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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

#381

Post by Neil44 »

michaelt wrote: post #314
opello wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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..…

Seems to me you've just selected a prior perspective - "the feedback loops that govern basic behavior are set up for survival" - which doesn't allow for altruism. I see reasoning like this online all the time. A person donates $10 billion, and people say they it must have given them a warm fuzzy feeling, and that feeling is by definition worth $10 billion, because that's what they paid for it. As if the idea of selfl…

I was about to type that maybe it's about intention, but then I realised that expectation of feeling good is a reward based motivation.

Having behaviours that benefit your group rewarded and reinforced seems an obvious survival trait. It feels good, like reproduction. I wonder it's purely societal evolution or if there's a genetic component there.

Maybe it's hard to reconcile all this because calling something altruism is subjective, since we are not all knowing.

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

#382

Post by iamben »

guyzero wrote: post #210
Dig1t wrote: post #190

Earlier 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…

"My criticism would be that it's local change vs trying for structural change."

Does that have to be a thing? If he was growing vegetables for his neighbours or his community wouldn't we be going 'what a top bloke'?

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

#383

Post by veave »

scaredginger wrote: post #50
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…

For me, the discomfort is that Mr Beast's content relies on exploiting people's desperation due to the lack of social safety net. It's not his fault that they're in such dire straits to begin with, but he's nonetheless behaving opportunistically and his actions have no chance of changing the system that landed these people in such tough situations

Why should he be in charge of changing the system?

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

#384

Post by tasuki »

batmaniam wrote: post #219
moomoo11 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

It sounds like you know what should be done. Why don't you have Mr Beast financial or influence level? And why is that necessary to structurally improve healthcare?

> So what' stopping Mr Beast from going to that next step?

What's stopping you or anyone else?

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

#385

Post by ozim »

guyzero wrote: post #362
lozenge wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is the "noble"ness of his actions relevant?

He's not viral because of charity, he's charitable because he was already a highly viral video creator. It's not a comment on his videos, it's a comment on the NY Times framing.

As much as I agree with that analysis. I still think being charitable instead of blowing money on hookers, drugs and cars is something to applaud.

Just like many other celebrities that continue to make money of their lifestyle which isn’t something to applaud.

I believe Snoop Dog did his fair share of charity but I definitely don’t applaud his endeavors in pornography and drugs.

On the other hand I don’t have any idea if mr.Beast spends money on hookers.

But if I would choose which content should be more available on the internet I’d go with me.Beast not Snoop Dog.

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

#387

Post by bruceb »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #367
TeMPOraL wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A line of anything already pegs you as a run-of-the-mill influencer, exploiting the parasocial relationship your victims have with you to peddle them substandard ware at high markup.

I am always shocked when I see the prices for "merch". Why does a hooded sweatshirt, that might cost 10-20 USD at Uniqlo, cost 55 USD as "merch" with a 2-5 USD silkscreen print. I agree: It is absolutely "exploiting the parasocial relationship your victims have with you".

No regular price hoodie sweatshirt costs $10-$20 at Uniqlo. They start at $40 for adults, most are $50. They start at $30 for kids. https://www.uniqlo.com/us/en/men/tops/sweatshirts-and-hoodie...

Uniqlo's core business is apparel. They buy in massive bulk. Mr Beast buys in maybe tens of thousands.

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

#388

Post by Kbelicius »

DirkH wrote: post #298
ta8903 wrote: post #125

Earlier 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.

I'd much rather perform my acts of charity publicly for the same reason I like open source coding: to get feedback so I can do it better. Anonymous charity is more often than not even more a road towards satisfying a selfish need. It elevates the sense that what you're doing is more just because it is anonymous so "surely I can't be doing it to make a show of it" except this perverse thinking often leads to elevating…

> I'd much rather perform my acts of charity publicly for the same reason I like open source coding: to get feedback so I can do it better.

What kind of feedback can you get when the donation is not anonymous that you can't otherwise? I really can't think of anything.

> Anonymous charity is more often than not even more a road towards satisfying a selfish need. It elevates the sense that what you're doing is more just because it is anonymous so "surely I can't be doing it to make a show of it" except this perverse thinking often leads to elevating one's own desire to feel righteous above, y'know... Actual proof that the charity works and does any good.

Yea, one can know if charity works without putting their name to it...

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

#390

Post by Euphorbium »

hn666 wrote: post #353
windowshopping wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Look at me doing good for these people! This was MR BEAST that did this, me, I'm MR BEAST AND I HELP PEOPLE! REMEMBER THE NAME FOLKS, IT'S ME, MR. BEAST. Make sure to like and subscribe!" --> "This guy is a champion of generosity, a paragon of goodness. I admire him so much." --people like you, and other children

That last sentence is just not true, I think it's okay to deeply respect someone with a BUSINESS MODEL (because it is what it is) that's based on helping others for views. Let's say he stopped doing it and just worked a shitty job and gave all his money, being then a true altruist, the impact he'd have on the lifes of people would be far lower than the one he's having now. Yes the media overhypes his actions as some…

It is youtube who decided that they were willing to allow and encourage it. He is their mascot.
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