134 points
*

Every billionaire is a policy failure, whether they’re a company owner, dictator, or streamer; they’re all needlessly hoarding wealth, harming us all. If you have more money than you could ever spend while people freeze and starve in the street, you are part of the problem and a bad person…

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26 points

B-b-b-but he gives some of it back! Something something effective altruism 🫠

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16 points

But he creates jobs! (that are extremely exploitative and past borderline abusive)

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3 points

Billionaires are a symptom of a corrupt society. The more ultra wealthy individuals, the more corrupt the society is.

Because the more an individual can manipulate the laws to their advantage in order to become wealthy, the more loopholes/hidden things/bribery/mazes in the net there are in the laws.

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TIL Mr Beast is a billionaire.

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15 points
*

TBF, estimates are slightly lower than 1B, but he does reportedly earn $700,000,000. Every year…

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122 points

No one with as much money as he has is a good person.

He’s basically just doing ethical bumfights, exploiting the victims of capitalism for YouTube views and thereby increasing his own wealth further.

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46 points

Ethical?

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30 points

it’s an interesting moral question

if i give someone money and that alleviates their poverty, is that an ethical action? i think so. you are eliminating harm by reducing hunger, providing shelter, etc.

if i give someone money and that alleviates their poverty, but i do it for my own personal gain, is that an ethical action? you are still eliminating harm but you are doing it for an amoral reason.

ethical action, amoral motivation

then there’s the perspective of by taking advantage of this individual, you are doing your part in perpetuating an unjust system. you are playing the role of the opiate of the masses. distracting and comforting those who are at the bottom of the pyramid.

having said all that, i think it’s still more ethical than bumfights. although i couldn’t tell you if it was ethical or not by its own

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16 points

Defining ethics is a question as old as philosophy itself.

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5 points

He isn’t generally elevating randos out of poverty though. I don’t have citations but my understanding is most of the big payouts he has done went to people in his friend group despite the implication that it was not.

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13 points

Based on some interviews there is nothing ethical about what this guy is doing. Based on one case I think he should be in jail

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6 points

The sleep deprivation guy seemed like he could have a lawsuit against Mr. Beast. At least based on what he was saying, it sounded like what they did to him should have been illegal

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1 point
*

You’re right, maybe not the best descriptor, but it’s a hard concept to properly articulate.

Man with money finds people in need and gives them a dump truck of cash to ostensibly make their lives better. Paying for surgeries for people, buying meals for the hungry, etc. is an “ethical” alternative to paying homeless people to fight each other for entertainment. But it doesn’t change the fact that it is still exploitative content that commodifies the suffering of others for his own enrichment. Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. I can’t help but think he would hardly be so “generous” if he was losing more than he was getting out of it.

Not to mention he is being lionized as this capitalist success story to show that the system works, absolving the wealthy of guilt, while his success is entirely based around the fact that capitalism is failing the majority who live under it. And all of the feel-good narratives just make it easier to ignore all of the people he hasn’t helped.

And now that he’s made himself into a brand, he can leverage that brand to hawk overpriced, moldy food and grow even richer. And people out there are buying his brand because they believe it somehow supports a better cause than buying the overpriced, not-as-moldy food from the corporation he’s competing with.

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3 points

He wouldn’t be able to do it if he was losing money though.

It’s such a tricky subject.

If you don’t use it to make money you can’t do it anymore.

So is making money off it bad if you use that money to doore.

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33 points
*

Do you guys have any idea how vindicating it is that people are finally seeing what a bunch of us suspected from the beginning? Mr. Beast has always come across as fake and I used to get SO MUCH SHIT for not fully supporting the guy making poor people compete for money to pay bills (and just giving the win to his friends instead).

Edit: typo

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7 points

He was never completely on my radar until the recent drama, but of course you come across his videos now and then. I always thought they looked dystopian af and he himself has that thousands yard psychopath stare.

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4 points

Every generation gets to learn about their own iteration of con artists. Until they do they believe it’s something like the world has never seen before and nobody will talk them out of it.

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3 points
*

You do not get to the level of success that Mr. Beast has without stepping on people to get there.

It’s safe to say this of any hugely successful person. They by and large all have despicable qualities to them, the question is are they introspective and working to change those qualities in a positive way? I don’t think many of them are.

This is less an indictment on Mr. Beast and more on ultra successful people in general.

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55 points

I still don’t know who this cuck is besides a YouTube star that got rich off kids whose parents babysit them with tablets. How anyone can stand looking at the guys face or hear him talking is beyond me. His face just oozes sociopath / narcissist.

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24 points

One thing about him I saw in a Lemmy comment a couple months back, is that in every picture of him smiling, if you hide his mouth you’re left with his lifeless eyes, it’s like he was told how you’re supposed to smile when you’re cheerful so he goes through the motions but he’s not entirely sure what the point is. It works with all the pictures of him I came across since then, including the thumbnail of this post.

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10 points

Tbf smiling on command is hard.

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15 points

Sure, but in every picture? Including some where he’s supposed to actually have fun?

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13 points

He is a narcissist of the highest order. Exploited kids with illegal and rigged lotteries.

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6 points

His early videos, clips I’ve seen in videos about him, show he’s a weird sociopath.

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2 points

No, you nailed it.

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-13 points

Ad hominem

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0 points

Maybe, but also relevant.

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62 points
*

This guy is a giant turd with googly eyes slapped on it.

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33 points

He does not smile with his eyes and I find that unsettling.

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15 points

It’s a sociopath thing.

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7 points

Dead eyes, like a dolls eyes.

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2 points

Doesn’t seem to be livin,’ until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white, and then…

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0 points

dun DUN.

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5 points

That’s it, isn’t it! Such a strange look

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4 points

His eyes are a weird mix of emotionlessness and angry glaring

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16 points

Googly eyes look more alive and soulful than he does by a long shot.

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