Meh, I’ve never watched a video of his, but seems like it’s just a modern day game show/home makeover/dystopian feel-good story sort of thing. Neither good or bad. It’s good that he helps some people, bad that the people and many, many more need help.
ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 9 months ago
There is something not right with that guy. Apologies to all the Mr. Beast fans, but there it is.
The first time I ever even heard about him was from a news article about a year ago. Some disadvantaged little kid got pranked by people claiming to be on Mr. Beast’s staff promising him [something] that made him light up with joy, but was then deliberately stiffed on whatever the promise was, and of course it broke his little heart. It was clearly not a scam and the kid was just destroyed by it, so much so that it upset his community and finally hit the local media.
When contacted, Mr. Beast and his staff denied they had anything to do with it, which is entirely possible – but what really got my attention was just the callous kind of half-assed apology and oh well response the kid got from them. They could so easily have tossed the little guy some kind of bone; instead it was more of a shut-up-and-go-away response.
I have my YouTube subscription tightly curated so I rarely see any of the really popular stuff, but at some point after all this a Mr. Beast video was offered, and I remembered it was that guy. So I went and looked at his channel and ALL of it just seemed to have a very strong ick factor. Okay, maybe it’s just my poor taste, lol.
But now he’s on my radar, and I’ve noticed something else: I have never actually heard a completely positive word about him. There’s always some kind of controversy involved. Contrast that with other celebrities: there are many who never have a bad word spoken about them. Not this guy.
And now Elon Musk wants him on X. Keep in mind that Elon Musk is openly repelled by those he cannot manipulate, including anyone with working conscience who is repelled by the kind of propagandistic hatred X serves up on the regular, and Musk tirades against that kind of ethical “wokeness” regularly. Yet he loves Mr. Beast enough to run Beast content (for free? as an ad?) to get Mr. Beast onto his platform. That’s not the kind of recommendation decent people get from Musk.
Yeah. There’s something just NOT right about that guy.
31337@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Facebones@reddthat.com 9 months ago
I agree that it sucks that we need people to help pick up the slack in our social nets and whatnot, but I think it’s unfair that people attack Mr beast for using that YouTube money to help people to make more YouTube money to help more people. Loads of these youtubers rake in more and do jack with it but never face any individual flak, but he does something different and he becomes the poster boy of evil youtuber to people.
FWIW Beast Philanthropy is a registered 501c3, feeds like over half of NC, and has done alot of disaster relief work in a bunch of states and a handful of countries. I don’t think it’s evil that they shoot some footage in the process and a quick ad read to feed 100% of the revenue from the philanthropy channel back into the 501c3.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
And now Elon Musk wants him on X. Keep in mind that Elon Musk is openly repelled by those he cannot manipulate, including anyone with working conscience who is disgusted by the kind of propagandistic hatred X serves up on the regular, and Musk tirades against that kind of ethical “wokeness” regularly. Yet he loves Mr. Beast enough to run Beast content (for free? as an ad?) to get Mr. Beast onto his platform. That’s not the kind of recommendation decent people get from Musk.
Excellent write-up. This paragraph especially speaks volumes. Honestly, it’s an angle I hadn’t even considered, but when faced with it, yeah, exactly! How the hell does Mr. Beast not get the same “wokeness” critique as other people??
TheDarksteel94@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
Musk is just a suck-up. Also, Mr. Beast doesn’t really do anything he could clown on, and he’s well connected. It would make Musk’s reputation worse than it already is.
lledrtx@lemmy.world 9 months ago
OMG, thank you! I’ve been saying for years that something is not right about him but I can’t pinpoint why. We will see with time, I guess!
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Mr. Beast is never off. I’ve never seen a candid picture of him. He’s probably clean, but something’s very fake about him.
The first project I heard of his was “#TeamSeas”. Which collects donations to dredge trash out of the ocean. Except realistically, that trash is constantly getting replenished. The efforts should have been to reduce plastic waste, either by promoting less consumption or switching all drink bottles to recyclable aluminum. Neither of those look as good on camera as a specialized ship pulling trash out of the ocean and promoting anti consumption probably wouldn’t sit well either his audience or sponsors.
His viewers mainly consist of people who want to feel charitable vicariously or people fantasizing about about being on the reviving end of his charity. It’s not much different from the people who watch Life Styles of the Rich and Famous.
hswolf@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I don’t think that’s the right perspective to have on this, a good action isn’t bad just because It wasn’t the best action possible.
And the solution you brought upon, would still leave the first problem afloat, “great, we reduced plastic consumption, but who’s going to remove the plastic that is already in there?”, It’s a paradox you see? If he chooses option A, people will burn him at the stake because he didn’t choose option B.
I was skeptical at first when I first got aware of him, then I did some research and there’s a ton of philanthropy there, lots of people got some help they needed.
EVEN if it’s done with ulterior motives, the non changing fact is that people indeed were helped.
Whichever motives he has behind his persona, he has helped more people than most could or would’ve helped.
HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I would follow on from you by saying removing plastic is the better of the options anyway. Good old free will means you can’t force people to choose to use less plastic and alternatives, but you can force yourself to go and do something about it - we can’t even make them use a bloody rubbish bin.
I mean, how would you even go about it? Lobby governments against organizations with much bigger pockets, advertising campaigns to tell us what we already know, start a political party?? Cleaning beaches already showed what we as people are doing and what we can do.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Dredging the ocean can come after we stop putting trash in it. There’s a finite amount of resources for these activities and they should be first directed to the most effective solutions first. He apparently thinks he has enough influence on his audience to direct them to clean up his chocolate bar displays.
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Except realistically, that trash is constantly getting replenished
I don’t watch Mr Beast but he’s trying to help unlike everyone else. Yes we should stop dumping plastic in the ocean. But removing what is already there is useful just like cleaning trash on the beach is useful. You don’t walk past litter and say, “No point in picking it up, someone else will just throw more.”
There are many non profit ocean cleanup organizations.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Except, at least where I am, there’s social stigma against littering, so the first problem has been solved. Picking up a bit of litter every now and then is sustainable.
anarchy79@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Same here. I always found the fandom and the whole concept suspect AF.
thesporkeffect@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Mr Beast is a fascist
HUMAN_TRASH@lemmy.world 9 months ago
But, he’s trying to manipulate him by inflating view counts? Also, pretty sure musk wants him because he’s a huge creator and it would be good for twitter, not because he can sense he’s bad or whatever. I don’t really care about Mr Beast, never watched his videos, but I’ve heard much more good about him than bad.
TheDarksteel94@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
You’ve never heard a positive word about Mr. Beast / Jimmy? I have, quite a lot actually. Maybe you don’t watch the people who interact with him more, idk. He seems like a nice guy who uses his videos to generate revenue that he immediately puts back into making more videos. Like, almost all of it if I understand correctly. All while helping tons of people in the process.
Also, Musk is desperate for Jimmy’s attention lol. He asked Mr. Beast in a tweet recently why he doesn’t upload his videos on X and basically got the answer “It’s not worth it” lol