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MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

nytimes.com

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Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#41

Post by scottLobster »

triyambakam wrote: post #16
xrd wrote: post #4

My kids love Mr Beast. I'm uncomfortable with it and can't put my finger on it. It feels like he makes life look like you stand a good chance of having someone walk in and give you $100,000. Maybe there is no harm in thinking that? But it feels like the same thing as buying a lottery ticket. I guess YouTube is free? But is the time spent on that channel worth it over doing other things? I admire the approach he takes…

You could not let them watch it if it makes you uncomfortable.

Then they'll resent you and watch it on their friends' phones anyway when they can. And they'll suffer socially because they won't be able to talk with other kids at the lunch table about the most recent episode.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#43

Post by woodruffw »

(I haven't watched his videos; I only know about MrBeast from this article and passing conversations.)

I think the moral discomfort that's being identified here is a reasonable one, and stems from the same basic (and intuitive) source as the familiar "billionaire philanthropist" thought experiment: many people have a strong intuition that publicized philanthropy is in some ways less praiseworthy than the contents of its actions would otherwise imply.

That source, in turn, is something like our recognition of other self-legislating agents: we know that the actions taken by others are done with independent ends in mind, and it's reasonable to think less of an action when we have a good reason to believe that the person's ends are not themselves free from inclination (desire for praise, fame, etc.).

In other words: people like MrBeast intuitively inspire distrust and "ick" reactions because they give the the impression that the observer is being had in some way.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#44

Post by renewiltord »

MrBeast has a higher philanthropy rate than the mega-non-profits in the US: Harvard et. al.

Good for him for having elevated doing good things to an art form.

Though I did enjoy this dark gory horror version of him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV7ef2Y0bcE (a genre that is surprisingly popular and snowcloned)

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#45

Post by teaearlgraycold »

vkou wrote: post #25
no_wizard wrote: post #3

I find it interesting that people are upset that this, for lack of a better term, philanthropy achieved by MrBeast, while yes, its for the likes, the YouTube popularity, its a cottage industry of "feel good" that he's producing, is somehow bad? I wonder how sustainable this will be ultimately, but it seems like he's able to just give all this stuff away and help people, and yes, they have to agree to be being filmed…

> I find it interesting that people are upset that this, for lack of a better term, philanthropy achieved by MrBeast, while yes, its for the likes, the YouTube popularity, its a cottage industry of "feel good" that he's producing, is somehow bad? It depends on how it's done. It's one thing to be broadcasting what is essentially, poverty porn, where you, the hero of the world, come in to paradrop money on the problem.…

To Jimmy’s credit, a lot of his charity work is done without a camera. He runs a legit food pantry year-round. He doesn’t farm it for views. I think it’s only in one or two videos.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#46

Post by Invictus0 »

vkou wrote: post #25
no_wizard wrote: post #3

I find it interesting that people are upset that this, for lack of a better term, philanthropy achieved by MrBeast, while yes, its for the likes, the YouTube popularity, its a cottage industry of "feel good" that he's producing, is somehow bad? I wonder how sustainable this will be ultimately, but it seems like he's able to just give all this stuff away and help people, and yes, they have to agree to be being filmed…

> I find it interesting that people are upset that this, for lack of a better term, philanthropy achieved by MrBeast, while yes, its for the likes, the YouTube popularity, its a cottage industry of "feel good" that he's producing, is somehow bad? It depends on how it's done. It's one thing to be broadcasting what is essentially, poverty porn, where you, the hero of the world, come in to paradrop money on the problem.…

Are TV game shows (Jeopardy?) also poverty porn? How do you even know the contestants are poor and not participating just for fun?

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#47

Post by prepend »

no_wizard wrote: post #22
zik wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also uncomfortable with it. There's nothing inherently wrong with philanthropy but what I'm seeing is a very successful business with an enormous and very expensive campus. MrBeast himself is very rich. So what I'm seeing is a corporation claiming to do everything for the benefit of others while actually taking a lot of the money very visibly for themselves. His channel made $54m from youtube in 2021, and probabl…

Not attempting to be an apologist, however it sounds to me like there just needs to be some quality control over the licensing of the brand, perhaps? Not sure how that's shady, sounds like it might be a bit egregious but its not like he isn't honest about this being a business based around his brand of philanthropy either.

It’s shady because he puts his name on crap and doesn’t care because everything is BS.

Would you start a burger business without quality control? Would you let random companies put your name on crap? That’s shady.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#49

Post by freddie_mercury »

a-user-you-like wrote: post #18
zik wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also uncomfortable with it. There's nothing inherently wrong with philanthropy but what I'm seeing is a very successful business with an enormous and very expensive campus. MrBeast himself is very rich. So what I'm seeing is a corporation claiming to do everything for the benefit of others while actually taking a lot of the money very visibly for themselves. His channel made $54m from youtube in 2021, and probabl…

It can be and is both a business and philanthropic.

Isn't every philanthropic foundation also a "business"? The Gates Foundation had $150 million of income from their investments in 2022. The CEO of the Gates Foundation was paid $1.176 million last year. Their net assets went up by $13 billion in 2022 and up $20 billion since the beginning of 2021.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#50

Post by scaredginger »

xrd wrote: post #4

My kids love Mr Beast. I'm uncomfortable with it and can't put my finger on it. It feels like he makes life look like you stand a good chance of having someone walk in and give you $100,000. Maybe there is no harm in thinking that? But it feels like the same thing as buying a lottery ticket. I guess YouTube is free? But is the time spent on that channel worth it over doing other things? I admire the approach he takes…

For me, the discomfort is that Mr Beast's content relies on exploiting people's desperation due to the lack of social safety net. It's not his fault that they're in such dire straits to begin with, but he's nonetheless behaving opportunistically and his actions have no chance of changing the system that landed these people in such tough situations
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