Some Reasons why People Suck

If you can believe it this video is cut down significantly from its original length. I have been feeling a lot of frustration lately at our inability to forgive ourselves at all. Like, we're good at forgiving friends, bad at forgiving strangers, but worst of all at forgiving humanity in total, and I think that is in part because the price of admission to modern society seems to involve pointing a firehose of despair directly at your face.

----

[CorvidCastle]

there's this post on tumblr that says something like "the green brothers were made in a lab to be the world's first youth pastors for atheists" and i know that was supposed to be making fun of y'all but this video reminds me of that post but like, in a positive way. Nice secular sermon, man.

[jrpipik]

A friend of mine and I were talking the other day about how nice it is that we can eat at a restaurant or go to a bar without anyone smoking. Culture can change for the better.

[Surefirechip]

Craving structure yet wanting to upend the structures that exist while simultaneously desperately clinging onto other such structures is about the most human thing ever

[NeatoPrsn]

"Cringe must be overcome" this has been my truth since turning 40. People can't be earnest anymore without being labeled cringe and we need to reverse this trend.

[BlueInkAlchemy]

"It's easier to get someone into an electric car than it is to get them on a bus" is such a keen observation and also makes me incredibly sad.

[juliemartinezgarcia]

"We think that we are individuals but we are possessed by our societies." Hank Green

[allisonpenner]

I really appreciate your video highlighting the necessity to change our diets and yet why it is so complicated. As someone who works for an agricultural nonprofit, one thing I would like to highlight is the role of subsidies and policies. Over 75% of agricultural subsidies in Canada go towards funding animal agriculture, which reduces the cost by more than half (and one study puts the economic cost of a burger at $30 USD). This creates food environments that incentivize meat-heavy diets. To use a parallel example, in places that are more walkable, car ownership is significantly lower which was not done through convincing people not to drive cars, but having a different context. I think to address meat consumption we will need financing and policies and enable the shift as well as changing social norms.

[benjaimen]

I know there's more to it than this, but reminded me of this:
'If your solution to some problem relies on “If everyone would just…” then you do not have a solution. Everyone is not going to just. At not time in the history of the universe has everyone just, and they’re not going to start now.'

[AmblingTowardsAwe]

"Never perfect, but better" is a good way to keep moving forward.
Happy Father's Day, Hank and John!

[arin]

I've been watching vlogbrothers for at least 10 years and was recently reflecting on how much watching your videos each week, every week, for a decade has shaped how i think and live. I think hearing you guys say, in some way, almost every week that people are good, change is possible, and there are reasons to be optimistic has helped me build up the mental muscles to choose to be optimistic. some days that's a hard choice (especially since i studied conflict and war crimes in school and now research political violence for a living) but because i heard messages about the power that people have to change things every week since i was in my mid teens, I think I've had practice choosing hope, and I genuinely don't think i could have finished grad school and gone into the field I work in without that. thank you.

[CheySandra]

I grew up going to church and now that I'm older (and very agnostic) I miss that kind of community so much! Small, local places where you meet with the same group of people year over year, different generations of family knowing eachother, helping eachother, planning potlucks, and coming together for weddings and funerals...it's really beautiful and something as an increasingly non-religious world should more seriously think about replicating.

[skylerwitherspoon]

I'm gonna use "a firehose of despair pointed directly at my face"

[annawest]

As a vegetarian, I remember that the hardest part of changing my diet, particularly in a meat-eating family, was knowing what to cook and how to create variety in my meals. Even if you’re just eliminating beef, it can be challenging. Perhaps we should collectively distribute our favorite non-beef recipes!

[Parth-Jain-]

I am a vegetarian, I have been my entire life. It was for pseudo-religious cultural reasons and I have been raised that way since birth. Now that I am an adult I don't have to be a vegetarian, but I still am, and when people ask why I still am I don't know how to answer that question. Sometimes I say it's about the climate, but that's a cop-out. "Some Reasons why People Suck" finally showed me why and gave me the words to explain why I still am vegetarian, the same reason people won't stop eating meat is the same reason why I won't start. Thanks for the insight

[SophieDEF]

As a vegan of 6.5 years, I absolutely adore the concept of beef day! I wouldn't participate in the beef-eating myself but would be overjoyed to see the people in my life making positive steps towards bettering the planet. So glad this concept made it off the pod!

[JasonKurtz]

"I inherited hockey... and it seemed frozen to me" I see what you did there.

"What are we? Just a bunch of monkeys with roads and hats!" What an excellent sentence.

[lindsaykat]

I view it as: not eating beef is not a single decision, it's a decision you make every single meal. That makes it more difficult, but also more rewarding?

[ClimateNb-ikpo]

“The forth hour of scrolling is more cringe than ANY OF THE OTHER STUFF I DO.”

[chasdavis]

A big reason US emissions have been going down is because production is being exported while consumption is unchanged.

[zpolygon]

It's much easier to get people to drive electric cars then it is to convince them to ride busses -- but only when the busses are: poorly maintained, expensive at the point of service, inconvenient to use, uncomfortable or dangerous to wait for, delayed by other car traffic, and not going where you need it to anyway. If I had public transit options that actually served my needs, I would ditch my car in a heartbeat.