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All statements about social construction

67 statements about social construction in 51 videos, by upload date.

Back to social construction.

2009

  • 2009-02-24 · How to Make Guys Like You — John distinguishes the normal human meaning of 'hot' (suitable for mating) from a culturally constructed one (malnourished, breast implants) and says nothing about the latter is inherently hot. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:00
  • 2009-08-06 (said on 2009-08-05, implied) · Robert Pattinson and DJ Railstone — John argues that while some of Robert Pattinson's beauty is natural good looks, most of it is something we have collectively constructed. — 00:00:00
  • 2009-08-06 (said on 2009-08-05, implied) · Robert Pattinson and DJ Railstone — John argues that since our identities depend on how others imagine us, we are all making each other and ourselves up all the time. — 00:02:18
  • 2009-09-13 · Sex, Sports, and Caster Semenya — John says sports supplies the missing lack of ambiguity (trophies, photo finishes, instant replay); we love sports because it is not like life, so it is fun but insufficient. — 00:02:15

2010

  • 2010-01-04 · It Hurts In My Toof: The 2010 Rules — John argues professional hurdlers respect the utility of rules; rules stand between us and chaos, which is why he now brushes regularly and why their video blog needs rules. (playful) — 00:01:45
  • 2010-06-18 (said on 2010-06-19, implied) · You just lost THE GAME! — Hank won't argue whether soccer is a good game, but however great it is, it is just a game. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • 2010-06-21 · You're Gonna Die — John chooses nerdfighting, books and, though it's silly, the World Cup, because it transcends geography, ethnicity, wealth and politics and puts the world on the same grass. — 00:01:36

2011

  • 2011-03-28 · Participatory Geometry — John argues sports matter: as a Harry Potter fan would treasure an email from J.K. Rowling, others treasure the Cubs winning the World Series or an Indiana college reaching the Final Four. — 00:02:29
  • 2011-03-28 · Participatory Geometry — John says we choose what we care about, and caring about sports is ultimately about community, like caring about Harry Potter, Dungeons and Dragons or Nerdfighteria. — 00:02:49
  • 2011-03-28 · Participatory Geometry — John says caring about stuff binds us to others who care about it, creating the communities that make life worth living; that is his defence of sports. — 00:03:01
  • 2011-08-10 · Understanding America's Debt Problem — John argues all sovereign debt is essentially unsecured: a government has no house to give a bondholder, gold and silver are too far from their commodity value to back currency, and many gold-standard countries defaulted; only trust backs currency. — 00:01:33
  • 2011-09-28 · Cup Stacking and Glasses Picking — Hank argues sports are by definition useless activities with no objective reason to do them; their value is placed on them by mutual agreement of a group of people. — 00:01:29
  • 2011-09-28 · Cup Stacking and Glasses Picking — Hank says collective agreement is where almost all value comes from; perhaps some value, like love and family, is genetic, but everything else is valued because a group came together to value it. — 00:01:58
  • 2011-10-28 · Reading Chapter One of The Fault in Our Stars — John: In the author's note John says the book is fiction and that hunting for facts inside a story attacks the idea that made-up stories can matter, 'sort of' our species' foundational assumption. (hedged) — 00:02:16

2012

  • 2012-08-03 · I Don't Understand My Life — Hank argues gymnastics scoring and appreciation aren't universal: the Olympics has value only because people come together and give it value. — 00:00:52
  • 2012-08-03 · I Don't Understand My Life — Hank: Without people watching and valuing it, shot put would just be a guy in a field throwing a rock, a crazy person. (playful) — 00:01:02

2014

  • 2014-02-14 · Happy Third Chocolate Day! — In the description, Hank says it doesn't really matter why we value these weird Olympic things, because caring is valuable for its own sake. — video description
  • 2014-02-14 · Happy Third Chocolate Day! — Hank asks why being good at skiing and then shooting is more valuable than being good at Flappy Bird, and guesses the answer is cultural agreement. (hedged) — 00:00:55
  • 2014-02-14 · Happy Third Chocolate Day! — Hank says he doesn't care where that value comes from: he just wants to watch it happen, happily, from his couch. — 00:01:03
  • 2014-05-16 · The Myth of Greatness — Hank: Many things people believe in most deeply are arbitrary, Hank writes: footballers wreck their bodies to put a ball over a line because it is important because it is important; we are the deciders, and the great trick of great people is convincing themselves their work is worth sacrifice. — video description
  • 2014-05-16 · The Myth of Greatness — Hank: The only difference between something being vitally important and not important at all, Hank says, is whether you believe it is; he believes this is important, a gift Nerdfighters gave him. — 00:03:28
  • 2014-12-23 · Agloe, New York — John recalls telling a college professor that constructed things aren't really real; the professor replied that a chair is constructed but would hurt if he hit John with it. — 00:01:30

2015

2016

2017

2018

  • 2018-03-13 · Who Should We Root For? — John: Against those who call soccer the stupidest human activity, John says football is about community: it matters because we share it, and shared endeavors across divides remind us we are all in this together. — 00:02:59
  • 2018-06-15 · Sports are Dumb — Hank: All value is bestowed by humans, so when we say it matters that the ball went through the hoop, it matters. — 00:01:41

2019

  • 2019-06-04 · On Sharing the Walk — John says that more than that, sports are about celebrating, grieving and being together: they remind us that what we have matters less than what we share, and that we are never truly alone. — 00:02:39
  • 2019-07-23 · What to Love and How — John: Singing hymn-like songs with other fans at the stadium, John again felt football's great gift: it has made him part of a massive, sprawling, inclusive us. — 00:01:27
  • 2019-12-17 · The Best Days of My Decade — John: Answering a viewer who says the decade really ends next year (2020), John argues decades are made-up constructs defined colloquially by the third digit of the year, though the viewer is right mathematically. — creator comment

2020

  • 2020-04-28 · get your game on — John: Taking up the poem's line that the crowd enjoys the game to no end save beauty, John says we all need things in our lives with no end save beauty; he finds it in competitive Tetris and marble racing. — 00:02:55
  • 2020-06-30 · i like it — John kept thinking of the old line often attributed, probably incorrectly, to Pope John Paul II: of all the unimportant things, football is the most important. (hedged) — 00:03:40
  • 2020-07-10 · What a Concept!! — Hank: Where ideas come from matters to Hank, as a weekly video maker and as a person, because almost everything is an idea: justice, America, money, borders, political parties, businesses. — 00:00:29
  • 2020-08-11 · never get bored — John says he loves stories about humans making meaning where none inherently exists, like at a foosball table. — 00:01:01
  • 2020-09-08 · That's the way. — John argues that sports are not really about the balls or the people moving them: at their core, sports are a third thing. — 00:00:29

2021

  • 2021-02-26 · Arbitrary but Useful — Hank argues that people mix up arbitrariness and usefulness: whether something has a reason for being the way it is has no bearing on whether it is useful. — 00:01:35
  • 2021-02-26 · Arbitrary but Useful — Hank concludes that we exist in a stew of made-up things created for no particular reason and by no system, yet they remain dramatically useful to us and our society. — 00:03:34
  • 2021-08-10 · My Physicalmental Illness — John: The silly discourse over whether a hot dog is a sandwich hides something important: we want categories to be strict and inviolable when they are messy and constructed. — 00:01:27

2022

  • 2022-01-14 · Thank God We Got This Right… — Hank concludes there is huge value in standardization, one part of the map always up: the choice had pros, cons and negative effects, but it was the right call and avoided a problem we never think about. — 00:03:18
  • 2022-01-18 · The Miracle of the Leone Stars — John says the celebrations honoured not just the result but the players' heart, tenacity and belief, in a country that is growing and growing together. — 00:03:24
  • 2022-09-13 · A Million Things at Once — recommendation: John recommends Welcome to Wrexham even to non-football fans: it's about how football, of all the unimportant things, is the most important. — 00:01:16

2023

  • 2023-01-10 · Introducing: The Format — John: In a mock stand-up bit, John objects that we live 'in' countries but 'on' islands, since countries are human constructs and everything, even Earth in space, is an island. (playful) — 00:01:38
  • 2023-02-24 · The P4A 2023 is The Hottest Club on the Internet — Hank says there are many ways to find meaning and purpose, but the Project for Awesome is one they made up from scratch, and it is ever so good. — 00:17:15
  • 2023-04-04 · The Search for Real Feeling — John says this is ultimately why he loves sports so much: sometimes he needs to feel in a straightforward, uncomplicated way. — 00:01:58
  • 2023-04-11 · Wrexham's Most Amazing Feeling — John loves sports not for the balls but for the people: loving something together lets him feel earnest, unironic connection and emotion he couldn't feel otherwise. — 00:00:44
  • 2023-11-07 · NaFaDoYBIMSCoM — John argues that almost every form of meaning is constructed: we convince ourselves and each other that things matter because that is how we get things done together. — 00:03:13

2024

  • 2024-06-14 · Some Reasons why People Suck — Hank says making different choices is really hard, especially with sacrifice, and when we do it we use social technologies, not technologies in the usual sense. — 00:01:38
  • 2024-06-14 · Some Reasons why People Suck — Hank says social technologies hold society together: church, marriage, fashion, Christmas, soccer, the idea of a border and the word vegan are human-created things that change behavior. — 00:01:38
  • 2024-06-14 · Some Reasons why People Suck — Hank says these don't feel like technologies because we don't feel we create them; often we don't, but somebody did. — 00:02:18
  • 2024-06-14 · Some Reasons why People Suck — Hank says changing our behavior and social technologies is so hard: we think we are individuals, but we are possessed by our societies. — 00:02:47
  • 2024-06-14 · Some Reasons why People Suck — Hank defines a cultural technology as something that makes a harder choice easier, making uphill feel downhill. — 00:04:55
  • 2024-06-14 · Some Reasons why People Suck — Hank says sacred days are an important cultural technology that we have not found ways to rebuild in secular traditions. — 00:05:24
  • 2024-08-16 · I Have Uncovered an Olympics Mystery… — Hank says ranking countries by medals is ridiculous, if a fine kind: countries don't win medals, individuals do, and we rank because we like it, not because it means something. — 00:02:26
  • 2024-08-20 · Thoughts from Places: BROMLEY! — John says the outcome of individual matches doesn't matter much, but in the moment it feels significant. — 00:02:26
  • 2024-09-27 · Is It 2010? IT'S A PARTS VIDEO — John says football matters: it doesn't, but of all the unimportant things it is the most important. — 00:02:10

2025

  • 2025-04-04 · Morality — Hank says silly norms and taboos are good as long as they don't control people in harmful ways: in general it is good to have some weird rules that make us us. — 00:03:58
  • 2025-04-22 · The Unimportant Things — John: The game reminded John of the old line that of all the unimportant things, football is the most important. — 00:00:29
  • 2025-05-02 · I Found the Dumbest Time Zone — Hank argues the time of day is both a physical reality (where the sun is) and a constructed cultural reality (what our phones say). — 00:00:00
  • 2025-05-27 (said on 2025-05-25, implied) · The Longest (and best) Day — John says he doesn't believe in superstition except insofar as we give things power by believing in them, which is how he feels about a lot of things. — 00:01:10
  • 2025-06-17 · My Religion — John is not much concerned with whether God exists independently of human consciousness, since human-constructed ideas such as human rights become real through shared belief. — 00:00:29

2026

  • 2026-09-29 · Pretend You Don't Know This — Hank says committing to a bit is honouring an external construction the friends share that is neither of them. — 00:02:05
  • 2026-09-29 · Pretend You Don't Know This — Hank says committing to the bit honours a friend by focusing on the thing that matters to both; the bit doesn't matter, it only matters because they matter. — 00:02:40