Fake news is everywhere — @DaveJorgenson says respond with a punchline #TEDTalks
TED
0:00 Did you guys know there was a rapture in September?
0:03 Oh, I guess none of us made it.
0:05 People were all over TikTok and they were talking about how they were
0:08 going to leave food for their kids in case their kids aren't raptured,
0:12 which is I don't know, maybe that might be a parenting issue.
0:15 I'm watching all these and kind of secretly enjoying them a little bit,
0:17 but also wondering why is no one questioning
0:20 where this prediction came from and why it happened.
0:23 It was this guy from South Africa who said that in 2018
0:27 he had a dream that a rapture was coming in September 2025,
0:30 but for some reason he waited until 2025 to post a YouTube video about it.
0:34 The rapture is happening.
0:35 Oh my god.
0:36 What do we do?
0:36 What do we do?
0:37 I I don't see anything in here about a rapture.
0:39 That's because the rapture isn't in there.
0:41 Okay, but I saw it on TikTok, so everything I see online is true.
0:44 Okay, let's take this one chunk at a time.
0:45 Fine, hurry up.
0:46 There's only a few hours left according to this weird clock.
0:48 The actual word rapture isn't in the Bible, but there is a possible reference.
0:52 I knew it.
0:53 In 1 Thessalonians 4:16,
0:56 Paul describes the living being caught up in the clouds together with the dead.
0:59 But that could mean anything, right?
1:01 And as far as today's rapture prediction goes,
1:03 it just came from a YouTube video of some
1:05 guy in South Africa saying that the rapture was coming.
1:08 Yeah.
1:08 And he's a pastor, right?
1:09 Nope.
1:09 He's just a dude who said he saw Jesus in a dream in 2018.
1:12 But why today?
1:13 Why this year?
1:14 He said it was because of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
1:17 What?
1:17 Look, rapture predictions aren't new and they
1:19 often take off during uncertain times.
1:21 That makes sense.
1:22 It
1:22 turns out that fear and misinformation travel six times faster than the truth.
1:28 So, what emotion is more powerful than fear?
1:31 Humor is my way into informing the masses and really
1:35 kind of meeting them where they are because it's much
1:37 easier to talk to someone when you make yourself the butt
1:40 of the joke and rather than talk down to someone.
1:42 My argument is that ultimately we don't need to be scared of media
1:46 as long as we acknowledge that every time there's a new form of media,
1:50 a new unprecedented form,
1:52 we can overcome it and be a little bit less scared and have a little more