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MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

nytimes.com

101–110 of 565 posts

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

#101
post #55

I don't mind MrBeast, but what I really hate is how every other YouTuber has decided to copy his "screaming face" thumbnail strategy. My YouTube home page is full of screaming faces and bright text with some clickbait title. Even middle-age woodworkers (the polar-opposite audience to MrBeast) fall prey to this strategy, and I've started to unsubscribe from channels that insist on doing this.

Is that where it came from? I will never click on a video that does that.

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

#102
post #100

It’s not altruism, it’s just the cost of goods sold for his entertainment brand. If he could have the same viewership by feeding $100 bills to crocodiles at lower cost, he’d do that.

Right, if you give away $100,000 then post a video about it that makes $200,000, I call this a 50% margin not altruism of philanthropy,

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

#104
It isn't often that I can say that a New York Times Article was written well. By written well I don't mean that I agree with its conclusions or that what it has to say is important in some societal context. I simply mean that the author put his thoughts very eloquently and helped me understand the depth of his ideas with beautiful prose. This article was written well in a very fundamental writers skill kind of way!

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

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They explicitly call this out in the article, but, how is what he’s doing any different than what we always were told reality TV was doing or gameshows do? This is worlds better than casinos, sports betting, or any other form of gambling, IMO. People are entertained through watching or participating and some are making big dollars. My kids watch his videos because the algorithm feeds it to them and from what I’ve see…

> how is what he’s doing any different than what we always were told reality TV was doing or gameshows do? It's not. Those things are bad too. > My kids watch his videos because the algorithm feeds it to them and from what I’ve seen, I’d rather they be watching MrB than ads for DraftKings I'm curious what your goal is here. It seems like you're disagreeing with me by saying "look, Mr. Beast is equivalent to/better th…

I do appear to disagree with you, but you seem to fall into the camp where your mileage varies more than mine and that’s entirely ok.

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

#106

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…

This is philanthropy porn. He is not the philanthropist because he doesnt haev the money in the first place, he is using other people's money to perform charity on camera.

I 'm not very religious but it is a tale as old as humans. The christian gospels called out this hypocricy for a reason:

> Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory before me. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their rewards. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.” – Matthew 6:2-4

The other thing is that philanthropy is about helping people according to their need, not randomly or according to their willingness to get on cam

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

#107
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure they do, but he’s doing it without any bureaucracy. No real strings for the recover. Government aid is both more political and often has strings attached or requirements. Very different things entirely, nor is it sufficient

Now imagine a government that helps people with no strings attached, without making them feel like shit about needing help, and no cameras pointed at their face either. Who says it can’t be done?

> Now imagine a government that helps people with no strings attached, without making them feel like shit about needing help, and no cameras pointed at their face either. Who says it can’t be done?

All of history so far.

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

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Licensing deals aren’t the same as starting a burger business. Clearly the partnering institutions aren’t living up to par but he’s just licensing and marketing which is a pretty common arrangement for these sorts of things. Not sure I agree it’s shady, egregious maybe.

Certainly not shady. Many brands put their label on crap merchandise.

[flagged]

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

#109
post #80

It's not altruism if it's your source of income. Sorry but I don't buy this bs. He's doing it to generate income, that's all. Altruism is "unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others" but we have quite the opposite here - a selfish way of milking poor people for emotions in order to generate income. Real altruism is hard and done only by a few. Literally EVERY man/woman/child on this planet will say yes…

Iono, this is definitely a grey area… but he definitely impacted the lives of peoples who sight restoring cataract surgery he paid for.

I agree there is something icky (discussed in the article) but it’s weird to say zero impact.

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

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you're worried about them resenting you, do you just let them do anything they want?
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