• Muffi@programming.dev
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    2 months ago

    I rarely enjoy schadenfreude, but I will savor every moment of the fall of Mr. Beast, the cancer of YouTube.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      Yeah, he always felt slimy to me. His “charity” videos that seem to take advantage of impoverished people and him convincing children to promote his chocolate brand (and sabotage competitors) as examples. I hate that someone who seems to be this bad was able to have this power in the first place but boy do I love seeing him be brought down. Hopefully it doesn’t just go away like so much else does.

      • Melody Fwygon@lemmy.one
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        2 months ago

        In general he is not a nice person when criticized. This is usually obvious in his content and social media interactions.

        His content is low quality, ‘feel good’, Reality TV garbage. Think like Dude Perfect; except they give out giant wads of cash and recruit random people. He has TWO FAILED BRANDS; Mr. Beast Burger, which is a chain of low quality ghost kitchens, and his Chocolate brand; which shows a clear lack of business acumen and capability. Much of his video content is clickbait; written explicitly to game the algorithm and garner attention with only minimally required guardrails to obey ToSes and relevant laws that are actually enforced. Frequently he invades other YouTuber’s channels for a video or more to “promote his brand” and spread his junky content around. This is sometimes fine; when the channel is celebrity centric or otherwise good at staying on it’s own topic; but I’ve heard…horror stories from certain youtubers about working with Mr. Beast…and even the Greens, (John and Hank, vlogbrothers) don’t seem to like him all that much it seems like; as evidenced by their large lack of interactions with him. Sure, they ‘professionally respect’ him; but that’s about as far as that seems to go. I think a lot of Nerdfighteria (Fans of the vlogbrothers) doesn’t seem to interact with Mr. Beast that much and it makes me wonder.

      • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        There’s still a ton of good content on YouTube, just because the big faces in the trending tab all suck shouldn’t discount people like Dan Hurd or Dustin Porter, no native advertising, good content made for the fans. You just have to dig

        • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          Sure there is. It’s just that the YouTube algorithm hides it from everyone. Somehow, YouTube wants people to watch the same shitty content.

          • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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            2 months ago

            YouTube promotes clickbait because it gets more engagement than other videos. Even if people comment on it to say it sucks or it’s wrong, bad, distasteful, doesn’t matter. That means, ad bids on these videos go for a higher amount because more people see them. As an advertiser, would you rather want your ad to play on the 20 click video from some obscure channel that infrequently puts up videos of varying focus or would you want them to show on the YT-play-button-in-the-background, engagement-optimized video?

            Long gone are the days when YT was a video sharing platform. It’s a giant marketplace and the fanciest shop with the loudest criers gets the promotion while visitors are the product.

  • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    That whole underground bunker series is starting to get a little too reality TV like for me. I don’t watch him often but when it shows make it outside of his channel I end up catching glimpses.

    Jaden animation recently won a million dollars to give to her subscribers.

    But he pit a bunch of the YouTubers in a squid game competition which makes the ratings but isn’t a great look.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’d watch that! A bunch of “influencers” get “killed off”, hopefully humiliated? Let them be exploited for money instead of just their victims? Let’s go!

    • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Hey, let’s not lower ourselves to Beast’s level. Sociopathy is just Greek for “social illness”. It refers to psychosocial disorders like autism. Beast is afraid of being called autistic because he’s a bigot. We’re not like him. We don’t hate autistic people.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        If we lived in ancient Greece, you may have a point, but that word has a specific, medical meaning today. It does not refer to Autism.

        • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 months ago

          If we lived in ancient Greece, you may have a point

          No, they wouldn’t.

          Socio- is from Latin socius meaning companion or ally. Only the suffix has Greek roots. The term was coined way after the ancient Greeks and Romans.

    • subignition@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      It’s real dangerous to look at someone seeking legal representation and take that as an implication of guilt.

      Not defending Mr Beast at all, I’m sure there is no shortage of actual evidence of wrongdoing

      • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        This isn’t even in reference to known allegations—apparently he’s just anticipating potential future trouble:

        the reason that Donaldson hired the flashy lawyer is to conduct an internal audit of his company, the likes of which has recently come under fire as the result of various scandals.

        So I thinks it’s fair to say it’s an admission that his conduct might be legally questionable, without taking it as a confession of guilt.

        • BurnedDonut@ani.social
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          2 months ago

          I don’t like Mr. Beast. But I’m a lawyer and it’s not strange that someone taking legal action to determine if there is something wrong either it’s as a person or a corporation. Considering he is using his persona for his business audits of his business is nothing out of the norm. On the other hand calling it an admission of legally questionable behavior because someone went to a court of law so that it can be decided legally is same as calling someone guilty because others felt like it. Law doesn’t work like that. You can say it’s ethically problematic but than you can’t single him out because many people joined him in such bullshit.

          • Skates@feddit.nl
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            2 months ago

            Of course law doesn’t work that way. Law is inherently complicated because it needs to be abused only by those with the proper resources. Also - literally nobody fucking cares how the law works unless it’s a step between where you are and where you need to go. At which point rich people will hire others to get over the step, and poor people will just jump over the step. Rich people will get away with it and get a slap on the wrist, and poor people will suffer the full wrath of the system, to make sure everyone else knows it’s for real and doesn’t question the authority of those in charge. Rich people are free, poor people are held hostage within the system and cannot break out. Law doesn’t establish morality of actions or justice, it doesn’t prevent or punish what society deems evil, it just separates those who can get away with their actions from those who can’t.

            Kill your masters.

            • BurnedDonut@ani.social
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              2 months ago

              What a childish and ignorant opinion. Do you know how many people executed in history without even hearing about what they were accused of? Or do you know how many people didn’t even have the chance to defend themselves because ignorant people like you felt like that they know they are guilty? Or how many people are lynched in the streets because someone said they are guilty? History is full of such examples. Blaming the law and asking for anarchy is not a solution. Who’s going to stop the powerful in your utopia from taking everything from you? How it’s different than your rich gets to do all claim? Law is complicated because law deals with human relations, action and their results when you come up with a simple human civilization you can make simple laws. This modern society that you despise that gave you all these amenities came as a result of laws that you despise. You wanna go back be my guest go establish your own state let’s see how long you and your like minded people will stay alive.

        • sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          Companies hire outside auditors all the time. If you grew super fast and don’t retain legal counsel, that’s a great reason to give a full shakedown when you finally do hire lawyers to help with compliance.

        • Melody Fwygon@lemmy.one
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          2 months ago

          You don’t hire a well known “PR Superstar”-level lawyer without being super worried that your conduct might be viewed as wrong in a court of public opinion, regardless of whether or not you broke the law. The Lawyer ensures public opinion doesn’t affect the possible legal case mess that’s likely going on.

          Until those legal tangles are resolved, we really won’t know more; and oftentimes details left for public record will be minimal if no wrongdoing was found.

          Personally; I think it’s possible that the allegations might not be 100% legitimate, I do believe people would love to smear him if it meant potential financial gains and social notoriety. But I also think it’s equally as possible that he is in fact as bad of a person as is alleged; and I believe he’s likely to be very much a self-serving person who hides that dark side with his very public persona. There are a number of people in creator circles who whisper stories of negative interactions with him.

        • minibyte@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          IIRC there was significant backlash over the Squid Games clone, or what was supposed to be. This is probably a wise decision.

          If you wait until you need a lawyer, you waited too long.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          And yet, auditing for scandals in your inner circle is also something you might do if you’re trying to do the right thing. I’m not saying he is, nor that I support him, just that y’all are following other lemmings off this cliff for insufficient reasons

      • takeda@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The allegations are that he is a dickhead, and him resorting to hiring a flashy lawyer to fight it pretty much confirms that.

        He is not a defendant here he will be a plaintiff in those suits.

    • BurnedDonut@ani.social
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      2 months ago

      First of all I don’t like this guy and I find him as something wrong with him. Secondly I’m a lawyer with over 20 years so, if I call you “fisco” a pedophile and you file a lawsuit against my claim by your own statement it’s an admission of guilt and you should be legally registered as a pedophile.

    • demizerone@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      This is what I should of told my friend when I told him Mr Beast was full of shit and after he became utterly shocked at the words coming out of my mouth. How would I dare insult the man that gave poor kids in Africa money on video.

      • Grass@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        I never watched any of his videos but to friends that did I always said he would eventually make headlines for some kind of problematic behavior or involvement, and when asked what it was based on I just said I could tell by his face. Unnatural and disingenuous in appearance and actions if questioned further but none of them could see it.

      • suction@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        He also has the most generic milquetoast white dude face ever. I know about 8 guys in my town alone who could be his twins, going by the face alone.

    • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I think the chocolate may actually be one of the few things he did that’s a net positive. It’s not bad.

        • Rexios@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          The old feastables was actually good. The new stuff tastes like rebranded Hersheys.

        • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I didn’t, I did watch foodgeek test it, and he’s won a bunch of awards for his chocolate recipes.

          Maybe beast pay him off I don’t know. I have tried all this chocolate and I don’t find it disagreeable.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Philanthropy porn is just disgusting to begin with. That alone should have ended him. But people think it’s a “feel-good story” so they keep watching. A lot of times, the follow-ups to such stories feel less good since the people getting that philanthropy often can’t afford to pay to maintain whatever they’ve been given.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I think you coined the term “philanthropy porn”.

      But instead of just the best images of the subject matter like /cableporn or /earthporn, this has the negative connotation of voyeuristic performative prostitution. He’s the pimp, and he’s whoring out his recipients to make his money.

    • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      I agree, but on the other hand the people he helps, well, get helped, and would be worse off if he didn’t do that. Obviously it would be better if he wasn’t making money off of it, but would it be better if he stopped?

      As morally dubious as he is, I’m sure the people who have access to water after his “build 100 wells in Africa” stunt would disagree with opinions that he should stop.

      So I don’t know. I agree with the criticism, but I always think of the people who got help and I’m unsure what would be better.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Obviously it would be better if he wasn’t making money off of it, but would it be better if he stopped?

        Yes it would be. The accumulation of so much money into so few hands is a net evil, and his videos glamorize and are used to justify that evil. Even if some (and it’s always a small portion) of that accumulation is used for good ends it’s worse than if it weren’t allowed to accumulate in the first place.

        Put more simply, if wealth inequality weren’t so out of control there would be much fewer people requiring the charity.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I agree, but on the other hand the people he helps, well, get helped, and would be worse off if he didn’t do that.

        This is fallacious and it plays into what I said. There is no follow-up on those people. You don’t know if they would be worse off if they weren’t helped.

        He “built 100 houses and gave them away” earlier this year. Great. Is he going to pay to maintain those houses? Is he going to pay to insure them? Is he going to pay the property taxes? And, of course, now they’re tied down to one specific area because they have a house and if they don’t like their job and there isn’t another job available? They’re stuck.

        Home ownership isn’t necessarily cheaper or better than renting. They may very well have been better off before the IRS let them know what they owed for that house.

        • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Home ownership isn’t necessarily cheaper or better than renting.

          If you’re given a house, paying property taxes and insurance is almost certainly better and cheaper than renting.

          I agree with your other points and overall with your perspective, but not this one.

          Typical property taxes run about 1-2% of the home’s overall value. Unless they were all given multi-million dollar mansions they’ll be paying like 2-4k a year in property taxes. That’s far less than the cost of renting a place of equivalent size basically anywhere. You can probably afford basic homeowner expenses on a job at McDonald’s if you own your place outright.

          • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
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            2 months ago

            And in a lot of states you don’t need full home owners insurance if you own the place. Would be even easier to live in a home on a McD’s job.

        • nyctre@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Can’t they sell the house and do whatever they want with the money? Or rent it out and use that to pay for the maintenance/taxes, etc? Feels like it’s hard to argue against giving people a free house.

          That being said, if even a small part of what is being said about him is true, then he’s a massive piece of shit.

          I’d still take a free house from a massive piece of shit, tho.

          • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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            2 months ago

            I’d still take a free house from a massive piece of shit, tho.

            And that’s pretty much my argument.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Can’t they sell the house and do whatever they want with the money?

            Possibly. If they didn’t sign some sort of contract agreeing not to do so and if there would be a market for that house. And then there’s just the psychological burden of having to give up a free house because it turns out you can’t actually afford to own a free house.

            Or rent it out and use that to pay for the maintenance/taxes, etc?

            That is not a simple thing. And it puts you legally on the line for a lot. That’s why corporations tend to do it.

            Feels like it’s hard to argue against giving people a free house.

            I can show you so many stories of people who inherit valuable things only to end up in more debt than they started with. Did MrBeast make sure all of those people actually were good at managing their money before he gave them a house? If they weren’t, did he give them some way to become financially literate? We have no idea because he won’t tell us. We also have no idea what will happen to these people and their houses in one year or five years or ten.

            • nyctre@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Fair enough, I see how it could all fall apart if not done properly. And based on what people are saying… it’s unlikely that he did things properly.

            • GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
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              2 months ago

              Maybe if it’s just me, but if you’re unable to do the research to become financially literate after being gifted a $200k investment for free… I’m not really going to turn your problems into ill will for the person that gave it to you. Library’s are free.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                Lots of people “do the research” on such things and end up becoming things like sovereign citizens.

                That’s the problem with doing your own research with no one to guide you. That’s especially dangerous in areas like financial literacy.

              • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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                2 months ago

                Most of those “houses” were three room shacks in third world countries. No way they were worth 200k. They were roofs over peoples’ heads yes, but not investment vehicles.

                And please, explain to a war ravaged town in sub-saharan africa financial literacy. See how that goes.

        • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          Well they are not forced to keep the house. They can sell it, or if they don’t want it at all, they can give it away. But then why did they sign up for it in the first place?

          You are saying as if they were forced against their will to get a free house.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Would you say no to a free house? People do things against their interest all the time.

            You also don’t know that they weren’t required to hold on to the house for a certain amount of time in order to accept the house. I would be surprised if there weren’t such conditions. Maybe you are financially literate enough to turn down a deal like that, they aren’t necessarily.

            They’re also only one job loss away from a tax lien against the house they thought they could afford to live in because they got it for free.

      • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        So his curing 1000 blind people video? Most of them were gonna get the surgery done anyway, he just made it happen faster

        In exchange for being on video. Which is kinda gross. It’s making entertainment out of someone who needs help. If Jimmy was in it for good, he wouldn’t exploit the people he’s helping. He makes more money off each video than he spent. That’s exploitation

        • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          Most of them were gonna get the surgery done anyway, he just made it happen faster

          Well, that’s good isn’t it?

          In exchange for being on video.

          I didn’t watch the video, but skimmed through it now. In the wide shot it shows around 200 people. Meaning 800 people got it without having to appear on video. It’s likely they just got the money and a question if they want to appear on a video. 20% said yes, 80% said no, still got the money. What’s wrong with that? Looks completely voluntary.

          If Jimmy was in it for good, he wouldn’t exploit the people he’s helping.

          In that video, it doesn’t look to me like he did. Clearly people got the money no strings attached, and an option to appear in a video in they want to, which most of them didn’t take.

          He makes more money off each video than he spent.

          Which gets spent on the next stunt. If not for the 1000 blind people video, he would have no money for the 100 free houses video, without which he would have no money for the 100 wells in Africa video, ad infinitum. If you say what he does cannot be packaged into profitable media, then that’s fine, but that means it can’t be done at all. Filming people getting helped is how more people get helped next time. As long as it’s voluntary for the people getting help, as it seems to be, I don’t see anything wrong with it.

          I agree with many of his criticisms, but to me he seems far from actual problems with this world caused by politicians and corporations. A YouTuber making a show of helping people seems like the last thing wrong with this world today. And people wouldn’t need the help if we solved the actual issues.

          • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            Just because they were cut out of the video doesn’t mean it wasn’t filmed. I want to see what contract they signed before he payed for their surgery.

            • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              I want to see what contract they signed before he payed for their surgery.

              Guilty until proven innocent, eh?

      • OlPatchy2Eyes@slrpnk.net
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        2 months ago

        That’s just not how sustainable charity or development works, especially when it comes to things like building wells. There are existing charities that can do more than he does with the money he spends and have sustainable methods of doing so. Maybe some of them aren’t great, but if he actually wanted to address those issues he could set up a foundation with people who know how to do that work.

        • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          But that’s what he did, he gave the money to existing charities who build wells (probably in exchange for being able to film them being built).

        • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          My guy, I’m willing to believe thus but you just can’t spew massive claims like this without proof. I’ve seen the accusation videos too and at best a handful of people there were plants but definitely not most. Just give me some links and I’ll easily believe it.

          • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Just pay attention. There have been several articles about how the winners of a lot of his contests are family members of his cronies. They don’t get traction but I have no reason to doubt them.

            • Soggy@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              “Trust me bro, do your own research”

              Even if you’re right that’s still not at all helpful. Burden of proof is on the person making a claim.

        • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          The random people in Africa that got wells drilled are part of the scam? His employees, sure, but I’m not arguing with that.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I was going to say I got it from somewhere, but apparently the term is usually “charity porn.” I think “philanthropy porn” works better though because it’s just as much about the philanthropist themselves as it is about what they’re offering.

      • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
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        2 months ago

        This would be simple, just have a room filled with more guitars I don’t play and buy a few more pairs of cargo pants.

        🤘Dad life

      • darkpanda@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        Basically the plot of a Richard Pryor movie.

        Edited to add: yeah, and a play, and like a dozen film adaptations, but as a GenXer it’s Richard Pryor or bust for me.

    • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Everyone he “gave money to” was either a friend of his or an employee of his company. He never gave any to strangers. It’s all a show.

  • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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    2 months ago

    I don’t think being a sociopath is illegal?

    I get the feeling that lawyers do a lot more for rich people than they do for us…