Throughout the first year of Vlogbrothers videos (then known as Brotherhood 2.0), there are several videos thatare, quite literally, historically significant. Take the video of John finding that arcade game in an airport and thinking it was called "Nerd Fighters," for example. Today we have reached an arguably even more important video -- one that unknowingly started a movement.
Welcome (or welcome back) to Vlogbrothers Rewatch! This is an ongoing series of articles in which I document my journey through the entire back catalog of Vlogbrothers videos on their YouTube channel, in chronological order, from the very beginning using this playlist.
In this video, John declares that he has started a bank account called the Brotherhood 2.0 Fund for Decreasing Suck Levels Worldwide. This fund would eventually become what is now known as the Foundation to Decrease World Suck -- which has, to date, granted various charities more than $10 million.
This fund started out as a harmless project because Hank Green accidentally communicated to John textually. But the line from the video about "maybe" helping to cure malaria is striking, since that's exactly what the foundation has done in granting millions of dollars to charities such as Partners in Health for over 10 years.
"We're starting something here," John says in the video -- as if he knew it could potentially become something bigger. Maybe he did, and maybe he didn't. What matters is that five years after this video was uploaded, FTDWS officially started, literally, changing the world.
That is the power of creating online communities dedicated to making real people's lives safer and healthier and possible. We all wish that it didn't require money to make a difference. But when that money goes to the right resources, lives aren't just changed -- in many cases, they are also saved.