I've always hated the social porn aspect of altruism. On one hand, you're doing a good thing by giving something of your own to someone in need, but on the other hand, you're using the publicity to boost your public image. I understand why people say the good side trumps the negatives, but to me it's just off. Watch Drake's music video for the song "God's Plan" and ask yourself if it's heartwarmingly nice, or social porn in the name of making Drake look good.
MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism
301–310 of 565 posts
Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Mr. Beast built his channel by taking all profits from each video and plying it into the next video" To me this seems like a semi-obvious minmaxing solution to making popular videos: make essentially zero profit, regardless of revenue. At some point you get so much revenue that you can't spend it all so the next logical step is to simply give it away as part of the video. And in this case it's a virtuous cycle - app…
It’s never enough. This guy is throwing millions towards others and helping their lives, but because he’s not suffering enough to do it, or doing it out of your defined pure intentions, it’s hardly good at all? It’s clear you care more about the sacrificial theater of giving than you do about actual impact. What good have you done for anyone but yourself in the last month? Do you even fulfill your own standards? Is a…
He is a content producer who has built a brand on large cash prices not a charity manager. It’s a for profit company. The fact that apparently half of the readership can’t make the difference is a bit worrying to me.
Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Do you think he could actually get a law changed and help more people than he already did?" The most popular YT video creator could probably start a fairly large lobbying effort although yes, the multi-trillion dollar US for-profit health insurance industry could probably do better. "Why wouldn't a "Mr Beast goes to Washington" style video get as many views as his direct support videos got?" It might, there's only o…
Team Trees and Team Seas weren't enough? Good lord, y'all are just never satisfied with charity work. "Mr Beast literally cured blindness for a thousand people and gave them a bunch of money, no strings attached." "Yeah but he did it for views!" So what?! He markedly improved 1000 peoples' lives in the process. What have YOU done today? Get over yourselves.
Not only did he improve 1000 lives. He bought awareness to 100s of 1000s of people who didn’t know it’s relatively affordable or can be cured for some.
Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Despite what you've been taught, every act of charity comes from a selfish need (ego). True. Which is why a lot of people recognize this and perform acts of charity anonymously. I don't mean to say there is anything wrong with non-anonymous donations by the way.
True. Which is why a lot of people recognize this and perform acts of charity anonymously. Curb Your Enthusiasm did a whole episode on anonymous donations. Absolutely roasted the entire premise! The ego of anonymous donors is just as big, if not bigger! The anonymity is worth even more ego points!
Isn't this incredibly circular reasoning? You're critiquing someone for their action (donations come from selfish need), yet any attempt to make the situation "better" makes it even worse. You're defining their good actions as bad for no apparent reason. The only solution would be not to donate.
Let's apply this reasoning to a different topic - if there is a puppy drowning in a river and somebody jumps in to save it, will you also tell them they are doing it to fulfill a selfish need?
Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism
#305My 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 swear YouTube kids is worse for children than 18+ YouTube.
My nephew was obsessed with MrBeast. Every device we had was littered with search histories of Mr Beast, and it was infuriating because of how low-brow the content is. It's teaching kids to turn their brains off. People are talking about charity, but they need to actually watch a few videos before commenting... it's really not something you want your kids imitating.
Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s never enough. This guy is throwing millions towards others and helping their lives, but because he’s not suffering enough to do it, or doing it out of your defined pure intentions, it’s hardly good at all? It’s clear you care more about the sacrificial theater of giving than you do about actual impact. What good have you done for anyone but yourself in the last month? Do you even fulfill your own standards? Is a…
He is a content producer who has built a brand on large cash prices not a charity manager. It’s a for profit company. The fact that apparently half of the readership can’t make the difference is a bit worrying to me.
Of course it’s for profit. No one dispute that. But his business involves giving away money. It doesn’t matter if he keeps 50% of the profits for himself and 50% is given away. He’s doing a million times more to help people than anyone on this forum.
Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
"Mr. Beast built his channel by taking all profits from each video and plying it into the next video" To me this seems like a semi-obvious minmaxing solution to making popular videos: make essentially zero profit, regardless of revenue. At some point you get so much revenue that you can't spend it all so the next logical step is to simply give it away as part of the video. And in this case it's a virtuous cycle - app…
> But this doesn't strike me as being done out of any noble purpose
Money given away doesn't have to have a "noble purpose", the act is good in itself. The people receiving it don't care about motive, I don't care about motive, and the only reason you care about motive is because you're threatened by another person doing good. There's no virtue inherent to giving anonymously. A piece of food or a warm house don't care about the intentions of the original owner of the money.
In fact the only reason I could see for someone pushing a narrative of "only some donations are good because of motive" would be to discourage donations, which I'm not sure why anyone would do unless they are utterly evil.
Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism
#308It'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…
Think of it as a reality show where the participants are needy people. He's employing them.
Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism
#309I hate those over the top orgasmic face video thumbnails
Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find this take on him so strange. I also don't understand the take that altruism/philanthropy has to be zero sum. i.e. true altruism means that I lose something and you gain something. Maybe it is a hold over from religion and the idea of sacrifice being the ultimate good. The times I have had the most impact (helping people in need, teaching, starting my own NPO) it has been very much positive sum. If he has zero…
> 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…
This is insane.
The guy took 1000 blind people and made them see again and in return he made more money to continue doing more good.
There's giving a man a fish and then there's giving people their vision back, far out.