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The Rax Guy

2020-10-09 · letter vlog · John · 3:37 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Personal life, Nerdfighteria) · mode: Personal essay · tags: calendar ritual, civic or action cta, timely hook

Answering Hank's viral Rax video, John recalls the 'Rax Guy' whose conspiracy-theory fence signs they saw from an Orlando Rax as kids, a kind of first Twitter user who shaped his childhood OCD worry that others weren't real; information feeds shape us, so he must be careful what he pays attention to. John also votes and urges viewers to make a voting plan.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — A Pizzamas mask embarrasses Alice; popular Pizzamas items; off to vote

  • ★ Dropping Alice off, John asked if she minded him wearing his Pizzamas mask; she suggested maybe he could wear it later. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Alice Green, Pizzamas
  • ★★ John says the mask has been one of the most popular Pizzamas items, along with the Three John Pizza Moon shirt. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Pizzamas

00:00:29 — Hank's viral Rax video; Rax restaurants in the brothers' childhood

  • ★★ John notes that right after his video on no longer trying to maximize Vlogbrothers views, Hank made a video that hit Reddit's front page and got lots of views. (playful) — 00:00:29 · Hank Green, Reddit, Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ John says Rax hosted a huge share of the brothers' childhood: he can still picture a Rax's exact layout, including the quasi-greenhouse room off its side. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Only about five Rax restaurants are left in America, but many of the buildings remain, and John can tell when a restaurant used to be a Rax. (hedged) — 00:00:52 · United States
  • ★ Former Rax buildings remind John of a favorite Onion headline about telling that a local bank used to be a Pizza Hut. (playful) — 00:00:52

00:01:21 — The Rax Guy and his fence of conspiracy signs

  • ★★★ Growing up in 1980s Orlando, from their Rax's greenhouse the brothers could see the house of the 'Rax Guy', whose fence signs called the government tyranny and pushed conspiracy theories about lizard people. — 00:01:21

00:01:50 — John votes and asks viewers to make a voting plan

  • ★★ John says the brothers have talked about the Rax Guy so much in the last ten years because he was like the first Twitter user, posting short observations to his fence. (playful) — 00:01:50 · Twitter
  • ★★ Even though John knew lizard people didn't run the government, the Rax Guy's worldview still affected him. — 00:01:50
  • ★★ John interrupts the video to go vote and returns having voted, with a sticker. — 00:01:50 · United States presidential election
  • ★★★ John asks viewers eligible to vote in the US to vote and make a voting plan, recommending an accountability buddy to make sure they carry it out. — 00:01:50 · United States

00:02:20 — The Rax Guy shaped John's childhood OCD worry; information feeds and attention shape us

  • ★ John's accountability buddy is his best friend Chris, whom he just texted to say he had voted. — 00:02:20
  • ★★★ John's first remembered obsessive experience was the worry that no one else on Earth was a real person like him, but aliens in human costumes; it tortured him for years as a kid. — 00:02:20
  • ★★★ The Rax Guy didn't cause John's OCD, which he would have had anyway, but he shaped the particular worry that took over John's life at seven and eight. — 00:02:49

  • ★★★ John's point: information feeds shape us, his as a kid going to Rax in 1985 and his today; what you do with your attention is, in the end, what you do with your life. — 00:02:49

    “What you do with your attention is, in the end, what you do with your life.”

  • ★★★ So John must be careful what he pays attention to, because the loudest and most outrageous stuff is, for him at least, often the stuff of nightmares. — 00:03:18

  • ★★ John hopes the Rax Guy is doing all right, adding that he is probably crushing it on the social internet: there has never been a better time for Rax guys. (playful, hedged) — 00:03:18

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description asks viewers to check their registration and make a voting plan at vote.org. — video description
  • ★★ The description asks viewers to get their Pizzamas items at pizzamas.com and embarrass their friends and family. (playful) — video description · Pizzamas

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: obsessive-compulsive disorder · Rax Restaurants

Also: People: Alice Green · Chris Waters

Projects: Pizzamas

Organizations: Pizza Hut · Reddit · The Onion · Twitter

Concepts: conspiracy theory · problem of other minds · reptilian conspiracy theory

Places: Indianapolis · Orlando, Florida · United States

Events: United States presidential election

Only in the description or credits: Vote.org

Also centred on obsessive-compulsive disorder: On Mental Illness (and the end of Pizzamas) · What OCD Is Like (for Me) · This Video Is Actually Three Videos · Not Doing That Great · I've Been Pooping All Wrong

Also centred on Rax Restaurants: The Commercial that Killed a Fast Food Chain · The P4A 2023 is The Hottest Club on the Internet · Hank and John Reunited WITH RAX

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