Hank Green — "Well...This Seems Bad..." (on JD Vance's "UFOs are demons") (2026)

Source: Hank Green (YouTube), "Well...This Seems Bad...", 2026-04-02. Duration: 20:12. Views: ~1.64M. URL: https://youtu.be/qWDMXKEZgq0 Extraction: youtube_transcript.py (auto-generated captions; >> marks a turn), captured 2026-06-03. Verbatim auto-transcript. A response/critique of Vice President JD Vance's claim that UFOs are demons; references Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World and Hank's prior "Why It's Never Aliens." (The final ~3 min, from ~17:05, is an unrelated NYT Connections game outro.) Analysis: ../../sources/hank-green-demon-haunted-world-2026.

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[00:00:00.160] All right. All right. Well, we're
[00:00:01.120] waiting for it. We saw aliens.com. We
[00:00:02.879] saw aliens.gov.
[00:00:04.000] >> I don't think they're I don't think
[00:00:04.799] they're aliens. I think they're demons
[00:00:06.080] anyway. But
[00:00:06.720] >> perhaps this is not worth confronting
[00:00:08.400] here. And yet, I feel compelled. And the
[00:00:10.719] fact that I feel compelled is part of
[00:00:12.240] what I want to get at here. But that's
[00:00:13.840] the last thing I want to get at. The
[00:00:15.200] first I want to get at three other
[00:00:16.400] things. Number one, I am interested. I
[00:00:19.279] am curious about what's going on here
[00:00:21.039] because to me, UFOs are demons. It feels
[00:00:24.560] like a tremendously specific claim that
[00:00:26.240] has to be coming from somewhere. And I
[00:00:27.680] did not realize that this was a thing.
[00:00:29.679] But it is it is a bizarre claim that I
[00:00:31.840] cannot believe the vice president of my
[00:00:33.200] country actually believes at least at
[00:00:34.719] the straightforward sense. But I'm going
[00:00:36.000] to take him at his word. But also I want
[00:00:37.440] to think slash talk a little bit about
[00:00:38.800] this worldview which does exist and is
[00:00:40.960] not as uncommon as I would have
[00:00:42.399] expected. Second, I am annoyed because
[00:00:44.399] there's something like rhetorically
[00:00:46.399] identifiable going on here that popped
[00:00:48.000] out at me that I find to be quite
[00:00:49.360] manipulative. As JD Vance continues to
[00:00:51.280] speak, he changes the meaning of UFOs or
[00:00:53.039] demons in a way that is important and I
[00:00:56.160] think is rhetorically interesting. And
[00:00:57.760] then third is like a bigger picture fear
[00:00:59.440] that I have that we're going to get to.
[00:01:01.359] But first, let's talk to the curiosity
[00:01:03.680] and the annoyance. So, as I am on the
[00:01:05.360] record saying, I think that there are
[00:01:06.400] some fairly big problems with aliens as
[00:01:08.320] a hypothesis for phenomena that are
[00:01:09.840] unknown. I made a 20-minute video about
[00:01:11.360] this that I'm quite proud of. I'll link
[00:01:13.520] in the description. And a lot of what I
[00:01:14.960] hear from folks is like, "Okay, maybe
[00:01:16.799] they aren't aliens, but the UFOs seem to
[00:01:19.040] have advanced technology." And then
[00:01:20.400] they'll show me a video that is like
[00:01:22.080] obviously a large balloon drifting in
[00:01:24.400] the wind before being hit by a missile.
[00:01:25.920] or maybe an object that's being tracked
[00:01:27.759] by a camera on a jet plane. And I don't
[00:01:30.159] know how those camera systems work, but
[00:01:31.680] you could interpret it in multiple
[00:01:32.799] different ways. Like you could interpret
[00:01:33.920] it as the object is suddenly zooming off
[00:01:36.240] with zero acceleration, just an
[00:01:38.880] instantaneous change in speed. Or you
[00:01:40.640] could interpret it as the camera lost
[00:01:42.640] and moved away and the object stayed in
[00:01:44.799] the same place. You could interpret it
[00:01:46.000] either of those ways. Which one of them
[00:01:47.360] breaks the laws of physics is a question
[00:01:49.439] you'd want to ask. At a certain point,
[00:01:51.040] you realize like you guys are just not
[00:01:52.960] very credible. But the leap from what if
[00:01:55.520] China gets this technology first, which
[00:01:57.360] is a little bit understandable to me
[00:01:59.040] because if you are misinterpreting
[00:02:02.240] something in a way that makes it look
[00:02:03.759] like the laws of physics are being
[00:02:05.119] broken, it would be good to be the
[00:02:07.520] country that has the physics breaking
[00:02:09.280] machine. But actually, the aliens are
[00:02:10.959] demons is not one I'd heard, but now
[00:02:13.200] that I know to look for it, there is a
[00:02:15.520] not insubstantial number of people who
[00:02:18.800] think this. Obviously, I'm not an expert
[00:02:21.120] in Christian theology. So, my
[00:02:23.280] understanding here is going to be
[00:02:24.959] incomplete, but my upbringing with
[00:02:26.640] Christianity was very like Jesus
[00:02:28.400] forward. Love your neighbor, love your
[00:02:30.239] enemy, care for the poor, treat the
[00:02:31.920] least as if they are the most. Be
[00:02:33.200] humble, be forgiving, be very suspicious
[00:02:35.519] of your own righteousness. I did not
[00:02:37.519] come out of Sunday school thinking a lot
[00:02:39.280] about like actual physical demons that
[00:02:42.239] might exist in my world. Supernatural
[00:02:44.480] beings in a war with God. That was not
[00:02:47.200] part of it for me. That makes sense
[00:02:49.440] because we are no longer in a world that
[00:02:51.440] is haunted by demons. Right? We
[00:02:53.360] understand that cancer is not a curse.
[00:02:55.280] It is an overgrowth of cells. We
[00:02:56.720] understand that epileptics are not
[00:02:58.480] possessed. We understand that plagues
[00:03:00.400] are not divine punishment. They are
[00:03:02.720] infections that spread through water and
[00:03:04.560] bodies and air. Over and over again, we
[00:03:07.120] find that when we dig deeper, there are
[00:03:08.720] natural explanations for things that we
[00:03:10.400] once thought were supernatural. And this
[00:03:12.000] is good cuz that means that we are not
[00:03:13.760] collateral damage in a war between
[00:03:15.200] invisible beings. We are suffering
[00:03:16.800] because of biology and chemistry and
[00:03:19.040] physics and sociology and those are all
[00:03:20.800] things that can be turned against the
[00:03:22.879] problem rather than going to fight a
[00:03:27.040] demon. We build sewers and we cure many
[00:03:29.920] cancers. We fight to build a more just
[00:03:32.560] world. That is one of the most beautiful
[00:03:35.840] things about humanity. We are crazy
[00:03:38.319] problem solvers but only when we
[00:03:40.720] identify the actual source of the
[00:03:42.159] problem. And how do we do that? We do
[00:03:43.680] that when we let reality define reality,
[00:03:46.640] which is hard. Like that's the process
[00:03:48.080] of science. It's not easy. But
[00:03:49.680] obviously, lots of people understand
[00:03:50.959] reality lots of different ways. I
[00:03:52.640] believe people. I take them at their
[00:03:54.080] word. I believe Tucker Carlson when he
[00:03:55.840] says that he thinks that he was mauled
[00:03:58.640] by a demon in his sleep after waking up
[00:04:00.480] with claw marks across his chest, which
[00:04:02.400] does seem like a crazy thing. Though,
[00:04:04.799] every time he tells this story, he does
[00:04:07.200] remind us that he was sleeping in the
[00:04:09.599] bed with several large dogs. And those
[00:04:11.599] are animals that somewhat famously have
[00:04:14.560] claws.
[00:04:15.120] >> What are we doing? What's going on?
[00:04:17.199] >> But I believe he believes it. But more
[00:04:18.720] than that, I believe that he believes
[00:04:20.239] that his belief is useful. Otherwise, he
[00:04:22.479] would not be sharing it. Tucker Carlson
[00:04:23.680] doesn't share every thought that he has
[00:04:25.120] in his head. I don't think that anybody
[00:04:26.639] thinks that he does. I bet he's got some
[00:04:28.720] that he only shares among the closest of
[00:04:31.520] friends and some that are just for
[00:04:32.800] himself. That's how we all are, right?
[00:04:34.080] So, he's saying this because he believes
[00:04:35.520] there's some utility in sharing. I don't
[00:04:37.199] know what he believed that utility to
[00:04:38.479] be. But there is more than one way to
[00:04:40.240] define reality. And one way is the hard
[00:04:42.400] way where we work really hard to get the
[00:04:44.320] universe to tell us its nature. And then
[00:04:47.280] we let that understanding of that
[00:04:49.680] process define reality for us even when
[00:04:52.479] the answer is like not particularly
[00:04:54.320] compelling or a little bit frustrating
[00:04:56.240] or doesn't make any goddamn sense. But
[00:04:57.759] there's also the other way where we let
[00:04:59.600] the stories of powerful men define
[00:05:01.840] reality for us. And I don't like that
[00:05:04.800] way as much. But I'm going to get to
[00:05:06.400] that more in part three. Part two,
[00:05:09.919] there's a rhetorical thing going on here
[00:05:11.680] which is interesting. He's doing a Mott
[00:05:14.240] and Bailey. Uh, and I think that we
[00:05:16.160] should all know about Mott and Bailey's.
[00:05:18.000] So, this is a rhetorical move where you
[00:05:20.720] lead with the thing that is like
[00:05:23.440] dramatic and controversial and then when
[00:05:27.440] challenged you pull back and that's the
[00:05:29.680] M. There could be a thousand better
[00:05:31.280] names for this technique, but a Mat and
[00:05:32.720] Bailey is like a a defensible structure
[00:05:35.840] from medieval times, as far as I know,
[00:05:38.080] where you have like the place where
[00:05:39.120] everybody lives and then everybody can
[00:05:40.160] retreat to the safer place if under
[00:05:42.160] attack, like a poorly defended area and
[00:05:43.919] then a very well-defended area. Anyway,
[00:05:45.680] so you're in the M and you can kind of
[00:05:47.199] say whatever you want and say the
[00:05:48.400] controversial pro provocative thing, the
[00:05:50.320] attention-grabbing claim, and that one
[00:05:52.160] spreads, it lands, people talk about it.
[00:05:54.479] I'm talking about it right now. And then
[00:05:56.240] when challenged on that, you retreat to
[00:05:58.960] a much more vague defensible position.
[00:06:01.759] Often in JD Vance's world, this is often
[00:06:04.240] like pseudo profound kind of
[00:06:06.080] intellectually. And in our current media
[00:06:08.479] environment, Montton Bailey is so useful
[00:06:11.199] cuz you get the benefits of saying the
[00:06:13.039] wild attention-grabbing thing without
[00:06:15.039] having to actually defend it. The
[00:06:17.120] salience of the strong claim, the cover
[00:06:19.280] of the vague one. And that's very much
[00:06:20.720] what's happening here. So I just kind of
[00:06:21.919] wanted to highlight it. The attention-g
[00:06:23.680] grabbing claim is, "I think UFOs are
[00:06:25.680] demons," which is a huge claim. And it
[00:06:27.360] means that they're are unexplained
[00:06:28.479] phenomena, not merely unexplained,
[00:06:31.039] morally charged in a battle with God,
[00:06:33.919] capital E, evil, and they're part of a
[00:06:36.160] supernatural conflict that you and I do
[00:06:39.039] not realize our role in. We don't just
[00:06:41.360] have a mystery, we have a cosmic threat.
[00:06:44.319] But then he does keep talking. Here's
[00:06:46.400] what he says. I mean, every great world
[00:06:48.400] religion, including Christianity, the
[00:06:50.160] one that I believe in, has has
[00:06:52.479] understood that there are weird things
[00:06:54.720] out there and there are things that are
[00:06:56.160] very difficult to explain. And I I
[00:06:58.800] naturally go when I hear about sort of
[00:07:01.280] extra natural phenomenon. That's where I
[00:07:04.240] go to is the Christian understanding
[00:07:05.840] that, you know, there's a lot of good
[00:07:07.280] out there, but there's also some evil
[00:07:08.720] out there. And I think that one of the
[00:07:10.479] devil's great tricks is to convince
[00:07:11.919] people we never existed.
[00:07:12.960] >> So now the claim is much softer and
[00:07:14.720] foggier. Now, this isn't really demons
[00:07:16.800] in the specific theological sense of of
[00:07:18.960] Christian theology. Not that I know what
[00:07:20.639] that is. It's something more like all
[00:07:22.479] religions have stories about unseen
[00:07:24.080] beings and supernatural forces. And
[00:07:26.000] perhaps these are all imperfect ways of
[00:07:28.160] describing some deeper hidden reality
[00:07:30.319] that is also being uncovered by these
[00:07:31.840] unexplained aerial phenomena. UAPs,
[00:07:34.960] UFOs, aliens, and demons, same thing.
[00:07:39.039] And suddenly this sharp claim blurs into
[00:07:42.160] like a super vague one. not Christian
[00:07:44.720] demonology, just like comparative
[00:07:47.360] religion, history channel mysticism
[00:07:49.520] stuff going on. So he gets to have it
[00:07:50.880] both ways. He gets to sound like the
[00:07:52.160] person who believes that the world is
[00:07:53.599] haunted by demons, which is very
[00:07:55.680] powerful and emotionally resonant thing
[00:07:57.280] to say, especially to a certain audience
[00:07:59.680] who is going to hear this. But then he
[00:08:01.680] also gets to sound like a sort of smart,
[00:08:03.199] respectable, intellectually curious
[00:08:04.720] Christian who is just observing that
[00:08:06.800] cultures have always sensed that there's
[00:08:09.199] more to reality than modern secularism
[00:08:11.360] will admit, which is not, let's be clear
[00:08:13.120] here, anything like I believe that UFOs
[00:08:16.000] are demons. Like those are two entirely
[00:08:18.560] different claims. And the thing is like
[00:08:20.319] almost everybody can see some version of
[00:08:23.039] the way that they imagine the world
[00:08:24.720] reflected in the vague claim. Even I
[00:08:27.120] can. So like at the root of it, I think
[00:08:28.960] yes, throughout all of human history,
[00:08:31.360] people have experienced things that they
[00:08:33.039] cannot explain with their current tools.
[00:08:35.599] And so they tell stories to help them
[00:08:37.519] understand those things. And that's a
[00:08:39.919] version of JD Vance's broad claim here.
[00:08:42.399] So he says like the most vague thing you
[00:08:44.640] could imagine though like a little bit
[00:08:46.399] of actual you know I believe that the
[00:08:48.320] the supernatural exists in this as a way
[00:08:50.320] of explaining an extraordinarily
[00:08:52.080] specific claim that UFOs are demons and
[00:08:56.160] that sentence I just want you to hear it
[00:08:58.560] in your head. What do you think when you
[00:09:00.399] hear that? You think UFOs are demons,
[00:09:02.800] which is different from, oh, there's
[00:09:04.160] some underlying reality that maybe all
[00:09:05.839] of these things are reflecting, whether
[00:09:07.519] it's UFOs or like Hindu mysticism or,
[00:09:11.040] you know, Christian theology or
[00:09:12.240] whatever. But I will point out that
[00:09:13.440] these claims are compatible. So, one is
[00:09:15.440] much more difficult to defend, but it
[00:09:16.959] can sit inside of the other one because
[00:09:18.959] if this is a reflection of an underlying
[00:09:20.640] truth, maybe the underlying truth is
[00:09:22.320] that UFOs are demons. But that's not
[00:09:24.800] what it feels like when you hear him say
[00:09:26.240] it. And so, this feels to me
[00:09:28.480] manipulative. like his one statement,
[00:09:30.160] UFOs are demons. It has all of this
[00:09:32.320] freight, all of this like baggage of
[00:09:35.600] like, you know, Christianity, Christian
[00:09:38.160] nation, Christians against other
[00:09:40.720] religions, you know, like demons working
[00:09:43.440] through humans who don't even know
[00:09:45.040] they're being controlled by demons.
[00:09:46.560] You've also got like the government is
[00:09:47.680] hiding things from you, which is
[00:09:48.640] hilarious because he is the vice
[00:09:50.320] president of the government. that if he
[00:09:51.839] believes, I don't know, that UFOs are
[00:09:54.880] demons and that the United States
[00:09:56.640] government has information on the UFOs,
[00:09:58.720] it's weird to not be focused on that,
[00:10:00.399] but we're going to leave that aside for
[00:10:01.600] now. But the claim he's making is that
[00:10:03.200] there are forces of evil moving through
[00:10:04.399] the world that are beyond your
[00:10:05.440] understanding. And then he steps it
[00:10:08.000] back. Perhaps all religions are dimly
[00:10:09.920] describing the same hidden truth, which
[00:10:11.440] is vague enough that almost anyone can
[00:10:12.959] find their own worldview tucked into it
[00:10:14.399] somewhere. So that was number two, the
[00:10:16.160] rhetoric of it. And now we'll get to the
[00:10:17.600] part that scares me the most. So Vance
[00:10:20.640] in this clip is having like a pretty
[00:10:22.399] good time. He's like not like a wildeyed
[00:10:24.800] aliens guy. He's just have he's like
[00:10:27.519] chilling, having a good time. If we're
[00:10:28.800] chilling, having a good time, I'm like
[00:10:30.240] with a friend and he's like, "I think
[00:10:31.360] aliens are demons." I'm like, "Aha, tell
[00:10:32.959] me more. Aliens are demons." But UFOs
[00:10:34.720] are demons from a guy who who might soon
[00:10:36.560] be president. It's like a pretty freaky
[00:10:38.160] position to hold. A lot of people saw
[00:10:40.000] this and they were like, "Ah, he's just
[00:10:41.680] saying this to like manipulate people.
[00:10:43.120] He doesn't actually believe this." I
[00:10:44.160] don't know what JD Vance believes until
[00:10:45.680] somebody says two things that directly
[00:10:47.200] contradict each other or does something
[00:10:48.480] that directly contradicts something they
[00:10:49.839] say. I just believe people. I know that
[00:10:51.839] I'm naive, but I just believe people. It
[00:10:53.519] just seems like the easiest thing to do.
[00:10:56.160] I'm not under the illusion that
[00:10:57.680] everyone's always telling the truth. But
[00:10:59.440] I am under the illusion that like
[00:11:01.680] potentially just accepting that people
[00:11:03.279] are telling the truth is just like a a a
[00:11:05.839] less full of friction way of interfacing
[00:11:08.720] with the world until you are challenged.
[00:11:11.440] So I'm taking it at face value here. If
[00:11:13.360] it's the second claim, right? If it's
[00:11:16.079] the defensible vague claim that like
[00:11:18.560] there's just like an underlying reality
[00:11:21.279] here, then like I'm kind of fine with
[00:11:23.120] it. But let's just be clear here. JD
[00:11:26.160] Vance is a staunch hardcore Catholic
[00:11:29.600] Christian. He is saying that he believes
[00:11:31.680] UFOs are demons, which is introducing
[00:11:34.720] into the public the idea that demons are
[00:11:38.640] real. And the thing that scares me is
[00:11:40.640] that demons in the way that I understand
[00:11:43.040] it, demons are useful. They do things in
[00:11:44.800] the world. They are not real. They don't
[00:11:46.640] physically exist, but they're a
[00:11:47.760] technology used by humans. And they're a
[00:11:49.839] technology used by humans for a specific
[00:11:51.360] purposes. And when used by powerful
[00:11:53.279] people, they are being used for a
[00:11:54.880] specific purpose by them. So the vice
[00:11:56.480] president of the US floating the idea
[00:11:58.399] that we are surrounded by active
[00:12:00.800] physical literal demonic forces is like
[00:12:03.440] a very big deal and a very powerful
[00:12:06.959] perspective. if you agree with him on
[00:12:09.440] this because here's the thing about the
[00:12:11.120] demon haunted world. It's not just
[00:12:13.680] wrong. It is useful. It is a tool. If
[00:12:17.040] the problems of the world are caused by
[00:12:18.800] demons, then they are not caused by
[00:12:22.560] bad ideas or policy failures or greed or
[00:12:26.079] the systems we built and could build
[00:12:28.079] differently. They're caused by evil. The
[00:12:30.880] kind that you cannot regulate or reform
[00:12:33.279] or vote out. They're the kind that
[00:12:35.279] requires spiritual authority to
[00:12:37.440] confront. And who has the spiritual
[00:12:39.839] authority? Not you. Definitely not me.
[00:12:42.880] If you accept that the great battles of
[00:12:44.800] the world as they exist right now are
[00:12:46.480] about good versus evil rather than like
[00:12:49.360] testing out policies and figuring out
[00:12:51.200] which ones work. You need somebody to
[00:12:53.360] tell you which side is good and which
[00:12:54.959] side is evil. You need a guide. You need
[00:12:56.800] somebody who has access to that
[00:12:58.959] knowledge. Who's going to have access to
[00:13:01.040] that knowledge? Let's be very clear, no
[00:13:03.519] one. because that story is made up. But
[00:13:05.839] by some astonishing coincidence, we
[00:13:08.480] might find that it's going to be the
[00:13:10.320] same people who would like to be in
[00:13:12.079] charge. And they're telling us that the
[00:13:13.440] demonic forces are very likely to be,
[00:13:16.079] you know, maybe not. Maybe they don't
[00:13:17.839] know that they're the demonic forces,
[00:13:19.600] but everybody is going to be aware that
[00:13:22.160] uh that their choices for who is demonic
[00:13:24.480] are going to be the people it's
[00:13:25.519] convenient for you to believe are
[00:13:28.240] demonic. I don't know what JD Vince
[00:13:29.600] believes, but I know what this claim
[00:13:30.880] does. I know what the technology of
[00:13:32.480] demons does. And what it does is it
[00:13:34.160] takes problems that are ours, problems
[00:13:36.240] that we made or that we could fix or
[00:13:39.360] both of those things and it takes them
[00:13:41.839] out of our hands and it places them in a
[00:13:44.160] world where expertise doesn't matter and
[00:13:46.560] evidence doesn't matter and the only
[00:13:48.320] thing that matters is which side of the
[00:13:49.839] invisible war you are on. And if I
[00:13:51.360] listen to JD Vance's tone, I don't feel
[00:13:54.079] like he feels this. But if I listen to
[00:13:56.480] his words, then he does. And when I look
[00:13:59.680] at the people who believe that demons
[00:14:01.920] truly exist and they are real and they
[00:14:04.000] often do believe that UFOs are part of
[00:14:06.560] it and they tie this up with a bunch of
[00:14:08.480] other weird conspiracy theories, those
[00:14:10.639] people do believe this. They believe
[00:14:12.560] there is an invisible war and you can be
[00:14:14.800] on one side or the other. And this is
[00:14:16.480] very useful if you are in the business
[00:14:18.720] of telling people which side they are on
[00:14:22.160] and which side other people are on.
[00:14:24.560] Throughout this entire video, I've been
[00:14:25.839] referencing Carl Sean's phrase, "The
[00:14:27.680] demon haunted world." He wrote a book
[00:14:29.680] called The Demon Haunted World. It's
[00:14:31.040] very good. You should read it. And what
[00:14:32.720] he meant by this is not just that people
[00:14:35.120] once believed in demons and that world
[00:14:37.120] was worse. That's both of those things
[00:14:39.120] are true. But he also meant that when we
[00:14:41.279] lose our commitment to understanding
[00:14:42.959] reality on reality's terms, we become
[00:14:45.600] vulnerable. We become gullible. We
[00:14:48.160] become manipulatable, not by demons, but
[00:14:51.120] by each other. We become vulnerable to
[00:14:53.519] people who will happily define reality
[00:14:56.079] for us if we let them. And like we
[00:14:58.320] fought very hard over a long period of
[00:15:01.040] time to get out of the demon haunted
[00:15:02.880] world. We did not get all the way out.
[00:15:05.360] Of course, probably we never will. It
[00:15:07.600] was hard. We built a lot of tools. We
[00:15:10.000] built science and we built humility
[00:15:12.000] before the universe. And those tools are
[00:15:14.000] not natural to us. They're not
[00:15:15.600] particularly easy to use and they're not
[00:15:17.839] also like very convenient for the
[00:15:19.839] powerful. It's hard. Science is called a
[00:15:22.399] discipline because it requires
[00:15:24.079] discipline. And we've now arrived at
[00:15:25.519] part four here. I also need to stop
[00:15:27.040] being surprised that this is where we
[00:15:28.560] are. We have built an information
[00:15:30.959] environment that is optimized very
[00:15:33.440] carefully for one thing which is
[00:15:35.839] grabbing and holding attention. The
[00:15:37.279] thing that spreads through the
[00:15:39.120] mechanisms that exist right now is not
[00:15:41.440] the thing that is most true or most
[00:15:42.959] useful. It is the thing that is easiest
[00:15:44.560] to pay attention to. And I take that
[00:15:46.240] seriously and I try to be easy to pay
[00:15:48.800] attention to for that very reason
[00:15:50.880] because we all know that like right now
[00:15:52.800] vibes are beating credibility.
[00:15:54.160] Authenticity uh like this feeling of
[00:15:56.720] being honest about your perspective that
[00:15:59.040] takes the place of credibility. And this
[00:16:01.440] isn't because people are stupid. It's
[00:16:03.040] just that we have built systems that
[00:16:05.279] reward salience over substance every
[00:16:07.519] hour of every day. And it turns out if
[00:16:09.199] you do that long enough, the people who
[00:16:10.880] rise to the top are unsurprisingly the
[00:16:13.680] best at being salient. I think UFOs are
[00:16:16.160] demons is an extraordinarily salient
[00:16:18.399] thing to say. He says lots of
[00:16:20.320] extraordinarily salient things. Those
[00:16:22.079] things are not necessarily credible, but
[00:16:24.000] they don't need to be. They just need to
[00:16:25.920] land. But this isn't the world that
[00:16:27.920] we're stuck with forever. Attention
[00:16:29.440] economies shift. The incentives change.
[00:16:32.320] They're going to change. I can feel them
[00:16:34.320] changing a little bit already. But
[00:16:35.759] remember the leaders that we have
[00:16:37.600] selected right now in this specific
[00:16:39.040] moment are the ones who are best at this
[00:16:40.639] specific game. And that game does not
[00:16:43.040] select for the people we need or
[00:16:44.880] deserve. It selects for the people who
[00:16:46.720] are best at making us pay attention. And
[00:16:48.720] the often times the best way to make us
[00:16:50.560] pay attention are to actively hurt the
[00:16:53.759] thing that they should be doing which is
[00:16:56.000] bringing the country together for
[00:16:57.759] unified reasons for making the world a
[00:16:59.920] better place. And I think and I bet you
[00:17:01.759] think that we all deserve better than
[00:17:03.519] that. Let's play connections. Ersots
[00:17:05.839] ends in a Z. Fritz ends in a Z. Futs
[00:17:08.640] ends in a Z. But the Hertz ends in a Z.
[00:17:12.079] That's a I I don't think that's it.
[00:17:14.160] That's our red herring, everybody. Let's
[00:17:16.240] Oh, and Yuts. Also, we have Yuts. Yuts.
[00:17:19.120] Yuts. Hertz.
[00:17:22.160] Budget. Hertz. Those are rent doll.
[00:17:25.280] These are rental car companies. Avis.
[00:17:28.000] Great. Well, that was easy.
[00:17:30.720] I think that that's probably one of them
[00:17:32.400] because it has one of the Z ones in it.
[00:17:33.760] And I feel like the Z is the chicklet,
[00:17:36.160] the rainbow herring, as one might say.
[00:17:39.200] We've got
[00:17:41.280] to tinker,
[00:17:43.360] to mess, to toy, and to fut to mess
[00:17:47.760] with, to to fiddle around,
[00:17:52.559] to fiddle to fiddle amongst dollar herz,
[00:17:55.360] budget, and avis. So foe. Oh, that also
[00:17:59.200] ends in an X. Users, fritz, yachts.
[00:18:02.480] We've still got four of those. Oh, foe
[00:18:05.120] doesn't end in it.
[00:18:09.280] Anyway, we got fo and we got mock. So
[00:18:12.559] that's like fake is and a dummy is also
[00:18:16.000] kind of fake. Truffles not fake.
[00:18:20.640] Plays fritz plays mock. Wait a second.
[00:18:25.280] I'm we I'm confused. So dollar hertz
[00:18:27.679] budget ers is what does that mean? It
[00:18:30.400] means like
[00:18:33.120] it means fake. Does it mean fake? Yeah,
[00:18:35.280] maybe. It's like a word that you put put
[00:18:37.440] before another word. Maybe it means
[00:18:39.120] fake. And then and then that would mean
[00:18:42.320] Ursot's dummy mock. And then we're left
[00:18:46.160] with
[00:18:48.720] Fritz
[00:18:51.360] plays yuts and truffles. And no, futs is
[00:18:55.200] tinker. Okay. Well, Fritz plays yuts and
[00:18:58.880] truffles.
[00:19:04.880] Ha. These are chip companies minus or at
[00:19:10.240] with a letter on the front
[00:19:13.039] or like snacks, snack brands cuz Ritz is
[00:19:15.679] not chips. But the rest of them are
[00:19:17.120] Lays, Ruffles, and UTS.
[00:19:20.640] Hell yeah, you guys. Now, which one's
[00:19:22.720] the next one? I don't know. Uh,
[00:19:25.919] is it going to be the dollar? That's
[00:19:28.640] easy, though.
[00:19:31.039] But it feels that feels more like it.
[00:19:32.880] That feels more like the blue to me.
[00:19:35.280] Yes. Excellent. And then this one with
[00:19:39.200] ursats in it. Mock and foe. Yeah, that's
[00:19:43.120] got to be the That's got to be the
[00:19:44.400] green. It has Ursat in it.
[00:19:48.160] A dang it.
[00:19:52.320] Now that you get a badge for reverse
[00:19:54.080] rainbow, I hate it when I miss the
[00:19:56.160] reverse rainbow with my Grello down
[00:19:58.799] here. Anyway,
[00:20:02.160] what a weird time it is
[00:20:05.840] to be in the world. That felt easy. Was
[00:20:07.919] it easy?
[00:20:10.000] Four or five? Okay, I guess not.