146
Holy shit Mr Based? (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net
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[–] 31 points 3 years ago (10 children)

In the 80s, there were lots of "sweepstakes" grifts that vaguely promised money for signing up for grifty nonsense.

"MrBeast" is doing that tired old shit but in a more obnoxious way. debord-tired

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  • [–] 26 points 3 years ago (9 children)

    Mr Beast is more banal than that. He’s tapping in to the same economic model as game shows. Give away money/prizes with some spectacle attached, make content out of it, make more money selling the content than you spent on giveaways. Nothing really grifty about it, just boring. Anyone who thinks of him as a “philanthropist” is a gigantic rube, though.

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  • [–] 18 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    Nothing really grifty about it

    Anyone who thinks of him as a “philanthropist”

    There's the grift, in my opinion. His brand presents him doing this wacky stunts out "philanthropy" and even does cynical edits of tears of joy on kids' faces and the like for more clickbait.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    For sure. We can debate the nuances of the word “grift”, but I don’t think there’s any doubt about what he’s doing or what his motives are.

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  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago* (2 children)

    He does have his own "ghost kitchen" brands and peddles sugary junk to children, too. He even asks his fans to do free labor to "face" his brand products in stores.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/mrbeast-countersued-for-100m-over-contract-spat-with-ghost-kitchen-company/ar-AA1eVcFr

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/mrbeast-tweet-walmart-feastables-rcna73546

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    My issue with him is that he exploits people in sensitive situations for video content. His "restoring eyesight to the blind" video was egregious.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    He's the zoomer equivalent of Oprah or Dr. Phil. He makes whatever will get the most attention, and invariably that means exploiting people to the maximum degree that won't hinder his ability to continue to exploit people. I'm not defending him, to be clear, I'm only trying to describe what he's doing. I don't like what he does, nor do I think it has any value to society.

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