23 Comments

Like with any internet creator, I don't waste my time on people I can easily avoid (I'm a 34 year old woman, why do I care what a Kai Cenat is). But yeah M Beast seems like an Adam Sandler type where you probably don't like the output or it's not your cup of tea but he seems like a decent person outside of that so there's no reason to have that much hate for the man outside of maybe ribbing him for his video style.

Hell, if I go to Youtube without logging on, may of the top videos are people who seem to think being a public nuisance is what makes content so if I was forced to watch any viral channel aimed at kids, I'd choose his.

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Anticapitalists/socialists hate anything that makes capitalism and individualism look good, including self-directed charity. If it doesn't help the *common* good, it doesn't count.

Either that or he hasn't been kissing the right backsides.

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Great article. I particularly agree with your callout about considering the plausible alternatives - yes, it would be good if the gov't did this instead of private citizens, but it's not as if anyone in the gov't is having a meeting and saying "well, we were going to feed starving Africans, but apparently Mr Beast is on that, so let's just go back to squabbling about textbooks".

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The only good reason to hate Mr Beast is that he never learned to smile with his eyes.

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That and he's the Antichrist.

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People are nuts. They complain that rich people don't want to pay taxes or help the poor then a rich guy comes along and helps the poor, the sick and the marginalized and they complain about that. That's insane. I can't believe these complaints are even a thing.

The video about the cataract surgeries really hit home for me. As a poor disabled 64 year old who lost the genetic eye lottery, I am slowly going blind and if this Angel on earth wanted to pay for the cornea transplant I so desperately need

(Medicare doesn't cover everything) and making a video of it was part of the deal,

I wouldn't feel exploited-I'd feel blessed!

The man is a Saint! He is literally walking in the footsteps of JESUS.

Social media has confirmed my worst fears: there are a lot of mean, small minded, self centered jealous people out there. Mr. Beast is a hero everyone should emulate.

Mr. Beast is a hero to me.

It's sad and pathetic and cruel that Jeremiah even had to write this column!

Man, so many people out there suck.....

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Really not cool of Mr Beast to have umpteen million scandals break in the year after this published.

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I broadly think MrBeast's charity efforts are a good thing, but I'm going to try to articulate why I think it makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

There was a famous incident at a high-stakes poker game where Tobey Maguire told the hostess he'd give her $1000 if she got on the table and barked like a seal for his amusement. She refused, he got angry. From a material perspective it seems ridiculous to refuse – $1000 for something that costs nothing. Yet I think most of us wouldn't do it. Because what you're trading is dignity, humiliating yourself for another's amusements for money.

MrBeast's videos aren't quite so blatant, but they are essentially 'human zoo' videos, inviting us to gawk at people made to run around and do tricks for us. They volunteered, and many entertainers do that, but it gives the same vibe. The videos with poor people are more dignified, but that nagging feeling that you're watching something like the poker game exchange is still there.

And obviously, if you or your children were starving, you'd get on that table and bark like a seal. But there's a reason we're uncomfortable with these kinds of spectacles. In general I think the EA movement deals poorly with questions of dignity and status when these are human universals as much as food or shelter. I don't think MrBeast crosses this line and I think his efforts are mostly positive, but I think this is where the instinctual discomfort comes from.

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author

Something you might be interested in - GiveDirectly, which is heavily aligned with EA, does in fact do follow ups focused on dignity/status/etc. Link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fk6qracxMbNR1vg1RCmfiYrkC18EH3A8fJjVVwHZ62o/edit#heading=h.j2s8446w306y

They showed the recipients the video and asked them how they felt about it, whether they happy with how they were portrayed, etc. The results were very positive.

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I genuinely believe that Mr Beast's critics are communist accelerationists who want the world to fail so utterly that the masses turn to communism out of desperation. There is no other explanation.

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I have friends who've called him a "parasite" or say that he's not necessarily bad but he's profiting off of charity porn but like– is the alternative world, one where it's all the same but he doesn't exist, better at all? He's literally adding value to the world, like even if you call what he does slop I can't conceive of how it could be bad.

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Also, he's not profiting from it! Everything the channel makes is invested into more philanthropy.

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You've gotta follow up! As substack's foremost Mr. Beast defender, you've gotta cover the recent deluge of bad Mr. Beast stories. Rigged games, illegal lotteries, fake signatures, sex offender on staff, torturing a contestant with a solitary confinement challenge and also forcing him to run a marathon while in solitary etc. and that's only some of the stuff!

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I don't know if he's good or if he's bad; if you have 200M youtube subscribers you're going to get lots of love and lots of hate. What I am impressed with is his determination - dude's breakout video was counting to 100,000 over the course of like 20 hours. He put the V in Viral!

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OMG i had to check and since I wrote about him 6 mos ago he's added nearly another 100M to his youtube channel 🤯 Wasn't there talk of him getting in the presidential race the other day?

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He said he would if the minimum age was lowered. He’s too young.

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I, like others I am realizing, have felt the need to speak on the matter, albeit having no impact or influence on the matter or so I feel. 1) is this, where are the parents and the children being so many shouldn't be hard to find any, it's so sought out these days, easy money.. any parent of child participant or participant would absolutely have went for the millions in damages they would have received, especially if they weren't pre chosen winners.. 2) The tabloids and these YouTube creators have had nothing on or against Jimmy except their own parasitic imitation of his business model to get money, I mean intelligent people, just... People may consider how many times in just the last idk 200 years Good even great men and women that were extraordinary exceptions of their time, were turned on for the most petty reason or obvious lie by the same people that praised them. 3) as if those who praised you to death weren't enough, you have every wolf seeing a chance for easy kill, revenge, some secret harboured Jealousy carried for however long and who knows what reason... 4) let's say out of (100) people. (14) don't know him, (56) knew of him, interacted/followed/sub with him, helped by him, or profited off him, like him, (29)remaining..( ) Had no opinion really,

the rest ( ) didn't like him or were bitter against him... And as far as rigging things, do you really think you will help every person randomly chosen life, giving them a Million bucks.. absolutely not..but I guarantee you if there was any individual at any event he held in need of important help or charity he would have financed it... irrelevant of it being good will or good business... A 500,000.00 toward any cause ton help... Would return millions... That is truth... And he's had enough time, money, opportunity and influence that if he had addictions perversions or a demon as bad as he is being accused of having.. if he indulged the least, would have consumed him like it has EVERY other person that had such infliction and no restrictions from overindulging in whatever it was.. they all end up in the grave .. after substance leads to carnal lust perverse acts and depression self loathing. Becoming complacent and bored or numb to basic things due to overstimulated exposure long periods of time .. needs a more to feel alive.

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At least in part, this is critics coping. It's annoying that someone wildly more successful than you is also a good guy.

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We love Mr Beast and I am thrilled that my (then) young son found him and introduced us to him and loved sharing his adventures including his philanthropy one’s. We buy his Feastibles and love his burgers also!

Trolling a person who wants to help people is just a sad sign of the times. I’m so happy to hear that young untarnished children have found him and continue to like him and it doesn’t surprise me that it’s the older cynics who wanna find something wrong with what he does.

I hope Jimmy continues to make money to help other and also his friends and keep them busy and working. He supports his trans friend and you would think he would get some sort of recognition for that, but he doesn’t.

His is a great story and we love him and I hope he continues to be a great role model!

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"This upholds broken systems! Yes"

Incredible that these words appear in this post and yet you decided to publish it anyway

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See this is a difference in 'main things'. For me the main thing is whether or not an action helps people in desperate poverty right now, today, get housing and clean drinking water. I think that's good and the rest is theory-crafting bullshit by internet commentators.

Maybe for you the main thing is something different.

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I agree!

But, uh, are you - an i think you are - are you suggesting…that Mr Beast is an Effective Altruist?!?!

W(`0`)W

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I don't think he would call himself that, but he's clearly been influenced by some of their better ideas.

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