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MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

nytimes.com

321–330 of 565 posts

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

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or, you know, you sit down with them and talk about why they can't.

I'm part way through this process.

"There's a guy on YouTube and he just gives people money. That's how I'm going to get money!"

"I don't think that's a great strategy because (broad discussion)."

"But he might choose me!"

"I don't think your odds are great."

"But it's possible. You didn't say it was impossible!"

"I think we need to discuss this when I'm not also trying to drive in peak-hour school traffic."

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

#323
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

The idea, cynical as it may seem, comes from the perspective that the feedback loops that govern basic behavior are set up for survival and that things that make you happy are more like survival than not. So it becomes very difficult if you introspect deep enough to not answer "why did you do that" with "it made me feel good" which is viewable as selfish. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/imperfect-spirituali..…

Selfish means to lack consideration for others or to be concerned only with your needs. A donation that makes you feel good but benefits others doesn’t really fit that term. If it’s done purely to advance yourself through brand or something like that, or gain financial opportunities then I think I’d agree it could be selfish.

Like those act of kindness videos on YouTube with millions of views and earning the creators thousands of dollars.

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

#324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attention is money. How you skin it doesn't matter. Your attention is what's for sale, and bought.

It literally just is not. Attention and money are categorically different things. If you want to argue that directing your attention at something is somehow equivalent to spending money on it, then be my guest. But you have not done that. You have shallowly asserted that they are identical with the verb "is". They are not.

Their attention leads to him getting money through sponsors, ad revenue and merch sales. I don't think that makes the viewers "charitable", but it does mean that money is flowing into Mr Beast's bank account.

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

#325

Earlier 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…

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Older people love to talk about how they bought a house working a minimum wage job or how the janitor became CEO of the company when neither are a reality due to their greed.

Most young people are angry about the fact that their living and educational expenses are far higher than the older people responsible, and profiting from that increase. Refer also to the increase in retirement age and poorer pensions for younger generations.

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

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought he was cool until he launched a chocolate line. Really? Is that what we need? Most of his audience is young gen z, and I'm sure the last thing the most obese generation ever needs is someone pushing more sugar on their diets

Are you joking? I can't really tell. Chocolate? Do you think girl scouts are scumbags too?

Girl scouts sell junk food with corn syrup.

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

#327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason those people don't have access to surgery has nothing to do with mrbeast. Do you think he could actually get a law changed and help more people than he already did? Why wouldn't a "Mr Beast goes to Washington" style video get as many views as his direct support videos got?

"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…

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

#329
In semi-related news, a french twitch streamer, "Zerator", just learned that he will become "Knight of the National Order of Merit" which is an honorific title that "rewards distinguished merits acquired either in a public, civil or military function, or in the exercise of a private activity during at least 10 years."

He is known for organizing a caritative event each year in France with a lot of french twitch streamers and content creator, where all donations go toa different non profit each year.

In the last edition (September 2022) they raised 10 182 126 euros !

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

#330
post #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…

What you’re saying is indistinguishable from “I’m jealous people don’t give me credit the same way they give him credit”
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