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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

#211

Post by jerojero »

Invictus0 wrote: post #46
vkou wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

You know the people participating in most of Mr.Beast videos are poor because, well that's the point of the videos in a lot of cases.

I'd say a lot of his videos are fine, but some of them can be quite jarring. In a lot of them for example there's families that are struggling and he spends almost no time in the emotional aspects of it and just kind of jumps into the "BUT HERES 10 THOUSAND DOLLARS!" to get reactions. It actually feels very dehumanising, as if these people are but a prop in the stage.

Of course, no one will say he's doing something bad by giving people money. But ultimately, to make a spectacle out of poverty is worth criticising, no?

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

#214

Post by jbotdev »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #162

The MrBeast video where he pays for people's eye surgery felt icky to me and it took me a while to really figure out why. On one hand, I think it's great that people in need were able to receive assistance. On the other hand, why is it that it took some rich YouTuber to pay for their surgeries in the first place? As I understand it a lot of these eye surgeries have been fairly standard for decades, so why isn't there…

> However if it's something that enough people agree is worth doing, why not just use your tax dollars to pay for it? Who's going to seriously oppose a bill for giving people the ability to see?

Unfortunately, I think the same people who oppose universal healthcare would also oppose this.

It’s also hard to draw the line on which things should be covered by the government, short of just covering all essential medical care. Curing blindness is definitely important, but people in the US literally die from not being able to afford other types of healthcare.

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

#215

Post by memefrog »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #207
memefrog wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Attention is money. Their time is paying for the charity in the videos.

Attention is not money. Watching a YouTube video is not being charitable. You cannot just blankly assert that "their time is paying for the charity in the videos" without explaining why this is true. You will have a difficult time explaining that, because it isn't true.

As I said in the comment you replied to, but apparently didn't take the time to read, his viewers do not give him money by watching the videos. YouTube gives him money, which it gets from the ads which run on his videos, and I think he gets some money from direct advertising deals too. Those advertisers are not being charitable by giving him that money. They are conducting business deals: they want their image in front of his audience, and they're willing to pay for that. None of this has anything to do with charity.

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

#216

Post by jraby3 »

His business seems like a wonderful one. He’s figured out how to make money but also help people.

Seems like most businesses make money but are either a net neutral or negative on the world.

I remember years ago raising money for a company called the AIDS Ride.

Every participant had to raise around $2500 to participate. The aidsride kept around half to support the bike riders (a trip from NY to Boston), and they gave half to an aids charity.

Seemed like a wonderful business to do so much good in the world and also make money (and as a rider I felt like I also got a lot out of the experience).

This seems similar. It’s not a charity. It’s a business. But one that takes advertising money, keeps some of it, and uses the other portion to help thousands of people.

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

#217

Post by isoprophlex »

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…

Is this the cynical hacker news version of that Friends episode where Joey tells Phoebe that her selfless good deeds aren't actually selfless because they make her feel good too?

Don't overthink it too much, yo.

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

#218

Post by Dig1t »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #142

Wow. Cataract surgery? Australia provides cataract surgery free under socialised healthcare. The big concern is that some patients wait up to 2 1/2 years after diagnosis for the surgery, and that indigenous Australians lack access to medical care for even diagnostics. But to just say, we know what's wrong, and how to fix it, and have available doctors nearby, but nah the kid just gets to grow up blind? What the fuck.

Well for poor people in the US, there is Medicaid. For old people there is Medicare.

Most people have health insurance in the US (92.5% of Californians have health insurance, for example).

Things are not as bad in the US as people often claim.

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

#219

Post by batmaniam »

moomoo11 wrote: post #178
batmaniam wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can someone give me some examples of philanthropy that is NOT predatory/extractive? Richard Stallman and his work on free software? I think what OP is saying is that at Mr Beast's income level, he can effectively create a lasting change that most of us can't. Instead he focuses on people individually, giving them nice gestures but nothing life-changing, and he continues to do this because his viewers demand these t…

So the 1000 people who can see now or hear “got one fish for a day”? Come on bro. It should be up to society to ensure the health check doesn’t return just 200 OK but that everything else that makes that 200 OK possible is also actually fine. MrBeast is an entertainer who happens to make a brand by doing stuff that does some impactful thing. More than most people. Now those 2000 people who can see and hear.. maybe th…

Right, that's on the individual level. You and I can donate to a medical organization that helps people 'see and hear' too. Or fund a go-fund-me to help that person. It's great that person got immediate access to the healthcare they needed with this money. We can do basically what Mr Beast does right now if we pooled our resources together.

The bigger issue is why that healthcare is inaccessible to them in the first place? How do you or I go about solving this? How are you and I gonna bring this attention to Congress, and get their asses to work on that issue? Unless we both quit our careers to go into politics, it's not really possible for a random no-name person to make that change for the greater population. How about the other 10k people who can't see or hear? What about them?

If I had Mr Beast's financial or influence level, the next step I would be doing is wondering why those 1k or 2k people didn't get their healthcare and then trying to patch that. We all know how much of a scam our current system is. Once that's patched, everyone gets to eat for life, not just a single batch of 1k people in my lifetime.

Individual contributions are great and welcomed, but temporary. Societal change is where things get real. Cmon bro. It's why we have 40 hour work weeks, why women can vote and get college education, why lgbt community is accepted. And it's not like individual contributions and making society change are mutually exclusive... So what' stopping Mr Beast from going to that next step?

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

#220

Post by jerojero »

mkaic wrote: post #167
iamleppert wrote: post #136

He isn’t genuine. In his origin story you’ll notice he talks about trying lots of different strategies to maximize his views and engagement. That’s his only real goal. He stumbled upon his current formula by accident after significant iteration. It strikes me that he could have just as easily be producing any kind of harmful content if the rules of what’s acceptable to society and YouTube were different. It just so h…

The way I see it, if those lonely elderly people's days are brightened by being given a flower, who cares what the intentions of the flower-giver were?

This is a very utilitarian way of viewing the world.

Under other philosophical frameworks, intentions do matter, not just consequences. For a deontologist, for example, thinking of Kant's categorical imperative.

My point here is that "who cares what the intentions are" is not really, at all, such an obvious thing. And there's a wealth of philosophy that's non-consequentialist. I honestly invite you to read a bit more on these kinds of ideas because they might genuinely give you a new perspective on morality.

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