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On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

coldhealing.substack.com

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Re: On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

#71

Post by _dain_ »

hackerlight wrote: post #55
dustedcodes wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MrBeast is pushing the boundaries on the ethics and morals of how easily people with money can coerce poor people who are in dire need to perform extremely questionable things for the sake of his own amusement. Personally I don’t think this is good in any meaningful way. You could only rationalise such behaviour with the same arguments that other forms of exploitation are explained.

How can it be unethical if the person knows full well what's coming with no surprises, and the person judged that it was in their best interest to do it? That'd be saying it's unethical to provide someone with a benefit-cost > 0 which they've agreed to, and I don't see why that should be true. I'd agree it's unethical only if their cognition was compromised (meaning he wasn't capable of analyzing the costs and benefi…

> How can it be unethical if the person knows full well what's coming with no surprises, and the person judged that it was in their best interest to do it? That'd be saying it's unethical to provide someone with a benefit-cost > 0 which they've agreed to, and I don't see why that should be true.

Because it's inherently degrading and dehumanizing. Ethics is more than just benefit vs cost.

Re: On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

#72

Post by em-bee »

dustedcodes wrote: post #28
zemvpferreira wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a content creator Mr Beast only acts as a conduit for what we, the audience, are willing to pay for. It's not he who is the monster but us.

But we are not paying for it. He just gets the views and Google (YouTube) are those who think it is ok to pay for this content. People will always consume content about some crazy shit if it is made for free, but would we actually have to pay for it then it would show that most kids who watch MrBeast content today couldn’t actually care less about it. Let’s look at it from another angle to bring my point home. If a p…

would we actually have to pay for it then it would show that most kids who watch MrBeast content today couldn’t actually care less about it

but the kids are not the ones paying. if we had to start paying for it, the result would be an argument between parents and kids.

Re: On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

#73

Post by prepend »

gjulianm wrote: post #27
isitmadeofglass wrote: post #2

A lot of Mr. beasts content feel like reverse kidnapping and mental torture situations. And the only “mental trick” you need to pull to illustrate just how horrible a human being he is, is to imagine he’d given them the money up front and told them that to leave his enter-torture-ment they have to pay up a ransom matching the initial gift. That’s what he’s subjecting poor people too, for fun and profit, because he kn…

While I'm no fan of him, I think you might be too harsh. > is to imagine he’d given them the money up front and told them that to leave his enter-torture-ment they have to pay up a ransom matching the initial gift. People enter those challenges fully knowing how they're going to go. It's random, rules don't matter, you might get money you don't expect or not get money you expected. The point at which they get the mon…

> People enter those challenges fully knowing how they're going to go.

People who have financial need aren’t able to clearly decline and have agency over their decision. Asking someone who supports a family if they will degrade themselves for $500k if not really a fair question and people will say yes.

It’s like saying that people who blow their boss do it knowing fully well what they’re getting into. There is a power imbalance so even perceived consent isn’t really consent because of the leverage and greater power of one party.

Re: On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

#74

Post by permo-w »

citizenkeen wrote: post #63
bb123 wrote: post #29

This blogger is acting like traditional network television has never mentally tortured people for our viewing pleasure. Have they never seen an episode of Hell's Kitchen, Dr Phil, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here or Big Brother? Basically the entire reality TV genre is based on that premise. Edit: Seeing as they mention Joe Rogan, Fear Factor is another great example of a reality TV version of basically the same th…

Fox had a reality shoe where they just tortured people for money. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitary_(TV_series)

and only for the chance of winning $50k

Re: On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

#75

Post by williamcotton »

Many things can become popular and then disappear when social mores change in response to negative outcomes.

https://bonjourparis.com/history/the-paris-morgue-a-gruesome...

We’re as stuck with the machinations of click-bait as fin de siècle Parisians with their morgue.

Re: On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

#76

Post by mylons »

pjc50 wrote: post #38

> "Whenever I watch these videos I’m awed and scared at the lengths to which humans in the twenty-first century will go to slurp up the drips of unimaginable wealth that the algorithm leaks out through Mr. Beast." That's it, isn't it? It's the exact opposite of dignity of labour: it's compensation for degradation. The "voluntary" part is just highlighting how willing people are to trade in unnecessary misery for the…

agree —- i kept waiting for the author to spend more time on the indignity and exploitation Mr. Beast is dispensing. there are desperate people out there that will leap at a chance for this much cash. how long until we see a Mr. Beast version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(King_novel) (the arnold movie is ultra cheesey and fun too)

Re: On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

#77

Post by core-utility »

6stringmerc wrote: post #54

It’s right there in the name - Mr. Beast. I wouldn’t seek out a personal trainer who chooses the name Mr. Hyde personally. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes - the $500k isn’t stupid, but the psychological effects are forever. Hope some of that money got earmarked for therapy and counseling! Not kidding, I am an advocate for CBT and I’m pretty sure this situation is pretty similar to stories where lottery winners e…

Psychological effects? The contestant volunteered for this, and was able to step out at any time (many times while still making a good amount of money).

How many people were kept locked in their - possibly smaller - homes during COVID with no option to exit and no end date in sight?

Re: On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

#78

Post by hackerlight »

b800h wrote: post #69
hackerlight wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can it be unethical if the person knows full well what's coming with no surprises, and the person judged that it was in their best interest to do it? That'd be saying it's unethical to provide someone with a benefit-cost > 0 which they've agreed to, and I don't see why that should be true. I'd agree it's unethical only if their cognition was compromised (meaning he wasn't capable of analyzing the costs and benefi…

There used to be a website where someone gave homeless people money to fight each other. Perhaps it still exists. Is that ethical?

I thought of bumfights when writing this, and decided that no, it's not ethical, because homeless people often suffer from mental illnesses which violates one of the assumptions that I laid out.

Re: On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

#79

Post by hackerlight »

_dain_ wrote: post #71
hackerlight wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can it be unethical if the person knows full well what's coming with no surprises, and the person judged that it was in their best interest to do it? That'd be saying it's unethical to provide someone with a benefit-cost > 0 which they've agreed to, and I don't see why that should be true. I'd agree it's unethical only if their cognition was compromised (meaning he wasn't capable of analyzing the costs and benefi…

> How can it be unethical if the person knows full well what's coming with no surprises, and the person judged that it was in their best interest to do it? That'd be saying it's unethical to provide someone with a benefit-cost > 0 which they've agreed to, and I don't see why that should be true. Because it's inherently degrading and dehumanizing. Ethics is more than just benefit vs cost.

It shouldn't be because then people can use their disgust response to moralize about other people's behavior, and that's historically done a lot of real-world harm. There needs to be an actual moral justification instead of ad hoc assertions. But I get that there's a lot of scope for different views under the banner of meta-ethics.

Re: On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

#80

Post by marginalia_nu »

bb123 wrote: post #29

This blogger is acting like traditional network television has never mentally tortured people for our viewing pleasure. Have they never seen an episode of Hell's Kitchen, Dr Phil, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here or Big Brother? Basically the entire reality TV genre is based on that premise. Edit: Seeing as they mention Joe Rogan, Fear Factor is another great example of a reality TV version of basically the same th…

> This blogger is acting like traditional network television has never mentally tortured people for our viewing pleasure. Have they never seen an episode of Hell's Kitchen, Dr Phil, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here or Big Brother? Basically the entire reality TV genre is based on that premise.

There's also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasubi#Denpa_Sh%C5%8Dnen_teki_...

Although I guess Japan has always sort of been in a league on its own when it comes to questionable TV show premises.

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