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How to Lie While Telling the Truth

2019-06-21 · explainer · Hank · 3:51 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Science & nature) · mode: Explainer · tags: timely hook, self promotion

Formerly titled Three Lies I Was Told This Week.

Hank names the 'head lie': a true statement that becomes a lie once it hits your head, often in headlines. Three examples from one week (US birth rates, Tesla Autopilot safety figures, Carnival's sulfur pollution) lead him to argue that misleading true information is little different from lying, and that informers are obliged not to do it.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Lies are old (the woman who 'gave birth' to rabbits); the 'head lie' defined

  • ★ Hank notes lies are old: a woman once convinced Britain's entire medical establishment that she was giving birth to rabbits. — 00:00:00 · United Kingdom

  • ★★★ Hank calls a 'head lie' a true fact that becomes a lie when it reaches your brain; it happens in headlines, and we are getting good at it. — 00:00:00 · Head lie

    “I call it a head lie because it only becomes a lie when it hits your head”

00:00:31 — Examples one and two: 'US birth rates plummeting' and Tesla's Autopilot safety figures; car companies should have to release safety data

  • ★★ On the headline 'US birth rates plummeting', Hank says the rate is not really plummeting but decreasing a little, while the birth rate for people over 25 has been rising steadily and substantially. — 00:00:31 · United States
  • ★★ Hank says the reality behind the falling birth rate is that fewer teenagers are having babies. — 00:01:01
  • ★★ Hank says nobody writes a headline about fewer teenage births because no one cares about good news. (playful) — 00:01:01 · sensationalism
  • ★★ Hank says Tesla's quarterly safety reports, which are extremely limited, show one accident per 2.87 million Autopilot miles and one per 1.76 non-Autopilot miles. — 00:01:01
    • a number in question (doubtful): "1.76" — check against the recording
  • ★★ Hank says the figures don't show Autopilot prevents crashes, since it is used mostly on highways, where crashes per mile are much lower anyway. — 00:01:43
  • ★★ Hank bets Autopilot does prevent crashes to some extent, and later says such safety features (though it should not be called autopilot) will save many lives. (hedged) — 00:01:43
  • ★★★ Hank says every car company should be legally required to compile and release safety data, especially on autonomous driving; it is worrying governments don't require it, as car crashes are a major public health threat. — 00:01:43

00:02:13 — Example three: Carnival cruise ships vs all cars in Europe, on sulfur dioxide

  • ★★ Hank cites the headline that Carnival cruises released ten times more pollution than all cars in Europe combined: technically correct, but it plants a lie. — 00:02:13 · Europe
  • ★★ Hank explains the pollution meant is sulfur dioxide, which cars basically no longer produce, especially in Europe, which removed sulfur from fuels. — 00:02:13 · Europe
  • ★ Hank does want cruise ships to burn cleaner fuel. — 00:02:13

00:02:56 — Misleading with true information is close to lying; informers must not do it

  • ★★★ Hank thinks there isn't much difference between giving people information that makes them think an untrue thing and telling them an untrue thing. — 00:02:56
  • ★★★ Hank says anyone whose job is providing information has an obligation not to lie to people. — 00:02:56
  • ★★★ Hank announces a very quick tour to celebrate the paperback release of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. — 00:02:56 · An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

00:03:20 — Paperback tour for An Absolutely Remarkable Thing: Austin with Burnie Burns, Houston; sign-off

  • ★★ On July 30 Hank does an event at the Stateside Theatre in Austin with Burnie Burns of Rooster Teeth, livestreamed to theaters; the next night he is in Houston, signing after the events. — 00:03:20
  • ★★ Hank thinks he will share a little of his next book on the tour. (hedged) — 00:03:46 · A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says that once Hank started thinking about this he saw these lies everywhere; they are common in political speech and insidiously useful. — video description · Head lie
  • ★★★ Hank says headline writers know exactly what they are doing, and since most people who see a headline never read the article, the headline is content and must be treated as such. — video description · Head lie
  • ★★ Hank says the innocuous head lie is very common on YouTube, with titles like 'We need to talk...' implying a big deal; he admits he has done it, and feels less bad when the lie isn't about global warming or America's future. — video description · Head lie, YouTube, United States
  • ★★ Hank wants more precise language than 'clickbait': clickbait is sometimes not bad, it works in many ways, and the head lie is only one of them. — video description · Head lie

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Head lie · paltering

Also: People: Burnie Burns · Mary Toft

Works: A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor · An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

Organizations: Carnival Cruise Line · Rooster Teeth · Tesla, Inc.

Concepts: confounding · cruise ship · self-driving car · sensationalism · Sulfur dioxide · teenage pregnancy · total fertility rate

Places: Austin, Texas · Europe · Houston, Texas · Stateside Theatre · United Kingdom · United States

Products: Tesla Autopilot

Only in the description or credits: clickbait · YouTube

Also centred on paltering: Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle's Let It Snow

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