaganda. I have managed to objectively look at the content I come across and understand what is true or not, without any error or judgement. My mind is an encyclopedia of objective truth. It can not be debunked, for the truth can not be debunked. When I look at others with a different view on things, I laugh to myself, then I stop up and feel sorry for the ignorance they display. Because what a wonderful world it would be if everyone had the right opinions about everything, like me? I am truly a genius.

[@HYpr1337time]

@@mism847 youre falling into your own propaganda now, be careful. always be humble, fellow dispenser of truth and facts, because one day, our veiw on reality could be shattered by something as simple as a flower.

[@ryno4ever433]

@HYpr1337time They are obviously joking.

[@riaqliu]

​@@HYpr1337time it's not that hard to detect hyperboles in text form.

[@HYpr1337time]

@@ryno4ever433 meh. i was high. plus its text, sometimes tone doesnt exactly come across when people are genuinely like that.

[@adpirtle]

"This aligns with my understanding" is probably the main reason why most lies gain traction.

[@AmyDentata]

Yep. Confirmation bias is often where it starts. But where it *ends* is up to whether a person actually cares about truth or not

[@faithfuljohn]

I would say it's almost always the case. The only exceptions are when people are spreading lies on purpose to push their own narratives. So the people who make propaganda spread lies to mislead people... but the people who believe it, is almost always for this reason.

[@aarondavis8943]

It's not the lie, but the myth that confounds human understanding.

[@IrisGlowingBlue]

+

[@daniellamcgee4251]

​​​@@faithfuljohn Exactly. There is a difference between spreading misinformation (something you erroneously believe to be true), and spreading disinformation (deliberate lies) for the purposes of political propaganda, and/or grifing.

[@regolith1350]

Jonathan Haidt said it best. He described people as "born lawyers". We don't use our cognitive abilities to come to rational conclusions but instead use our brainpower to JUSTIFY our belief in the things we already want to be believe. He says we ask ourselves two questions: 1) When a statement aligns with what we already want to believe, we ask "CAN I believe it?" meaning we'll take the tiniest bit of sorta kinda circumstantial evidence and say "Aha! Confirmed! Case Closed!" 2) When a statement confronts us with something we do NOT want to believe, we ask "MUST I believe it?" meaning we'll look for any scrap or ghostly hint of evidence that the statement is false and cling to it for dear life.

[@jeromyrutter729]

see also motivated reasoning.

[@amynrob621]

@regolith1350 , Remind me which of Haidt's books this is in? I read the first two some time ago but haven't read the Anxious Generation yet. I want to share this quote with someone and would like to be able to attribute it.

[@joeysingingchannel]

Thank you for sharing this. There's so much unsettling truth to it.

[@regolith1350]

@@amynrob621 It's been a long time since I first heard it, and can't pinpoint it to a particular book. I clearly remember hearing him discuss the concept in interviews & presentations so you might find a clip on KZbin of him talking about it. Sorry I can't be more specific.

[@lyamainu]

I was about to say, we’re a married, one income household with two children and our tax burden is DEFINITELY not only 8%!

[@johngaltline9933]

Depends what taxes we're looking at... Unless that one income is over about 80k a year, chances are you pay $0 toward federal taxes used to actually fund the federal government, with all of the federal taxes you do pay going to social security and medicare taxes. On the other hand, if you include all the various levels of taxes, you likely spend nearly half your income on taxes.

[@professorwiggins3290]

​@@johngaltline9933 No.

[@professorwiggins3290]

@@Threedog1963 I don't think half for the average person, but I 100% agree there are many taxes built into many things that go unnoticed.

[@cricri7066]

And New Zealand is NOT 7%, our sales tax is 15% all on its own. our real tax burden is more like 50-60% or more when all the taxes are added up.

[@tutekohe1361]

@@cricri7066you are not taking everything into account. Remember less than half the people in New Zealand are working taxpayers. Therefore more than half don’t pay income tax. Anyone receiving any kind of Government rebate counts as ‘negative’ tax. The wealthy pay almost no tax. There’s an old saying, if you pay tax, you need a new Accountant. Yes gst is 15% (I think), but anyone who owns a business can claim most of that back. I’m no expert, but I suspect that average 7% may well be true.

[@radishraccoon3657]

The point about feeling weird only when putting maybe-wrong things into other people's brains resonated a lot. That's usually when I have a moment of "hmm, perhaps I should fact-check this...", when I suddenly find myself relaying some tidbit which didn't feel worth checking when it was 'just' me hearing it.

[@osmia]

+

[@user-ce6bj9yy8n]

Same. 🤦🏼‍♀️

[@erinmac4750]

Same here. Although I was gaslit a lot growing up, so I think I'm now a bit obsessive when it comes to verifying facts. Note: that has necessarily stopped the gaslighting attempts, but they do get a bit flustered now, when I bring facts.

[@scaredyfish]

I’d never seen that rent graph before today, but even though I know it’s incorrect, I do find the image is more sticky in my brain.

[@Tim3.14]

That feels somewhat ok, though. Like, we may not have time to fact check every claim we hear, but we can prevent the spread of misinformation by at least fact checking the claims we share. And if we don't have time to fact check the information we share, maybe that's a sign we're sharing too much.

[@BanthaWorship]

Touching grass isn't going to cut it for me this year, Hank. I need to be absorbed into a wetland by strange and wonderful algae.

[@mariannetfinches]

If this person doesn't listen to Hozier I'll be very surprised 😉

[@aazhie]

​@mariannetfinches oh great now I got a song about foxes getting their taste lodged in my head xD

[@malaksafa4074]

This comment is tumblr codded i love it

[@BenjaminCronce]

That's because you need to mow the grass to cut it

[@MyVanHaven]

become the bog witch you want to see in the world

[@ericbnielsen]

This is not the first time Goodall has been the victim of false reporting. When the Gary Larson’s Far Side released a comic calling Goodall a Tramp her organization wrote a cease and desist notice. When Jane got back she loved the cartoon and made the lawyer drop the notice. Gary licensed the cartoon to Goodall’s organization to use as a fundraising and they became friends because of it.

[@sandal_thong8631]

That's funny! When I looked it up, I realized I saw that one before about a chimp finding a blonde hair on another chimp! The first one in the search also had a signature from J.G.

[@SirMasi]

Thanks for doing this! When I was a kid, the old people would say "don't believe everything you hear on TV". This should go extra for social media, but those companies profit heavily from engagement, not education. So you're incentivized to share faster than you can/should think. And there's barely any accountability, since the people that will call you out are generally the people that disagreed with your world view already! Regarding viral videos, "a lie can be halfway around the world before the truth gets it's pants on" 😬.

[@mcatfin]

can’t believe he exploded at the end of this video

[@vlogbrothers]

I do not get this joke!!

[@ethanp5948]

​@@vlogbrothersshhhhhhh if this is the top comment it'll grow retention

[@tobastin182]

It certainly made me watch to the end!

[@paulmillcamp]

It was an obvious lie, but still funny nonetheless

[@abdullahenani9670]

@@vlogbrothers I don’t get it too bestie

[@jorava8768]

For once, I wish for something to become a bigger trend on the internet. Publicly admitting to having believed in lies and misinterpreting things would do us a lot of good. Thank you for the video!

[@MrWhateverfits]

There's about 600 thousand homeless people in the US and about 16 million vacant homes. Not the issue he is spreading misinfo for his own false belief.

[@astitchatatime8195]

​@@MrWhateverfits I do feel it is a bit more complicated, given that if all the vacant houses are in different locations than high rates of homelessness i could still see it being related to availability of houses but specifically locally

[@MichaelOKC]

​@MrWhateverfits not for the reason your statement implies. It's not a malicious falsehood, it's a problem we all fall to, including yourself just now, over simplification of the facts. How many of the 16 million homes are "actually available and usable"? How many are priced in a fair and equitable manner that people on the lower income bracket can afford? How many of these are then located close to where the people who need them can access them and still get to where they work?... Complex issues have Complex solutions, I hate over simplification as it's the most insidious misinformation, because it is truth, wrapped up in bias and prejudice.

[@TheAnantaSesa]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@MichaelOKCi think the point is that there is adequate material and labor available to have constructed all those currently existing houses. I seriously disbelieve most people who own multiple houses have done enough important work to justify so much hoarding of resources. Too many incompetent and niche people being overpaid just for being charismatic. But you can't argue that the majority is fine with giving millions to sports, entertainers, and upper managers. So how to say anyone deserves a house if homeless are that way just for a lack of charisma (insanity, laziness, disability all lacking charisma to earn big paychecks)?

[@DrejaAndi]

It takes not only a deep desire to know and spread the truth, but integrity and humility to do this, which is what you can expect from Hank. That's why I follow him. It's good to find people you can trust, but always a good idea to double check for yourself, too.

[@heatherhorsecat]

Thanks for the transparency and showing how easy it is to get tangled up by misleading info sometimes. 😊

[@MichelleJoyYT]

The topic of Information Literacy is what deals with ALL of the things you are talking about here. I teach this subject at an academic library, and I constantly use the Crash Course series on Digital Information for this, but you better believe I'm adding this video to my teaching arsenal!! Awesome vid Hank!

[@SenatorBluto]

You teach information literacy? Can you describe to me what you know about ribosomal frameshifting or antibody class switching? Of course you can't, because you've done nothing but sneer at "antivaxxers" in between your multiple booster shots without bothering to learn anything.

[@BenWeinerRVA]

THERE ARE! FOUR! LIES!

[@matsnyder4501]

Aye captain

[@maxsalmon4980]

This video can go on as long as it has to. No one is coming to save you. All you have to do to escape is admit the truth. How many lies are there?

[@bloopez]

By the end, I believe there were five lies

[@rexxar7227]

There are five lies

[@MonkeyJedi99]

@@maxsalmon4980 I love this conversation.

[@patrickskelly8517]

Two that I see quoted a lot are "the 15 biggest ships pollute more than all the cars in the world" and "100 companies are responsible for 71% of carbon emissions" The first one is not true about carbon emissions, although that's what most everyone thinks of when they hear "pollution". The original paper only says that 15 ships emit more *sulfur dioxide* than all the cars. Sulfur dioxide is not a greenhouse gas, it is bad to breathe, but it only lasts about a day before it gets converted to sulfate, so it's only a local pollutant. The only reason those ships emitted so much is because we let them, because we thought sulfur dioxide didn't matter way out in the ocean. But since then we've changed the laws and the ships hardly emit any SO2 anymore. So the fact is both out of date, and doesn't say the thing most people claim it says. The second one comes from a paper that counts all downstream emissions as belonging to the fossil fuel mining companies. So if an oil company drills some oil, sells it to a refiner, who sells it to a gas station, who sells it to me, and I burn it in my car, only the oil company counts as having any emissions. People quote this paper and then say "see, me driving my car doesn't matter", but your car *is* part of that 71%, and so is -all- the electricity you use at home. The paper doesn't say that 71% of the blame goes to those companies, because that's so much harder to determine. Whose fault is it when my car emits CO2? The oil company's fault? My fault? My boss's fault for not letting me work remote? My city's fault for not building more transit? The car company's fault for not making it more efficient? Yes, probably all of these. I wanted to believe both of these because I do think big companies need to be held responsible for climate change, and putting the blame on individual consumers is problematic. But I don't like how the quotes get used to say something they don't actually say (probably not on purpose).

[@anyalpine]

I’m confused where the “all the electricity you use at home” part came from? Yes, a lot of electricity is generated from fossil fuels, however lots is also generated from hydro, wind, solar, etc.

[@russianbear0027]

Its region dependent. My understanding is that fossil fuels still provide 50% or more of electricity worldwide, though obviously there are probably some areas where no power is fossil fuel based. My region is about 60% fossil fuels @@anyalpine

[@Moffen9T]

Thank you for writing this up! This was really great additional content

[@DiceMaster740]

"Whose fault is it [...] ? Yes, probably all of these" This sums up how I feel about so many things. We're all so divided over who is to blame, but the answer is (to varying degrees) all of us*, so we might as well each try to contribute as much to the solution as we can. And yes, voting is one way we can contribute to the solution (or the problem!), but it's only one way, and stopping at voting is a cop-out. *"us" here means the population of the industrialized world. Tribal villages or foraging societies bear negligible blame, and as a bonus, tend to suffer the worst of the effects.

[@DavidSartor0]

IIRC SO2 in the atmosphere cools the planet. Maybe the opposite of a greenhouse gas.

[@richardplank6106]

A friend of mine shared a meme showing various newspapers claiming Canada, Antarctica, Israel, Africa, Australia were seeing global warming increasing at twice the rate of the global average. I was skeptical... I found the articles - they were all genuine articles from reasonably reputable sources. So then I put my brain to work and a light bulb went off. Land heats up much faster than water... and most of the world is ocean, therefore you'd expect land to be heating at more than twice the global rate.

[@arcguardian]

In what way is that reputable? They are obviously trying to dramatize something that happens ever since land existed. It's the same way when they report gun deaths but don't mention that they include suicides in their data... "Reputable" or not, if they didn't have an agenda, they would be honest and straightforward.

[@Delightedly]

Hank is the one who taught me that anything that confirms my bias online is something I should always check data and refine before sharing. I engage with things that confirm my bias, but dismiss and ignore the extreme ones that seem flawed automatically.

[@danieljensen2626]

That last one is so much of science in popular perception. Almost every time people think scientists as a group are "lying" it's because someone unqualified misinterpreted what scientists said and the people who are mad are just hearing that interpretation second or third hand.

[@iyziejane]

When they said the vaccine would prevent transmission, that was a made up lie that did not even appear in any published studies. I could describe to you a dozen lies during the pandemic coming directly from corrupt scientists, they had a big opportunity for profit and political power, and so they lied. I don't call them scientists though since they are imposters.

[@joshmerchant8737]

gonna borrow this comment...frequently

[@iyziejane]

Here, I'll give you an example of a lie. When the COVID mandates started they said the vaccine would reduce transmission (that was the fallback justification since it predictably didn't prevent illness). But at the time of the mandates, no studies had been done on transmission, and there was no reason (other than wishful thinking and arrogant fantasy) to think it would reduce transmission, and it in fact didn't. So the COVID mandates were a big intentional lie. Society can't move on until the midwits and imposters come back to reality.

[@TasteOfButterflies]

Clickbait article 1: "eggs are bad for you! Study says eating more than three per week is harmful" Clickbait article 2: "eggs are good for you! Study says up to three per week is perfectly safe" People who don't read good: "goddamn scientists, why can't they make up their minds and stop contradicting themselves?"

[@Ollig999]

This is def a dynamic, but there are also other important factors. Academics aren’t always incentivized to tell the truth or to not willfully misinterpret results, and while peer review can ameliorate misinterpretation it does almost nothing to protect against falsified data. Scientists actually do lie, and if recent scandals are any indication it’s quite widespread. That said, many studies finding the same thing and academic consensus should normally be believed. But skepticism is healthy and warranted for anything you read

[@mccorkleknight]

Not only did you start with humility, but you then went on to educate us about why being wrong is ok as long as we are willing to learn. I can't stress enough that this is what we all need to move forward as a society. Your humor and joy about learning the facts behind the misinformation help to drive it home. Keep it up, we appreciate it! Being wrong is ok, learning from it is better!

[@Tashishi0]

As long as you are willing to learn from a mistake, it will help you grow into a better person.

[@waylonbarrett3456]

Unfortunately, this may not work much longer. It may be too late for us. Who can say which information is accurate. Was the video footage of Jane Goodall real? How can we find reality and know that we've found it?

[@Kauffy901]

I love this. I definitely fact-check a lot more stuff than the average person, but even I can fall into that dead-eyed stare where I.. uhh.. forget to remember to fact-check something, and then it passes through my hands to my great shame. Oh, I love this because I sometimes feel like I'm "crazy" for being so self-analytical, for not only knowing things but insisting on knowing how I know them, for holding conflicting ideas in my head without feeling the need to believe either. I've never heard anybody else talk about this.

[@jeka8826]

We have tons of empty homes. They're used as short term vacation rentals, they're rich people's second homes, they're being kept empty to keep their value artificially high. We didn't suddenly tear down all our houses and apartments a few years ago.

[@tnatstrat7495]

That's part of it. That isn't "all" of it. I live in Omaha Nebraska; we have a shortage of houses on the market. Are there Air BNBs in Omaha? Sure. A lot of them? Uhh.. No. This is Nebraska.

[@nebulousviolet6137]

Most of the empty homes are in places that people are moving away from with stagnant economies and not much in the way of jobs.

[@zeromotivation1817]

reminds me of the phantom cities in china, massive clusters of high rise buildings ( built to prop up the Chinese construction boom) built on planned spots for cities that have neither the economy, nor the population in that area to use them.

[@Aikon71]

Yeah, I don't think my lake house in the sticks of 😅 Texas a over 30 minute drive away from the next supermarket. It's what's keeping people in LA or sf living on the streets.

[@Lozzie74]

It’s a bit sad that this poster just smashed down a “fact” with no backing info in a video about misinformation. Wake up, Jeka8826.

[@scottburnett6658]

I cannot emphasise enough how important I think a video like this is. Over the last few years there’s been a phenomenon of people holding beliefs, being presented information which shows that belief is incorrect and then doubling down hard on that belief anyway. For someone to hold up their hands and say ‘yes I was wrong, and this is why’ is just so important. Believing something only to realise it wasn’t factual or true isn’t the end of the world, but learning from it and being honest about it crucial. Nicely done!

[@renmaddox]

Notably, this was not really an example of being wrong about a belief, just being wrong about certain facts. I believe that in all four cases, Hank's underlying beliefs persisted. Not that they shouldn't have, it's just that this isn't an example of someone re-examining their beliefs.

[@danic475]

It really important, I hope more people see this.

[@petitio_principii]

This is aggravated when certain "truths" or "questionings" correlate with political "sides" somewhat, which is weirdly common. I think being more careful with accuracy works as a preemptive patching of some vulnerabilities that can be exploited to arguments that use this kernel of truth of one's side misconception, to try to push for something more questionable. Such as people just attributing some exceptional storms randomly to climate change, when it could be that something like El Niño or La Niña are more well-established factors for the observed pattern -- which AGW deniers can then exploit to paint a picture/strawman of "climate alarmists" who don't know the basics of climatology and just assume everything is AGW. When unfortunately those attributing the anomalies to AGW at least are more correct in "ballpark," big-picture terms.

[@iyziejane]

yeah like the COVID mandates, which exiled millions of innocent Americans from society because they refused to virtue signal about pretending to protect 80 year olds from the same risk of flu they've always faced. That's the big one, the people who were completely wrong went insane and hurt others very badly. Now that they caught up with reality and got tired of their filthy face rags, they want to move on and not apologize. But we're going to have to punish them totally for what they did.

[@zwenkwiel816]

NO!, SANTA IS REAL AND NO1 CAN COONVINCE ME OTHERWISE! Oh you weren't talking about Santa??

[@SciShow]

....This is why we have fact checkers...

[@dillonhounshell9786]

You mean they have a reason other than for the Right to hate? That's a joke.

[@aminorityofone]

Fact Checkers are great, however for social media platforms we need education. People need to be taught that just because somebody made a video on tiktok or youtube doesnt mean its the truth and very well could be an outright lie. This is only getting worse as deep fakes and AI are getting better by the day.

[@anj000]

Fact checkers for your own videos you produce are great. Fact checkers in social media are a propaganda tool and are bias.

[@billyalarie929]

@@aminorityofone education requires understanding context that we almost entirely shun on these here internets.

[@davidmcdavidson999]

Hank trying to build engagement here by using his alt account.

[@Spivacus]

Thank you for this video, seriously. It's genuinely so refreshing and eye opening to see some, especially someone we rely on for knowledge, say these things instead of just pretending like you know everything all the time and that it's okay to admit that you were wrong. It's even better that you understand why you were wrong and are able to articulate the mistakes that led to that conclusion and way of thinking. I think a lot of people could learn from these examples, myself included.

[@97BuckeyeGuy]

Thank you for being honest about these misunderstandings. EVERYTHING should be viewed through a skeptical eye.

[@BenjaminKibbey]

I just respect you so much doing this. I will say, as a former small town journalist, regarding culpability for Scientific American, thinking two steps ahead of the reader is kind of their job. This was something I would harp on about until my editor wanted to gag me, but any graph, graphic or other standalone element has to be evaluated out of context for how people might take it, because people don't read articles, they cue off visuals.

[@helixxia9320]

true

[@sstrange1973]

A good example was the actual total tax graph that John used to show that he was misrepresenting tax data. That graph stopped at 50%, making it look like France was paying close to 100% of its income in taxes when, in reality, it was around 48%.

[@vlogbrothers]

There's some conversation about the lack of homes being a cause of homelessness, specifically some talk about how there are plenty of vacant homes for people in cities where there are homeless people. The people I've talked to who work in housing or homelessness agree that this is a distraction that stops us from confronting the reality of the obvious and clear connection between limited housing stock and homelessness. When there is less housing available, rents go up. Search for "vacancies are a red herring" if you want to read more on this!

[@xzonia1]

I've always heard there's plenty of houses and housing alternatives (apartments, condos, house boats, mini homes, mobile homes, etc) in the US to house every person / family unit (because not all people live alone), but the people either don't live where these vacancies are, or they do but the places are priced too high for them to be able to afford them. And, if you're already homeless, being able to afford a place to live becomes an overwhelming task for many because it's hard to get a job that pays well if you don't have an address to put on the application. There's a lot that goes into it. But regardless, if you're going to ask for more housing to be built, ask for *affordable* housing to be built, not million dollar homes.

[@Zalied]

I mean this is true due to capitalism in general, your never going to utilize 100% of a thing because if you did prices would change. so unless we started giving away houses for free "vacant homes" existing isnt the problem. but in a weird idealistic no money world those homes should count against homelessness but pretending thats the world we live it is just a really easy way to ignore the true problems

[@jacobmerrill693]

As a housing econ nerd, I explain it like hermit crabs. Not all vacant shells are the right size for a given crab and you need lots of empty shells so that every crab can find the one that fits them!

[@KVerityart]

Then why are there empty units I can see from my apartment? Why have some of these units sat empty for over a year? Why are new luxury apartments built every day and it doesn't solve the housing crisis? People aren't sitting outside because there are no available housing units, it's because they cannot afford the housing that is available.

[@skitz042o2]

15 million empty homes in America. Homeless population in America(according to H.u.d.) : axp. 650,000 How exactly is our problem not enough homes. We have roughly what, 23-24 homes per homeless person.

[@markdawson425]

I love these videos and the recent 'I have questions about' it's teaching critical thinking, but more importantly it's reminding us about critical analysis, and fact finding. It's so very very important right now, and hearing people say 'I was wrong about...' is refreshing and makes me think about things I might be wrong about, and maybe I should look into. Love it!

[@ZagnutBar]

1:42 building more homes doesn't work when a developer buys an old house for $300,000 and builds five $800,000 homes in its place. It's the exact same unaffordability problem.

[@flookaraz]

To self evaluate something you already believe tobe true and discover is false is very difficult

[@missalwayswrite]

Practice makes progress! If we challenge ourselves the same way Hank does, the world will be a much more empathetic place.

[@AllTheHappySquirrels]

And it's so important!

[@watcherofwatchers]

It's actually not, though. If you are interested in being correct when asserting something, then you will find yourself verifying (or attempting to) what you think to be true on a regular basis. Recognizing that we are not infallible and are actually often incorrect or outdated in our thinking is the key; the rest comes naturally.

[@dennisfarris4729]

To admit mistake publicly is a sign of maturity.

[@parkerbond9400]

It's something I wish more of us were better at

[@jacquecomposanto3792]

So Hank, as a librarian, we often have conversations about misinformation and bias and even data (explaining it, finding it, working with researchers to curate adn store it, etc). But I don't think we have a grasp on how "the public" - especially on social media - use internformation and data. It's a qustion some library folks are looking into, but understanding the information needs of the public and also how information is used on social media are both very new conversations. This video is a fascinating example of how complex these topics are! Thank you

[@AVspectre]

I love having other librarians pop up in the wild. :) One area I think is key is building stronger skills in information and media literacy from a very early age within the school curriculum. It should be developmentally appropriate to each age, but be a consistent element in our education throughout schooling - and include social media as a big component. When I was in school, the examples were often newspaper articles, but we need to make sure the curriculum addresses the relevant information landscape students are actually trying to navigate.

[@rwalden00]

@@AVspectre Absolutely. For a bunch of years, people got the unsupported idea that kids from then on were all "digital natives" who just inherently knew how to use online resources appropriately, which was obviously never true.

[@itoibo4208]

people are very lazy. Sometimes, in politics, I see someone make a totally false rebuttal to a factual post, and the person after is like "fine but that person is still a poo poo head!" no, not fine. the rebutting statement was total bs and not at all true! you literally just took the word of your opponent, who also is some rando on the web! 😅😅😅😪😪😪@@rwalden00

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

Without addressing the root cause, nothing will improve and, people will keep complaining blindly 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 🔥

[@redthomas9023]

I think I'm still a conservative, but since conservatives aren't really conservatives anymore, I think I've accidentally become a libertarian. I heard something about cookies? =) I just wanted to add my support to the comment above. This is a crazy complex problem that's made worse because information brokers are incentivized towards drama and extremism in their reporting. It doesn't really matter which side you're on, you'll be getting your information sans context and often grossly misrepresented. BTW Hank, I would challenge this idea that the Right is exposed to more fake news than the Left. I have an obvious bias, but I'm very confident that false information is far more agnostic than you suggest. I do think it manifests a little differently between the sides as the Right tends to get information that's just not true, where the Left tends to misrepresent data or actively work to suppress data that conflicts with their positions. The net result is relatively equal levels of ignorance, imo.

[@michaelpduggan]

This is why real journalism is more valuable than ever. Despite the continued narrative, there are a lot of people at established media outlets trying very hard to write and produce stories that are researched and fact checked. They are NOT PERFECT, but many of the reporters and editors doing the real work actually care about reporting the truth. The problem is the economics have made it too draining. Having multiple people spend hours, days or even months on a story is increasingly hard to commit to when they are competing with social media "journalists" and aggregators who can just re-post 15 out of context things a day and get more engagement than the original works. I think one of the most important things you can do is to subscribe and pay real money for a local or national newspaper that is employing real journalists. I know people think that a lot of these entities are too influenced by big companies that own them. Sometimes that's true. But it's not always true, some have remained independently owned or supported by independent benefactors. Either way, continuing to give more of your time and attention to giant social media platforms and negligent or manipulative content aggregators is a way worse option in my opinion.

[@StaceyFowler5]

This is especially important when you are trying to educate someone (especially with something they don't want to be educated on or are suspecious of) - have the facts right. If even one fact is wrong then they will tear the whole thing apart. One bad article can make a whole new source suspect to a person. The more influence a person has (in your case with CC, VB, etc), like by being a doctor, or something, the more important this is. I really felt the line about being okay with the thought of something until you went to put it into someone else's head. This is how I am too.

[@joshuaroughan3350]

You touched upon a good point, that we should think “would I be comfortable sharing this without fact checking” I think have peer groups that keep us ‘in check’ is one solution to this.

[@bazzfromthebackground3696]

That's how the scientific community has done it for hundreds of years.

[@96Logan]

You just have to be vigilant that the peer group doesn't turn into an echo chamber.

[@The1Helleri]

I worked closely with the homeless for years. I've been homeless myself. My family helped get many off the streets, off drugs, into jobs and into housing. And we fed 100's more every weekend sending them away with enough for the week. And having tackled this issue from every angle. I can tell you with absolute certainty that homelessness is not a housing problem. That narrative is what allows governing bodies to get away with awarding people who have them in their pocket with development and redevelopment contracts that ultimately help almost none of the people they were intended to. Even taking the most cursory numbers it simply doesn't add up. Ignoring homes built before 1975 (of which there are millions but it's hard to quantify an exact number), there is 1 home for every 2.3 people. Considering that most housing is between single family occupancy (3-5) and single occupancy unit complexes (which is actually 1-2 per). There is more than enough living space. Even after you account for derelict dwellings you have to consider functional housing which isn't accounted for fully. Such as non-subdivided ADU's, RV's, and places not zoned as residential being used residentially. Like an old industrial building being turned into college dormitories without rezoning or changes in use on unrestricted land. Homelessness is a multifaceted issue. Building a house doesn't help the guy who will strip it for copper to pay for a habit. It doesn't help the woman who won't sleep inside because bees live in the walls. And most of the people who it could actually help will never see the inside of one because of the red tape that stands between them and it. People who need housing the most often do not meet housing program requirements. For one thing they have no way of identifying themselves officially much of the time. Birth certificates, ID's Driver's license. Hell even a library card. For a lot of them that was all lost, expired or stolen years ago. And to renew most of it...to get the ball rolling on getting into housing, you know what you need? Proof of physical address. On top of all that they often have to find a way with no money, poor hygiene and physical appearance to get from a to b several times a day to get things regarding all that done. They have to do that with all their worldly possessions to. because if they leave it somewhere. They'll be lucky if it's there when they get back. So you better have a buddy when you're homeless. Another homeless person who will watch your shit while you do things if you watch theirs while they do. And that relationship is based off mutual benefit. Once one of you takes too long or is getting something not being shared equally and it's known (like the possibility of one of you getting housing and the other not). That relationship and your only thing resembling a safety net is dissolved. Then you have to explain yourself to a lot of people on the street. Because if you flake or do anything that's perceived as trying to do better for yourself without raising the position of those around you as well, you will be excluded from a lot of circles. You're only going to find 1 person in a 100 who even meets whatever parameters were stipulated by those who actually made "free" housing happen (the program that develops out of the idea will not resemble the initial concept once it's made it's way through the bureaucratic grinder). And maybe every 4 of those people you'll get 1 to go along with it. And if their lucky. That system setup to "help" them won't chew them up and spit them out. Putting them in a worse position than they were before. It's easy to say we just need more houses, problem solves, and dust your hands off. But that doesn't even dig in the direction of the root of the problem. And that's why housing first has never put a dent in this issue. Because it's not a housing problem it's an economic classism problem. So much so that people of too high a station in life relative to the on the ground issue don't even understand the problem and are therefore incapable of helping it.

[@vixeni3365]

you said it. this country is full of empty homes that are inaccessible to the people who need them

[@macymcdonald6688]

Thank you for taking the time to say all of this.

[@christianlassen1577]

wonderful comment. thanks for sharing

[@DebTheDevastator]

This! Homelessness is going up here in Las Vegas, and it's not a lack of housing it's literally rent, and owning a home is too expensive. 36,000 WORKING people were evicted last year, and we have 6,000 evicted just this year. Going and asking the courts to put ahold on the evictions ultimately doesn't help because they give them 30 days to pay back what they owe. They couldn't pay the price hike to begin with, and now you expect them to pay that back to get an eviction off their record AND find a new place to live, when that was the only place they could afford before the price hike?! We have entire apartment buildings that are empty, new houses that can't be sold, and forget about getting housing help. The people in power have worked so hard to drag affordable housing through the mud that the people vote against building any, and landlords would rather have properties empty than take a government insensitive to make their properties more affordable. They also would rather pump money into Catholic Charieties than take on the responsibility of helping people! We have so many empty hotels and motels that it wouldn't be hard to convert them into housing, but they let them sit and rot.

[@rfv618]

Thanks for your insight, it makes a ton of sense

[@wo0topia]

This is THE best content on the internet. Honest, earnest, criticism of a problem that we ARE ALL subject to. You cant "outsmart" false information, you have to actually put in the work to look into it. Thank you for showcasing this stuff off Hank, I sincerely appreciate it.

[@bigbear8794]

It's not about right or wrong. It's about your beliefs changing with new information. Your willingness to accept you were wrong and desire to have the correct information even if you don't like it. I too fell for many things just like this. I try to be more thorough with what I believe because I will be more likely to repeat it. Self realization is a skill that many do not possession nor want to. Kudos for always being willing to improve. You have leveled up.

[@thejesuschrist]

I didn't catch the haircut until you mentioned it.

[@pistachoo.]

The haircut threw me off and I had to rewind and rewatch because it distracted me from the content, lmao! Also, the fact that it's curly now distracted me from the first three minutes! (I've missed a bunch of videos)

[@Steph-zo5zk]

@@pistachoo. yes apparently chemo can make your hair grow back curly and/or change the color slightly for a year or so after treatment (he had cancer in case you missed it). Never knew that until Hank mentioned it. I think it suits him but I imagine its a weird feeling to see yourself with a different type of hair.

[@pistachoo.]

@@Steph-zo5zk yes, I knew about the cancer, and about the chemo effect but it's weird to see it "IRL" so to speak! It's a different colour, too! Wild!

[@proutytyler1]

@@pistachoo.I ran into him downtown a few days ago and it was surreal seeing it in person.

[@sethwhitcomb2260]

Vaguely early 2000 Timberlake perm-like

[@rpfree]

My father talked to me about how everyone is prejudiced, including himself, and he was a Superior Court Judge. He said you just have to examine your thoughts to work through that, and make adjustments. That has stayed with me my whole life

[@Fredfredfredfredfredfredfred]

Thanks for sharing that that’s pretty cool. I’m guessing he’s a great dad, and it sounds like a great judge too. I got to say how funny the image is of him deciding something at work, and then double checking himself for prejudice: “wait, nope that’s racist” “dang it, no that’s xenophobic” 😂😂😂😂 it’s so endearing that he was fair on that level and it’s just so funny to imagine

[@JulianClosethewriter]

I love this. A thinker. And you're explaining the process. People WILL learn from this. Not many, but... you know. I subscribed to your channel, although I can't recall having seen any videos from other channels I was subscribed to for several years, so I don't really know why.

[@safaiaryu12]

Thank you, Hank, for making it clear that someone as intelligent, educated, and internet savvy as you are is still vulnerable to misinformation. This is a great reminder to double check things, even if - especially if - it seems to fit too well into my worldview. This video is amazing, especially for the different kinds of misinformation you pointed out. I'm saving it for future reference!

[@luciabee]

wow i was just looking at that rent/income graph just a few hours ago! i had seen it before but i looked more closely this time and went "wait a minute..." it caused me to reflect more on the fact that i don't question things that look right, even when they're surprising. how serendipitous!

[@kenhensch3996]

All that changes from the graph is the y scale is wrong. You could make the exact same graph by scaling the y scale to emphasize the differences even with correct data.

[@root_314]

​@@kenhensch3996This is incorrect, the two trend lines are on two DIFFERENT y-scales and thus have no business being on the same chart. You could either graph income and rent prices both unadjusted for inflation or both adjusted for inflation (i.e. in real terms), but the graph did neither despite its claims.

[@jgberzerker]

This is probably one of the most important videos you’ve put out. We can’t begin to solve problems effectively without first assessing these problems truthfully.

[@Cheesepuff8]

It's like how arguments/debates are destined to go nowhere unless the people involved agree on the definitions of what they're arguing about

[@shakinwakin35]

Really appreciate the humility and approach in this video. Really well done. I’ll throw a challenge flag on the “fake news” graph because it’s not cited and doesn’t have context for what constitutes “fake news.” Feels like a test in the spirit of this video. If so, we’ll played 😉

[@michellecobb8403]

Thank you for pointing out the need to research any information you receive. Misleading, half truth information is everywhere. Appreciate your candor ❤

[@jpendowski7503]

So refreshing to see a trusted source say they believe what their bias presents, but check that with which they disagree. Then turn around and say they were deceived by their bias, and gracefully allow themselves to be corrected. And then make a frenetic KZbin video that is awesome. DFTBA EVERY DAY

[@justmartine]

I'm obsessed with this video. In my social psych seminar, we've been talking a lot recently about these types of biases and how we can avoid them and, more than that, how HARD it is to avoid them. Everyone makes them. No one likes to think that they do. This is a great example of how to admit to our biases and learn from them.

[@u-mos8820]

I think if more people just understood this aspect of humans they'd be more empathetic and patient with others. I don't think most people really understand how bad it is, so to say how easy it is for an individual to get the wrong idea.

[@jenn976]

1. The growth of percentage of income used for rent is very useful and better than the graph that was incorrect. 2. Jane Goodall has said and written so many educational and revealing things that I would have to look up that quote or at least doubt it. 3. The poorer people are in the US, the higher their tax is as a portion of their income. Not talking about tax rates, I mean the percentage of their income that goes to taxes. 4. Wow, people on Twitter misinterpreted an article? That’s amazing! Not. Thanks for this video, it’s a great illustration of something that happens to all of us eventually.

[@FifthConcerto]

This reminds me of a series of assignments my 9th grade science teacher had us do called, "Misconceptions Killed." That one set of assignments has guarded me against blindly believing things and not questioning something once I believe it. Which isn't to say I am not subject to that, but I would be in far worse shape without that one year of "Misconceptions Killed" exercises. My takeaway from this is, minimize or eliminate exposure to "social media". Well meaning people will do sloppy work and if most of them think like you do, they'll do massive poisoning to your mental well.

[@kailamcd]

I hear arguments for fighting confirmation bias all the time as I'm in a psychology undergrad program, but hearing the process from start to finish from a source I trust is impactful. Thanks for this, especially the reshoot. Correcting ourselves is worth the effort.

[@ym5891]

Lmao. College students literally think they know everything and do nothing but lecture the rest of us. And you can't even do basic math. Keep your mouth shut.

[@silverandexact]

I'mma need that TikTok graph with both either adjusted for insulation or both not. Edit: INFLATION 😂

[@vlogbrothers]

They track pretty closely together, search "Mother Jones Rent vs Income"

[@Idefilms]

I would assume that better insulated homes are more expensive than less insulated /j /lh

[@Martcapt]

I hate it when tiktok graphs let water in

[@silverandexact]

@@Martcapt me too 😕

[@MonkeyJedi99]

@@Idefilms I can attest that poorly insulated homes are more expensive to live in. And that rental property landlords have no financial interest in insulation beyond making sure pipes don't freeze in the walls.

[@venician2face]

This is a good video that makes a lot of very valid points about information presentation in general and how it can be mis-leading. In this age of internet, we must all learn to analyse information and cross check it the way journalists are supposed to. Nothing should be taken at face value. Doing so is important but also very complex because most of the online resources available for research can manipulate data as well. It has become known that Google intentionally manipulates information presentation using algorythms to reflect their corportate opinions and politics and/or that of their employees. If you spend any significant amount of time using search engines this will become obvious. It is imperitive when doing online research to open and read all pertinent listings way down the list, to avoid this type of bias. Also, important is to use more than one search engine while making sure that each is independant. There are many search engines that use Google for instance.

[@AmyFerguson]

“I was fine with the information put in my head, but when I put it in someone else’s head I felt a little weird about it.” I’ve noticed this about myself as well. I’ll go along believing something without fact checking but if I say it out loud somewhere, it’ll occur to me that maybe I should make sure that’s true. There’s only so much time in the day and this is how my brain tries to be efficient.

[@bearimo2867]

One psrt that really resonated with me was when you said you only thought to check a fact after imparting the information to someone else. I think, much like learning, sometimes only when you explain to other people do things really click in your brain and that can solidify your understanding of the subject matter, or in this case make you doubt and need to confirm the information. I have also done this too many times, and often immediately said, "hang on, let me check that!" As it sounds weirder or less true when spoken out loud somehow than when it just nestles in your brain, especially when its part of any preconceived personal biases. Great video, always worth reminding people to be open to checking facts with proper institutions and reliable sources. (ie, not some mad uncle on Facebook).

[@ickster23]

You denigrate a source that may be viable. Source bias can be just as bad as not being fully informed. If a mad uncle says it's sunny out, many will say "ignore him, my TV hasn't told me it's true". I can't understand that type of thinking. Take in everything and do a proper deep critical assessment of the information.

[@laidbackbeau]

As a math instructor, I completely agree. I almost wish I could take my Masters again. I understand concepts now much more clearly than I did then. Simple things that I just regurgitated back then make much more sense. Things that would have made everything else make more sense.

[@availanila]

​@@laidbackbeauif it makes you feel any better: I'm soon to matriculate with an NA on Development Studies and... everything makes me angry nowadays. People just love acting against theirs and others' best interest *at all times* no matter what.

[@SpencerhasAJetPack]

The fact that I didn't notice the haircut change until he mentioned it was the craziest part of the video honestly

[@brmakl1]

I appreciate the straightforward approach you have here. I wish this was how the news was delivered!

[@jessi330]

This is a great example of how much time it takes to actually get to the truth. How people are used to spending 1 minute looking at something and accepting it or not. It takes work to be accurate. We also really suffer from confirmation bias.

[@user-xv1qd8io3u]

Thank you for making this video. I recently came to my own “can’t believe I believe these lies” moment and I felt so ashamed. Not only had I just believed those stories as facts but also I had spread them afterwards. I feel so seen by your video Hank. Thank you for helping me come to terms with the fact that everyone can be wrong, it doesn’t make you any less smart. We just have to be more vigilant.

[@steggopotamus]

It makes me more empathetic, when someone is wrong. I haven't called anyone the standbys for a long time because we all have our weakness, humanity's strength is the way we can balance each others' strengths and weaknesses). (You know how everyone can't wait to send clown emoji or call someone stupid in creative ways)

[@aazhie]

There's SO much information out there, sadly. Even the smartest and better resourced among us can be taxed for time to fact check EVERY single claim.

[@TheFelixityFunk]

It’s great that you’ve taken stock. I started actively fact checking as I watch anything, “trusted source” or not, a few years ago. Especially if someone is quoted or telling me what someone said in a speech or whatever I’ll just look up the source material and watch it for myself. Sins of omission are everywhere and there’s so much twisting of facts and findings. “A new study shows” is treated as if all “studies” are on par with one another and the newest one just cancels out everything that came before it. If I’m talking with someone and I heard something that contradicts what they’re saying but I haven’t looked into it I’ll tell them exactly that rather than run the risk of spreading falsehoods.

[@quebirt]

This is an AMAZING idea. We need a couple thousand intelligent and honest people doing these videos. We all know (well some of us know) that it's more difficult to convince us that we have been fooled than it is to fool us, and we all need to be eager to find our misconceptions or whatever. Thank you.

[@adamseidel9780]

The last one is so important to understand. It happens both intentionally and unintentionally on many, many issues on social media and frankly in the traditional media as well. Obviously politicians and advocates create these misunderstandings intentionally all the time. It’s very very harmful and driven partially by people’s inability to think for themselves.

[@Elspm]

@1:55 homelessness is a problem due to a lack of *available* homes. This is also sometimes due to ownership structures.

[@honeymanod]

Yeah, there are way more empty homes in the USA than there are homeless people.

[@Qfeys]

But be aware that if the number of vacant homes is below 5%, there isn't much that legislation can do to unlock this (because the vacancy is temporary, or unlivable, or whatever). In that case, you just have to build more homes.

[@silverandexact]

It's due to a lack of AFFORDABLE homes. We could house every unhoused person in the country right now many times over if it were just an issue of available properties.

[@ohiasdxfcghbljokasdjhnfvaw4ehr]

Stop allowing corporations to own homes! Homes are for people! There are plenty of vacant houses around me because goldman sachs bought them as investments and refuses to make them livable, or sell them for a fair price. We don't need more homes, we need less corporate ownership.

[@OhioUltimate979]

The easiest solution I can think of: reduce the number of rented residential properties a person can own down to something like 5 and prevent corporations from owning rental properties outright.

[@thecharlemagnekid9997]

"I would use this ring from a desire to do good... But through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine." The metaphore is far from perfect but I cant help but feel like hank is gandalf and twitter(or social media) is the one ring. You can try to use it to spread the truth but ultimately the algorithm doesnt care and even truths slowly turn into lies online.

[@tass466]

+

[@glassisland]

Gods help us if Twitter (or X, or whatever) is the One Ring. Because it's already in the hands of Sauron.

[@elenakalliste]

We always appreciate your transparency and effort ❤

[@v0lve3321]

Hey, really cool and inspiring video, just a small detail now we're in the not getting things wrong department: the amount of homes in existence doesn't solve homelessness in and of itself as you state in the first segment, because housing is currently distributed through a market that doesn't behave by the strict supply/demand principle you seem to imply in this video. A lot of good stuff has been written/said about this topic (for those interested Unlearning Economics has made great stuff on this/similar topics) but I think an interesting vase study is the city where I live (Aarhus, Denmark) where a lot of rental apartments were build during the last ca. a decade. Rent hasn't gone down as you'd expert from basic economics, but has still increased like everywhere else in the world, however landlords have started doing offers like '2 first months are free' which doesn't allow people who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford to live here to live here, but merely makes their apartments more attractive to the limited pool of renters. Not to nitpick, great stuff!

[@kellyfox880]

This reminds me of the phrase, “It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” Funny, because the quote is often attributed to Mark Twain, though Google tells me there's no evidence of this. He did, however, state in his autobiography, "How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!" Your video is a great reminder that none of us are immune to lies and propaganda, and that we'd do better to verify our sources and beliefs with an open mind.

[@nac.mac.feegle]

We should never be embarrassed by having to admit when we are wrong. That shows normal and growth. If you never have to admit your wrong, you're either lying or delusional.

[@tonywtyt]

I just read an article that was on a different topic, but one that pointed out that our thinking on a topic can be tainted, thus resulting in "bad science", which is then perpetuated by the masses. The practice of trading popularity for truthfulness is worse than sad, yet this is what our society seems to be flirting with. I'm only applying these thoughts to your presentation, but only as it generally relates to the topic you're discussing.

[@jamesbaio9327]

One of the things I discuss with students I teach at the High School level is the burden of proof, with whom does the burden of proof lie. And what I teach, biased though it may be, is that the burden of proof is on the speaker. Whomever is presenting the argument should, 100%, be responsible for the the fact checking, the proof, AND evidence of the contrary. In the psat, I've heard arguments that claim we should check up to 3 sources to verify claims we hear; but in today's internet age, we need to check 5 or more. Considering the wealth of sources, it is very ironic and mixed-up that we have to check so much more.

[@mayaenglish5424]

I agree with you except for the part where I don't agree with you lol. Let me explain. Of course the speaker is responsible for what they say and must do their due diligence, and if they are lying, then it is 100% on them morally and it is not your fault you were lied to. However, as individuals, we must also be responsible for what enters and makes a home in our brains. We cannot merely be passive receptacles of knowledge (Which I don't think you are advocating for) but must curate the library of our minds as best we can. So Morally I agree with you, the person presenting the information is 100% responsible for the quality of said information, but practically I disagree when it comes to listening to others speak.

[@kimono5484]

I didn't notice the haircut change until he mentioned it and then I had to rewind a little and see how big of a difference I had just overlooked.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

It would've been funny if he lied about getting a haircut and then you had to go back and check that it's false.

[@isaackvasager9957]

@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721this is the way.

[@IrisGlowingBlue]

@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 Three-dimensional chess haircut

[@august1871]

This video would be too meta!! My life is a lie!!

[@AndrewGillard]

I'm usually the last to notice haircuts and such, but I found myself curiously examining Hank's hair somewhere between 5:47 and 7:41 without knowing _why_ my eyes were drawn to it. So I'm glad he mentioned the haircut - it explained why my brain was suddenly interested in his hair 😹

[@mkloppel]

First: Thank you. I respect this. I take pride in being wrong, loudly admitting it. I deserve to be joked on if I'm willing to hold wrong ideas. Stating my own mistakes, honestly, hopefully will encourage others to try and be right.

[@ReneeJoan]

The last person I heard advocate for this sort of drastic population reduction vanished in a “snap.” The fact is, when faced with insufficient resources, populations will spontaneously begin to reduce their fertility and rates of reproduction. We see this with rabbits, deer, wolves and humans. Right now, China, Japan, and even the US are all noticing frightening levels of declining birth rates, and are struggling to figure out how to incentivize women to have more babies. The women are ignoring these efforts. The truth is, this is not a good time to be having children. With Fascism on the rise, global warming out of control, growing income inequality, the decline of public education, the shortage of affordable housing, I wouldn’t fault anyone who declines to have children. This natural tendency to limit fertility during times of stress does not need to be enforced. Right now, governments are panicking as they see birth rates declining. Improve economic and environmental conditions, and people will start reproducing like rabbits again.

[@Anonymous-sb9rr]

People misrepresenting research on social media and in news articles happens all the freaking time, it's maddening.

[@HelenaOfDetroit]

Research papers misrepresenting other papers also happens all the time.

[@alexandergutfeldt1144]

misrepresent due to misunderstanding or due to hidden agenda? let's not jump to conclusions either way!

[@HelenaOfDetroit]

@@alexandergutfeldt1144 ya idk why the mistakes are in the papers I read. It's not like I met the people who wrote them. But there's definitely a lot of mistakes based on assumptions and biases. Of course, this could be sampling bias as well because I was studying sociology and criminology at the time. So, there could be more mistakes and misrepresentations in those papers than others. I don't know and I'm not planning on reading every paper that was ever published to find out. Lol

[@hollym7878]

I love the idea of “having an alliance to the truth”. The hard part is accepting truth as it is, and not the truth as you want it to be. Hank, thank you for being an example to us all.

[@glassisland]

I think having an alliance to the truth has always been important, but rarely so important as it's going to be this year. There's already so much misinformation flying around (from everyone, as Hank points out) and being able to question not only your opposition's points but your own preconceptions of how "the truth" looks is going to be what gets us through it.

[@connorking984]

I don't actually, I think trying to adhere to the truth puts you in an extremely vulnerable position of trying to decide whether things are true or false and that being the only thing that matters. In many ways the truth does not matter, I don't care what you think of me, if you have false perceptions. But when we talk I want you to be nice to me and I nice to you. Truth is not a social value, it's a way for people who cannot be virtuous to represent their subjective views with reason... I don't think i explained that perfectly but you get the point. Humans don't operate on truth. We operate. We operate on what we feel like operating in the moment.

[@glassisland]

@@connorking984 I understand why you feel this way and that it may not be your experience, but it is possible to be nice and tell the truth at the same time. Finding the truth, even if it means questioning your own beliefs, is valuable...I would even say it's the only way we can achieve a common understanding. But yes, I'm with you on being nice. I think you can do both.

[@caseymcdonald2239]

I find it telling that the tax burden goes up (America would be in the middle of that table) if we included our healthcare... and look who is at the top of that table of Tax revenue as a share of GDP: Denmark, Sweden, Finland and others who are constantly being used as examples of "free" healthcare.

[@jewels3846]

It was wild to me I learned how much American taxes go to health care yet it still costs yall do much. Im canadian and never had to fear going to see my dr once stuff starts goinf wrong to get an answer. Sure we pay prescriptions but its scary too think of having too not get answers of what is wrong because just getting the answers bankrupts so many americans I have had 3 MRIs and 4 xrays this past year for issues for 0 cost to me including an ER trip. The only cost to me was paying for the physiotherapy to help recover. 80$ a session every few weeks for a couple months

[@HanSobbo]

I was able to use this for one of my class assignments on misinformation! Thanks Hank!

[@anyawillowfan]

I think it is so important to talk about how easy it is for inaccurate information to make its way into our brains, even for those of us who consider ourselves conscious of how much wrong information is out there. I also really appreciate you being honest about bias, and it will certainly make me try and fact check more often before I share information that may have been misconstrued or edited to appear a certain way (ie. Always read the fine print on statistics and graphs as often they are done in very narrow margins so the data aligns with expectation).

[@Towalak]

About Hank's closing statement on "homelessness is a problem created by the lack of homes": My city (Montreal, not American, but I think it will also apply in the US) actually has a lot of unused housing. Many landlords prefer not to rent than to rent at a lower price. The reason for this is that we have relatively pro-tenant laws, which makes it hard to raise the rent while keeping the same tenant, and hard to evict them too. I'm very happy these policy exist as it makes the rent sometimes cheap, but it also means greedy landlord can take housing effectively off the market. So there ya go, more housing would certainly help, but it's not the entire story

[@pistachoo.]

Vancouver/BC is trying to deal with the masses of unused housing by scrapping "no rental" strata bylaws, creating empty homes / vacancy taxes, and adding a newly implemented house flipping tax to cool the market as well. It is indeed very complex.

[@Argusthecat]

Yeah, my city has more empty homes than homeless people. The number of homes doesn't matter when they aren't being made available and affordable, and there's a lot of capitalist pressure to keep those homes empty or used as overpriced Air B&Bs or something.

[@niamhfox9559]

yeah, Australia too. There are a lot of houses that investors buy, wait a year with it empty and sell at a higher price in a year or two. If we simply "built more houses" the supply/demand would not make the price fall it would just mean the exact same investors could buy more houses even though yes we do need more and better quality houses built. The rent and house price wouldn't change, which sounds like absolute nonsense but unless we also change the rules around investing, negative gearing, and availability of social housing it won't increase the affordability or availability of housing.

[@elmurcis1]

Depending on place, "renters" side ruleset might give too much headaches to even try renting. ROI of renting isn't too high (most times) so even few troublemakers (mindset of some renters is literally insane) can cause one to simply avoid this market at all and just have empty property as investment "hold".

[@duskpede5146]

the solution for that is pretty simple, you tax properties that aren't in use cause they're a drain on the economy. its a problem with a very elegant solution, which is pretty lucky all things considered

[@geoffgjof]

My best friend was homeless for several years while he dealt with a drug addiction. He said that homeless people travel to areas that have more money. That suggests that higher rent prices and homeless rates might just be a correlation instead of causation. It makes sense that people who want people to give them money for doing nothing would seek out areas where people have more surplus money. And higher rents is an indication of a market that has enough money to bear it because there's more money there.

[@diannepurves2582]

Hank, I know you from Crash Course, but I just came to this video by chance. I'm glad you're still out there making people think!

[@NeverarGreat]

This is such a massive problem online. I was almost duped yesterday by a headline declaring that a local politician on the other side of the political spectrum said something absurd and outrageous. The only reason I didn't fall for it was because the image of the headline contained a few sentences from the body of the article that sounded kind of weird, and reading more of the article and watching the original statement made it clear that the statement was taken out of context. But if I had only read that headline, I would still believe that this politician said that absurd thing.

[@danielschegh9695]

Good stuff, and thanks. I deeply respect this. What helped me in this area is adopting the following guidelines, and specifically believing they are true from the evidence: 1) Anything other people tell me is a hypothesis. 2) If the validity of the hypothesis is important I must evaluate it first by reviewing all available evidence for and against the hypothesis. As a starting point, what are people supporting it claiming and what are people opposing it claiming? 3) Everything claimed is wrong at some level of detail. It's important to understand what details are important or not when applying a claim to a situation. A half-truth is fine if the true part is what matters, but not if the untrue part matters. 4) I am an "other people" to everybody else, so I should also expect others to scrutinize what I claim in the same way.

[@dannileigh6426]

3 is a big point on its own, also the cause of a lot of "well actually..." as shown in this very video

[@Ranstone]

#3 is extremely dangerous. It lays a foundation for cherry picking truth based on what you feel matters. "Well, this study is a half truth, but it supports the side of some controversial subject I think is true, so the truth is what matters." No.

[@dannileigh6426]

@@Ranstone Maybe "wrong" is not the right word, but not fully correct, or correct from one context or perspective but missing something significant at another. Like "lies told to children", true enough at one level, but also thoroughly missing necessary information at another. Yes, study one did find A, and it may be true, but it doesn't support the conclusion they think it does and is missing information from study two that gives a fuller understanding of the issue and context that shows how study one can be misunderstood or construed. At least that was my understanding/thinking.

[@nowandrew4442]

You are not wrong but I have a much simpler approach. Titles of information often don't actually display what the title says it does. My approach is simple: Question Everything. :) If someone says, "here, this graph shows the tax burden of individuals across different nations", I will say, 'does it? How does it do that? The values are % Share of GDP. That doesn't look like a personal tax burden measurement. That's an internal number relating to a country's taxed vs non-taxed industries, and I'm sure a lot of other factors too.' Essentially reading the full information, the details, is often where the 'ruse' lies. Maybe along the lines of your half-truths.

[@user-go8oj4dl4w]

@@nowandrew4442 I like the idea of 'lonely numbers' from the book 'Factfulness'. Once I read it, I noticed that articles often rely on one attention-grabbing number that don't tell the whole story. “If you are offered one number, always ask for at least one more. Something to compare it with. Be especially careful about big numbers.”

[@Starcrash6984]

I do that all the time, which is to believe something until I'm passing it on and need a source, and then I actually check the source and find out I was wrong. But realistically, I'm okay with learning misinformation as long as it dies with me. It's personally embarrassing and may affect my actions, but it's far better than being publicly embarrassed and wrongly affecting another's actions.

[@davids9324]

We need more people talking about these misunderstadings and wrong information. Discerrnment is rare these days.

[@mattkoscelnik8634]

Loved the coversation about the data from NOAA! As an emergency manager working primarily in mitigation and preparedness it's actually really important to see how data in relation to disasters is talked about and understood!

[@DrSid42]

Dude, this is great idea for the whole channel. Probably not daily videos, but certainly weekly.

[@eschelar]

Hank is famous for having a channel of politically biased Sciunce "factz". Now he is realizing that he was spreading a lot of nonsense under the mantle of Science. And you're saying he should make a channel about it... How about he makes a channel debunking his own SciShow episode lies?

[@odiousghoul]

​@@eschelarwhy dont you instead of lurking in his comments?

[@eschelar]

@@odiousghoul I am not Hank. How could I be Hank debunking his own SciShow nonsense? this video is about Hank realizing that he has many beliefs that he used to think were true and unassailable, but as soon as he actually examined them, he realized his belief system is full of shit. His SciShow was heavily based on belief systems that were full of shit. Many people pointed this out many times over years. I think the channel is dead now, but millions upon millions of hits spreading misinformation. He has a responsibility to correct the lies he made a fortune spreading.

[@MrJhonbaker]

The older I've managed to become the more I have learned to enjoy being wrong. I tend to hold very strong opinions about things so when I'm wrong I'm fantastically wrong and this use to lead to embarrassment and me learning to argue very effectively for things that are simply not facts - Now when I state something I'm even slightly unsure of I look it up and that is sometimes followed by me stating I was wrong and this is what I've now learned. Everyone benefits.

[@cosmicaug]

9:16 «And yes, sometimes I feel like, what does it matter if somebody's saying a graph is saying something that it isn't actually saying, or that this graph is making people sort of active and excited and enthusiastic about making the kinds of change I want to see in my country, even if it's not right, what does it matter?» I definitely hear this one.

[@djyeah-nah9781]

"I had no reason to question" is a very unscientific and very human perspective to carry. Love the honesty in this video, mate.

[@jarvis]

dynasty typewriter mentioned

[@Brando2301]

Sad Bois at the dynasty typewriter when?

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

Without addressing the root cause, nothing will improve and, people will keep complaining blindly 👉The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 🔥

[@skh4ppy]

w

[@Hipp1062]

I've always been a pretty skeptical person, but after I saw a study from a reputable college clearly lying, I have trouble even trusting most sources. Best you'll get out of me is, "that's plausible."

[@meganpace3554]

Homelessness is not only a building housing issue, at least where I live. We have more than enough homes sitting empty, cause of vacation rentals and airbnbs, and the amount of airbnb only houses are going up as locals flee the place from increased rent and housing pricing.

[@denisehunley9583]

I believe in Dave Green

[@simonstanton5299]

+

[@jacobandrews2663]

Davetruthers

[@Justanotherconsumer]

I don’t think he really exists.

[@denisehunley9583]

@@Justanotherconsumer he exists in our hearts, and so he exists

[@geekgroupie42]

+

[@jamesmeade1300]

This is my favorite vlogbrothers video in recent memory. As a medical student, I also strive to be someone with an alliance to the truth. It’s so important to critically analyze how our own inherent biases color our perception of the world. Thank you, Hank, for doing the hard work and trying to increase awareness of bias, even if it felt embarrassing!

[@Idefilms]

+

[@helenm1085]

Have you heard about how Florence Nightingale purposely used a confusing graph to convince people to use infection control measures? There's a fascinating episode on it on the podcast Cautionary Tales

[@lelandshennett]

Lack of homes is not the problem. I’ve seen multiple stats saying there are upwards of 10X as many empty houses as there are homeless people. Companies like black rock buying up all the homes for more than the asking price with cash up front seems like one of the root causes amongst other things.

[@intrepidpursuit]

One of the issues with taxes in the US is that we have SO MANY DIFFERENT TAXES. It makes it seem immeasurably large. Priced in VAT feels like less of a burden and is way easier to quantify.

[@Idefilms]

Hank. Holy moly. This is awesome. (I could literally feel myself thinking more complexly when you played that full Jane Goodall context.) Thank you for sharing it with us. I saw on Twitter that the meme review got put off for this - WORTH IT. (now we can all look forward to the meme review #teamJarrod)