You may have heard of MrBeast, the wildly popular YouTube sensation, from one of his viral videos, such as when he recreated Squid Game, or more recently from his MrBeast Burger spinoff, but lately he’s been making headlines for something else he’s doing IRL: curing blindness. And not everyone’s happy about it.
Forbes explains it best:
“Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson is one of the most successful YouTube creators out there, a master showman who has cultivated an image of himself as a generous philanthropist, using the money he makes from sponsorships and YouTube videos to fund ever more ambitious charitable endeavors.
At 24 years-old, MrBeast boasts 130 million YouTube subscribers, and is currently one of the most influential people on the planet, having figured out how to entertain the masses through high-budget publicity stunts that help the needy.
MrBeast’s videos are either footage of him and his friends goofing off, or random acts of extreme generosity, with titles like ‘Giving $1,000,000 Of Food To People In Need’ and ‘I Gave $200,000 To People Who Lost Their Jobs.’
MrBeast’s latest video sees the YouTuber help cure the blind, partnering with SEE International to provide Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS) to 1,000 patients, filming their delighted reactions in the wake of a successful procedure.
A surgeon featured in the video stated that half of the 200 million blind people in the world could be cured with a simple, 10-minute surgery.
However, the video sparked controversy online, igniting an interesting ethics debate.
Why Are People Upset?
MrBeast’s habit of showering strangers with cash for content has long been a bit of a joke on Twitter, because his charitable acts tend to conceal an uncomfortable truth under the shiny surface.
The fact that these videos are created primarily for clout and profit imbue them with a dark undertone, especially when young fans view them as acts of messianic empathy; after all, one can’t always depend on the kindness of YouTubers.
Essentially, MrBeast’s videos are much like those “feel good” news stories that hide a bleak reality at their core, like stories of children raising money to pay their parent’s medical bills, or teachers having to go to extreme lengths to provide basic classroom supplies; dystopian acts of desperation framed as inspirational, and empowering.
MrBeast’s ‘curing blindness’ video, labelled with a particularly distasteful thumbnail, really emphasized the fact that this simple, life-changing medical procedure has become ‘content,’ because of the fact that it is inaccessible to those who need it.”
While all of that is true what’s the alternative? Should he not be helping at all just because of how his help will be perceived? As Donaldson himself lamented on Twitter the other night:
“Twitter – Rich people should help others with their money.
Me – Okay, I’ll use my money to help people and I promise to give away all my money before I die. Every single penny.
Twitter – MrBeast bad.”
And clearly his motivation for helping people wasn’t even just to generate content. It seems as though he genuinely cares about the topic and brings up an interesting point:
“I don’t understand why curable blindness is a thing. Why don’t governments step in and help? Even if you’re thinking purely from a financial standpoint it’s hard to see how they don’t roi on taxes from people being able to work again.”
Well, MrBeast I think the issue here is that you’re trying to apply logic to an illogical situation. The world doesn’t work that way and there are always going to be haters. Just keep up the good work.
Is MrBeast doing good? Or should he stop?
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