Blue-eyed ensign wasps are cute :3

Had one indoors the other day at work and someone noticed it and was bothered by its existence. I took a picture of it and the grabbed it to take it outside. Would have preferred to let it be, but worried others might hurt it :\

Is there a bee-ologist who can tell me if hornets are wasps, or are they their own thing?

The wasps around here have always been pretty chill around me, but I get wary around hornets.

I imagine a world without bees and wasps to look more like those in my dinosaur books.

Paper wasps usually are fine unless you get too close. I opened up the old toolbox on my grandad's tractor (parked outside, lid slightly ajar) as a curious kid. I was greeted by angry buzzing followed swiftly by stinging.

I also have some on the outside of my carport where the roof overhangs a bit. I could harvest my peppers a couple meters below them without issue. Once I got a little close and one did the diving/swooping "sod off" manoeuvre, but otherwise never bothered me. Their nest got taken out by a typhoon a few days ago, however

it's kinda funny how the core issue of these posts is really just that people say "wasp" when they mean "hornet"

wasps are fine, most wasps are barely noticable and couldn't give less of a toss about our existence.
hornets are the terrible ones, especially the kinds that grow way way way way larger than they have any right of doing, at least craneflies have the common decency to be thin and seemingly incapable of guiding their flight.

If nature doesn't owe us safety, we don't owe it kindness either.