Better Things are Coming

TL;DR

Good things are coming because attention-savvy actors — from The Onion to Artemis to Zohran Mamdani — are proving that hope can be as compelling as fear.

Key Points

• 1.The Onion buying Infowars is unequivocally good in every direction. Alex Jones, forced to sell assets after losing Sandy Hook defamation suits, handed his toxic brand to a satirical outlet — all proceeds go to his victims, none to Jones.
• 2.Artemis works as a cultural moment because it packages competence and hope into something easy to pay attention to. The mission featured a diverse, multinational crew and subtly promoted trust in science, expertise, and publicly-funded collaboration — essentially anti-libertarian propaganda.
• 3.Zohran Mamdani understands the attention economy without being captured by it. His 'freeze the rent' slogan grabbed headlines, but quietly alongside it he's working on increasing NYC housing supply — the flashy stuff earns the political capital to do the harder, quieter work.
• 4.Donald Trump is the original innovator of attention-as-politics, but only masters half the formula. He obsesses over ratings and aesthetics going back long before politics, but unlike Mamdani, he never seems to spend his political capital on durable policy change — only on money and self-promotion.
• 5.The core thesis is that technocracy must be paired with vibes-based storytelling to succeed. Quietly changing seat-belt regulations saves 20,000 lives no one notices; politicians who can't make good governance feel exciting and personal simply lose.
• 6.Hank argues people are genuinely hungry for leaders who seem capable AND likable. The astronauts worked because they seemed both competent and nice — politicians need to signal they know more than voters do while still visibly caring about them.
• 7.The video ends with a game of Connections, where Hank struggles with 'translucent golden things' (honey, ale, amber, citrine) and misses 'numbers with first letter changed' (white=eight). He gets two categories right but admits he never connected 'white' to 'eight.'