I Believed These Four Lies 

"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

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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!

"I will run to fact check something I disagree with and I will not do that with stuff that aligns with my previous conception" powerful human nature. I need to fact check my beliefs as much as I need to fact check my doubts.

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

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!

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

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

Intelligence begins with "I don't know", and it flourishes with "I was wrong." (Paraphrased from Lore's brother) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8eDYVtPwWiM.htmlsi=BY4g-8amxW5a4umR

THERE ARE! FOUR! LIES!

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

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.

Thank you for this. My motto is, "I would rather look stupid today, than be stupid tomorrow."

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.

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

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

Actually homelessness isn't just a lack of homes. It is a lack of affordable homes. Literally hundreds of thousands of homes stay empty because people(and corporations) are not willing to sell them at a loss.

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!

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!

Fantastic video.

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.

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!

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

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.

Rule Number One: *DO NOT* use social media as a source of information. Do not let their explanations have a final say in your understanding. You should use those places to entertain yourselves, not educate yourselves.

Here is a belief that I had until 7:40 in the video. I didn't realize you had a different haircut and accepted that your hair was like that the whole time until you said something.

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

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.

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 RU-vid video that is awesome. DFTBA EVERY DAY

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).

dynasty typewriter mentioned

The housing issue is certainly not solved by “build more housing”…2/3rds of new housing is single family, the problem is, it’s been like that, or more, since before WW2.. which means there isn’t appropriate housing available to the homeless. If 1% of homeowners have third homes, that’s 860,000 homes, which is more than 650,000 homeless. This is similar to the issue with auto manufactures, where most ppl need a shitbox to get them from A to B, but the buyers of “new” autos want $65k pickup trucks……so even if we’re ok with single family housing as the vast majority of new housing, the type of that single family is designed for ppl in at least the “middle class”, if not wealthier. So the answer is Apartments? No. Because most wealth in the USA is attached to real-property ownership. So, the only way to escape poverty is ownership, but there’s little to no housing in that donut hole..some holes in some parts of the country wider then others…

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

10:02 "and also to in a year that is going to be bad, uh, to touch as much grass as I possibly can." I think Snoop Dog has a similar resolution.

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.

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

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).

John Stewart has been in the gaslighting business for a long time lol

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

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.

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.

Making a second comment to say I really appreciate this form of video and accountability! Its what I wish more people realized is how we grow and WHY we have discussions. Not to convince the other party but to challenge and grow both sides. If we confront someone with an opposing view it forces us to refine to the point that even if we didn't convince them our argument and fact base has gotten stronger. Especailly in this day and age critical thinking and questioning what you see is VERY important and that does not happen if we're so afraid of being wrong we stop trying. I genuinely appreciate you pointing these out and acknowledging I may have believed things I shouldn't have too hastily but I looked into them and grew from it. This is how humans learn and its the fear of being wrong which prevents us from growing or finding the truth. Appreciate you a lot Hank and great idea for a video! Misinformation awareness needs to be spread more and people educated on the types of ways people will mislead or change statistics.

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.

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.

I believe in Dave Green

NOAA _DID_ misrepresent the data tho, because they knew people would flip out, they want to show costs, do it has to be inflation corrected, but not build corrected, BUT they should have included number of EVENTS not just raw cost, or a raw cost per urbanized area which would scale between the two years. SO THEY DID MISREPRESENT, intent is nothing, LEARN TO DO STATISTICS! the way to know if someone knows economics or statistics is to ask them if they know economics or statistics. If they say no, then they don't. if they say yes, then they definitely don't.

"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.

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.

I normally enjoy Hanks takes, but to claim homelessness is caused by a housing shortage is monumentally stupid. Like, the guy sleeping on a bench is just going to be able to afford a house if only there were more of them?!And to claim we don’t have an overpopulation problem is equally dumb. Our livestock alone outweighs all non domesticated animals. There is no ecosystem not being destroyed by humans. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with telling people that and suggesting or even incentivizing them having fewer children. A lower population would solve many problems…

8:35 - what's the source of this graph and the data it represents?

Hank your hair looks so different! Love the curls!

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

Homelessness isn't a lack of homes. There's like 6 empty homes for every homeless person in the USA. It's because we live in an economic system that perpetuates artificial scarcity. No matter how many homes we build, they will go disproportionately to rich people. Poor people can't afford housing, no matter how many homes there are, because they price them for rich people. Capitalism is the problem, but if you want to avoid that whole issue, just say we need specifically more "affordable housing" or "low-income housing" or "section 8 housing" because all the money is in building monster homes for rich people so no matter how many homes are built it won't matter. This is a problem of capitalism, and the growing inequality and lack of compassion that it inevitably cultivates. @vlogbrothers I love how much you share info, and you care about how correct it is: fact check this and make a whole video about it, it'd be awesome! Artificial scarcity is brutal.

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.

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.

8:20 One of the biggest differences between left and right is conformity to authority. People on the left prefer to get it right, even if it comes at a social cost. People on the right prefer to stay in the group, even if that means drinking the kool-aid of that era. Hence, the left has more auto-correction and self-reflection, in aggregate. We just _love_ to be critical, hehe. And that's why the right is more susceptible to misinformation. (although it really depends on the topic - anything environmental or warcrime related is much more likely to trick the left, and which topics are more likely to trick which side also evolves over the decades)

The truth resists simplicity!

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!

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)

The lack of homes in most places isn't just a lack of construction. The intense number of short term rentals that has taken homes out of the marketplace are a huge problem. The number of units bought up by corporations that are sitting empty are also a huge problem. Building more doesn't help very much when they're immediately priced out of range for most people, and the people who can afford to buy them are either those who already own a home, or the aforementioned corporations. This is an area where regulation is *needed*.

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.

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!

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

Those who live in places with high levels of homelessness (respectfully, that's not you, Hank) know first hand that the homelessness crisis in these places has been superfueled by three things: drug abuse, untreated mental illness, and poltical enabling and dysfunction that has led to a dearth of beds and services for those in need. Is new housing stock a contributor? Of course. But it pales to the proceeding three factors that cause people to end up on the street rather than in the care of medical or other municipal support systems. Take a walk through a tent city and speak to the people, and then you'll know what you're talking about.

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

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).

I really resonate to striving towards having a very strong alliance with the truth. I've recently realised that truth and authenticity are core values of mine and it sometimes shocks me that not everyone shares these values. That said, as you highlighted, caring about the truth is not enough and confirmation bias is really tricky to successfully avoid. I heard a quote once that had the sentiment of "always fact check, especially when it aligns with your pre-existing beliefs".

This was a great video and these are amazing examples of the real "power" (insidiousness) of confirmation bias. Humility is uncomfortable, no doubt, but it is an absolutely awesome teaching tool. Thank you!

2:01 I might be wrong about this, but I don't think the "lack of homes" is the correct description of the problem. I think "lack of affordable homes" is a better description. To the best of my knowledge, in many cities with large populations of homeless there are large numbers of dwelling units standing empty. Of course I might be wrong. I you think I am, please provide me with correct data.

This is what they were always on about in all those media literacy classes! You're setting such a great example, showing that absolutely no one is immune to falling into the comfortable trap of our own biases

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.

The lack of homes issue won't get fixed because it is in the interest of current homeowners to block it. As if more homes are built, their homes lose value. This is kind of a big deal when homeowners have a lot more influence than homeless people over local politics.

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" 😬.

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

Currently finishing up my b.a. in psychology and it has made me wish that all high school students were taught about research methods and statistical literacy. Thanks, Hank!

1:45 I'm not an expert, but I'm certain this statement is incorrect. According to the United States Census, there were about 650 000 people who experienced homelessness in 2023. Various sources say that there are anywhere between 5-16 million vacant houses across the U.S., and regardless of where on the range the true number is, vacant houses clearly outnumber homeless people by a significant margin.

5:40 Kinda misleading though because most of those countries have healthcare included in their taxes while American healthcare is privatized. If you included healthcare which is essentially a tax to a private institution it would be significantly higher.

Many years ago (I think it was 1990), I realized I didn't have a justification for most of what I believed, so I discarded all of it and started over. Ever since then, I have been acutely aware of the danger of drawing a conclusion in the absence of conclusive evidence (because once an opinion is held it introduces confirmation bias), and I have believed almost nothing.

Misinformation is a real problem that goes beyond political biases. We need to think of our biases when receiving information. And imo it’s even more important that we become more comfortable with realizing we were wrong. This video will most likely be stripped of its nuance and broader message by those who don’t like you. But for those that do like your content, this video is a reminder that it is not just okay to be wrong, it is NECESSARY to be okay with being wrong. That is the only way we can grow. People who perceive you as intelligent and well-informed maybe will feel less embarrassed about being wrong sometimes. This video actually reminds me a lot of a quote from Hank he said a while ago, “You have to be open to the idea that your beliefs might be false because that’s the only way that holding onto them can really mean anything”

Why does it matter if the graph doesn't say what you think it says if it motivates people to fix climate change, tackle the housing crisis, or [insert cause you support here]? Because they're going to try to use that graph to convince other people to get just as motivated, and when someone reads what that graph actually says, they're going to see the flaw. Depending on that person's perspective on the issue, they might see that flawed argument as evidence that the claimant's position is false. We see this all the time with climate change denial, where any inconsistency in the evidence for anthropogenic climate change is seized upon like some sort of smoking gun. Bad arguments hurt good causes. They cast doubt on the validity of the cause and on the motives of those supporting it.

Thank you for acknowledging that you got a haircut halfway through. I truly thought my brain had glitched. There are a lot of media sources I trust more than my own brain/experience, but it's scary to see how easily that can be influenced or manipulated. I'm grateful that I learned research skills in HS/college... and that I have a rewind button when I glitch. 😂

Hank out here correcting the lies of the internet 😊

Admirable! I’m certainly right leaning, and like you I see the sway of group think and my own biases enhanced by the scale and volume afforded by the internet. I’m always looking for voices unlike my own to weigh in (which is why I’ve been following you for over a decade). I’m thrilled to hear that you are putting in the effort required to do the same. ♥️

I don't believe anything, I'm too paranoid. Quotes and statistics taken out of context are right out. A lack of context is in itself cause for suspicion.

Sorry, but you need to add to your list of lies you believed the claim that homelessness is due to a lack of homes. That is so blatantly false it is scary that you believed it in the first place. Building more homes does not necessarily bring the price of homes down to an affordable level for all people. In many large cities there are many many homes standing empty because their primary value to the owner is an investment asset based on the property value not the rental income. Homelessness in almost all instances is due to a combination of lack of affordable housing and a lack of a welfare system that provides affordable housing to those in need. Yes, building more affordable housing helps but simply building more homes does not.

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!

Great video. One lesson the army taught me was "If it's important, they're lying.*" There are more "regulations" than can fit inside the Library of Congress, what is actually in print could fit on about 30 feet of book shelves. (That's regulations, not Field Manuals.) Turns out a lot of soldiers are also a Barracks Lawyers that knows all the unprinted regulations that happen to align with what they want that moment. My favorite: "The army pays you not to eat." (Great! Give me more money so I don't have to sleep.) Why? Because stripping and waxing the floor was more important then something as useless as eating. And, it wasn't even for an inspection. It was just a whim. * I've since amended this with "... until proven otherwise."

When people reach a certain level of prosperity and security they stop having large families. This has been noted since the late 18th century. Today nearly the whole world is in this situation with population stable or falling. By 2050 it is expected world population will be falling. If world population were cut in half that would take us back to the level of 1970. I don't recall any lack of population then, quite the opposite. If it were cut in half again that would take us to the level of 1950. Also not a time when anyone thought there were too few people, but a time of worry over the baby boom and the population explosion. World population could fall quite a bit and not hurt anybody. But politicians who are committed to a growth model are afraid it will hurt them. It just means they need to rethink their model.

Hankkk I’m still waiting for the P4A meme review! 😭 (but I love this video it’s so informative thank you)

Notice how much of the misinterpretation is from dead bird platform.