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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

#181

Post by memefrog »

seydor wrote: post #106
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…

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…

He's certainly not using anyone else's money. It is money that he's received from making videos.

The difference, I think, is the same difference that there is between donating money anonymously and donating money under the condition that something is named after you. The former is transparently good because it can only be done for a good purpose. The latter may be done for a good purpose. You might want everyone to know you donated so that you can set an example for others: "I am a popular actor and if I do this it will bring attention to this cause". But we often get the feeling, I think, that the donation would not have been given if not for the quid pro quo, and then it feels a bit dirty: more like buying indulgences.

Here he's not giving the money away just so that he can say "look what a good philanthropist I am" but also so that he can record and publish videos of it to make money. That makes it twice as dirty: doing something that ought to be done for its own sake and using it as a means of achieving an end that is, let's face it, his own benefit.

If he were doing it differently, then it might be different. If it felt like he had structured the operation so that he was only making all this money to funnel it into a charity, that would be different. But he's not: he's not making money in order to do charity, but doing charity in order to make money. He's reversed the means and the end. That is deeply uncomfortable.

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

#182

Post by httpz »

kcb wrote: post #160
httpz wrote: post #150

It's appalling some people are more upset that his motives were not altruistic than being happy for the people who got their eye sight back. Are we going to start criticizing doctors next because they're saving lives to get paid?

> Are we going to start criticizing doctors next because they're saving lives to get paid? A doctor is a profession, unless doing charity work, the act of being a doctor is not philanthropy.

Mr. Beast is a content creator creating content. It's pretty obvious he's doing it for content and he doesn't deny it either. I guess the sprinkle of "philanthropy" flavor is rubbing some people the wrong way but he seems far less dodgy than some celebrity philanthropists or evangelists.

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

#183

Post by seydor »

noirbot wrote: post #177
seydor wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

where is the celebration?

His high number of fans/views? People like him. They like watching him. They like what he's doing. Is that not overt celebration of what he's doing over someone else doing... whatever else on Youtube?

celebration of philanthropy, not of himself

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

#184

Post by mynameisvlad »

kcb wrote: post #102
pavlov wrote: 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,

He has said on multiple occasions that he puts all revenue towards future videos.

There is no margin. The money eventually ends up in the hands of people that wouldn’t have otherwise had it.

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

#185

Post by throwawaylinux »

asveikau wrote: post #169
Timber-6539 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite what you've been taught, every act of charity comes from a selfish need (ego). Whether that is predatory or not from the standpoint of the donor, I'll leave that up to you to decide. And to be clear, his acts of charity have made an impact in the people who have benefited from it. Whether the public response is positive or negative is besides the point.

> Despite what you've been taught, every act of charity comes from a selfish need (ego). This may be some kind of projection or just your personal opinion of society and human motivation. You aren't inside the brains of every human and can't possibly know everyone's motivations at all times. It's quite possible that some or many of them experience authentic altruism.

You sound a little too defensive there, perhaps thou protests too much?

Only joking, but no it is not "projection". It is definition. It goes something like "people do what they want to so if they donate something to others it is because they wanted to do it and therefore it was not selfless."

It's a pretty stupid and pointless definition though, probably sprung from someone's need to economicsify human nature. Even then you can easily get around it by defining selflessness to be the selfish need to give to others.

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

#186

Post by HDThoreaun »

kcb wrote: post #176
HDThoreaun wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His videos make hundreds of millions of people happy and probably more likely to donate or be charitable. That seems like more than zero impact to me.

The latest Marvel movie makes hundreds of millions of people happy too.

They probably have a positive impact too

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

#187

Post by memefrog »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #168
paulpauper wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 participating in some manner, but seriously, he's helping folks who need it. Every day people. the federal govt. spends trillions on aid without having to film people. The whole reason Mr Beast is able to give anything away at all is because of…

Mr beasts viewers give him money because they enjoy the spectacle. Without the spectacle all the good he’s able to do would not be done. Sure his viewers could just give the money to the government instead, but without the spectacle they don’t want to. Isn’t convincing people to be more charitable good? How is that not what Mr beast is doing

His viewers largely do not give him money. They give him attention, and in doing so give attention to the ads on his videos. Advertisers are the ones giving him money.

It is a very far cry to suggest that people watching his videos are "being more charitable" by doing so.

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

#188

Post by noirbot »

seydor wrote: post #183
noirbot wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His high number of fans/views? People like him. They like watching him. They like what he's doing. Is that not overt celebration of what he's doing over someone else doing... whatever else on Youtube?

celebration of philanthropy, not of himself

Sure, but other people are making videos playing games or eating food or whatnot. There's clearly an interest in his sort of philanthropic videos that has gotten him more attention than other people.

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

#189

Post by listenallyall »

zik wrote: post #12
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…

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…

Just like Holiday Inn, Marriott, or any hotel chain. So weird that you take issue, he makes it exceptionally clear his burger brand is all ghost kitchens.

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

#190

Post by Dig1t »

chimen wrote: 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…

Man this is such a cynical take.

I listened to his interview on the Joe Rogan show and was really impressed.

Mr. Beast built his channel by taking all profits from each video and plying it into the next video. Using this approach he was able to produce progressively larger and more expensive videos. He has demonstrated his frugal lifestyle, has publicly given away an incredible amount of money to good causes, and has stated his future goals for his businesses will be for charity. Everything about his actions strikes me as genuinely good, it just seems like the publicity is the best way to get more money to accomplish the charitable goals.

You're right that what he's doing does not conform to the definition of altruism specifically, but that doesn't mean what he's doing is not good.

How can you watch the video where he pays for the blindness surgery for all those people and say that that was anything other than an amazing win for all those nice people?

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