• bassomitron@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Is there a reason people hate him? I don’t watch his videos and I’ve only caught clips here and there, but isn’t he mostly known for giving away money and helping people out? It’s entertainment exploitation, for sure, but I’m sure the people he’s helped out don’t care much. I’d rather someone making money off of giving away money than someone making money and being an asshole to everyone.

    Genuine question, I don’t have any investment in defending him.

    • philycheeze@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      A lot of the “contestants” and people he helps are allegedly friends and family of him and his producers. I don’t know how true that is but that’s when general opinion of him really started sliding.

      He was also one of the forerunners of the big dumb face on YouTube thumbnails and I know some people blame him for that trend too.

    • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      When he says something like " I’m planting 1 million trees", he and 100 volunteers plant 2000 trees in one day and then he asks his followers to donate to a tree planting charity so that he and his followers “together”, can plant a million trees.

      it isn’t that he’s not doing good things in small quantity as long as it is filmed and he is guaranteed to make more money off the video than he spends, it’s that his production methodology is so fucked up that you can’t trust any of his videos, or by extension his claims or intentions.

      • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Is there a reason people hate him? […] isn’t he mostly known for giving away money and helping people out?

        I may know why. The recently leaked PDF about how he runs his production company makes it patently clear: they aim to make successful YouTube videos, full stop.

        Everything else is a side-effect. Not to suggest that they lack any ethics, but rather things like charity are there to get you to click and watch, nothing more. With enough exposure it’s easy to get the impression that something is “off” with being click-bated like that. I’m not saying that behavior is deserving of hate, but it may help explain why people don’t like his media.

        Also, for people that are trying to make content in a much more honest fashion, Mr. Beast’s popularity can be disheartening and frustrating. YouTube has clearly decided to reward this eyeball-grabbing behavior without any regards to the quality of the content. It’s stuff made for the algorithm, rather than people showcasing their craft, skill, or interests. I’m guessing that people see their favorite makers and entertainers struggle to make a go of it by doing what they love, and see this guy come along and reap millions in revenue without any emotional connection to the output. To me, that’s a recipe for anger.

        Personally, I refuse to view popular click-bait stuff to begin with, and routinely filter such content out (click “not interested”). As a result, my YT recommendations never contain Mr. Beast content and I actually had to fire up a privacy window and click on this nonsense so I knew what the hell everyone was talking about.

    • Gerudo@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      I’ve posted about him before. To me, he’s always given off very disingenuous vibes. The smile is fake, and when he is not actively talking in his video, he just looks dead inside. Someone posted a story about him in college obsessing about how to game the YouTube algorithm. His only purpose was to get the most views, it didnt matter the content. To me, he is 100% the reason behind the click baity headlines and thumbnails that infect YouTube to this day.

    • Mostly the whole exploitation part, which often goes too far and can be very humiliating or outright dangerous for participants. Some scrapped videos supposedly amounted to torture. Then there’s the rigged giveaways and the fact that the dude just unnerves a lot of people because he, as this post demonstrates, doesn’t smile with his eyes.

      There were also allegations that one of his colleagues was a sex offender but as far as I know everyone including the purported victim ended up denying it, so I don’t know how much people care about that still.

    • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Info has come out via several credible interviews that: He’s mostly only helping out his friends, stuff is rigged, stuff is abusive, he’s abusive to staff, he’s creepy towards women. So even most of the parts of him that were redeeming (helping people out) turned out to be fake.

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      If he was a good person he wouldn’t collaborate with Logan Paul, you know the guy who sells energy drinks to kids and is a scam artist.

      Donaldson is selling unhealthy lunch packs to kids together with Logan Paul and KSI, a professional bully.

      Not to mention that several former employees have come out saying how abusive his work methods are. To employees and contestants.

      • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Thanks for the detailed response. Based on this and other replies, I’ll ensure to continue ignoring his videos if they ever pop up in my Recommended lists. I miss the golden age of YouTube (late 2000s/early 2010s) when awesome channels like CGP Grey, Rocket Jump, etc were able to thrive on the platform, versus nowadays where only the clickbaitiest channels flourish.

    • VonCesaw@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      imo if he wanted to “cure blindness” he would have paid to fly the people to a country with socialized medicine (for less money than he paid to “cure” their blindness) and advocate for a system that could prevent their blindness in the first place

      • MBM@lemmings.world
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        2 months ago

        That’s kind of fucked, forcing another country to pay for those expensive operations (and I don’t think you can just do that). I agree that relying on generous millionaires is not the way to go though

        • VonCesaw@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          tbf most countries charge for foreign patients to use their system, but tbb if he was shedding a light on what a more socialized system looks like would unsour a lot of americans’ view on it

          personal anecdote but most of the people around me believe that all socialized medicine happens to be is waiting lines/lists, death panels, and “state-assisted death”

  • frezik@midwest.social
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    2 months ago

    Always look at the eyes when someone smiles, especially in advertisements. They come off as creepy once you know this trick.

    And then there’s this guy, which in the context of Babylon 5, is absolutely perfect:

  • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    those are the eyes of a man making billions of dollars.

    Is the trade off worth it? Well, we would probably do it, for a little bit at least.

    • NaevaTheRat [she/her]@vegantheoryclub.org
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      2 months ago

      Billions? I highly doubt. A billion is a fucking ludicrous amount of money.

      He has ranked on the Forbes list for the highest-paid YouTube creator in 2022[25] and has an estimated net worth of $500 million.[26]

      From Wikipedia

      So he’s numerically closer to homeless than billions.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        he’s numerically between billion and nothing, so he’s technically equidistant from being a billionaire, and being completely broke.

        It’s also worth noting a lot of his business does revolve around spending lots and lots of money, so he probably has a pretty silly revenue stream going.

        • NaevaTheRat [she/her]@vegantheoryclub.org
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          2 months ago

          those are the eyes of a man making billions of dollars.

          One billion, multiple billions.

          2-.5 = 1.5 1-.5 = 0.5 1.5 > 0.5

          “that which was to be demonstrated” 🥴

          I’m just highlighting what a stupid amount of money a billion dollars is. Hopefully if more people realise you can make small armies of people dance for your sick entertainment with much less than that we can start dragging these ghouls from their homes and giving them the old Mussolini special.

          • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 months ago

            listen bro, i didn’t invent the “aire” term. It’s not very specific. Also to be clear, the original post was a shitpost, you shouldn’t think that hard about it lol.

  • recklessengagement@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Do people actually analyze each others visage like this or is it just because he’s a public figure

    I’m suddenly very anxious about every picture I’ve ever taken of myself

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      No people don’t analyze photos like this normally. He just has that stupid grin on every video thumbnail. It’s basically his signature move. Because people see it so often they automatically overanalyze it.

    • Queue@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      You taking a photo of yourself probably isn’t used to peddle scams, plastic, and junk food as autruistic feel-good stories.

      You also probably don’t plaster your face across every thing you post online.

      You also probably have fun. Mr. Beast doesn’t do any of these.

    • accideath@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I don’t analyse faces like that actively but I do notice fake smiles. It’s always the eyes. Noticing the lack of emotion on one’s face isn’t much different than noticing any actual emotion. And Mr. Beast is making it especially easy to spot. Can’t remember having seen a single thumbnail of his, where his smile doesn’t look uncanny.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      He has Crohn’s? Wait! Is Lunchly a villain plot to curse the world’s children with his own plight? Has everything been leading up to this?

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          If you’re partnering with Logan Paul and are friends with Elon Musk, you may need to reassess your life.

        • Mac@mander.xyz
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          2 months ago

          How anyone could not hate this soulless vampire, i dont know.

          i used to not care since “at least hes helping people” but hes clearly barely helping anyone and the awful shit hes doing far outweighs any good that he happens to do.

          • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            His TeamSeas program is a misuse of funds. He’s pulling plastic out of the ocean at no where near the rate it’s being put in. If he wanted to help, he should have been pushing anti-consumption ideas and replacing plastics with alternatives, but that wouldn’t make his sponsors happy. Remind me, is his chocolate bars wrapped in plastic or paper? What about his weird ass water bottle?

    • a9cx34udP4ZZ0@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      That would be more believable if he hadn’t made enough money to retire 1,000 times over now. $500m? I think most people can’t grasp how much money that is. Putting that money into a shitty high yield checking account would net him $21m in income a year. It is absurd how much money he has. If he wants to fuck off and do literally nothing for the rest of his life, he can still live like a god without spending a dime of what he’s earned so far.

  • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Those look within normal bounds. Maybe just low energy or a little mentally tired.

    This is some dipshit-tier dogging on someone.

    • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      He’s definitely mentally tired, but I honestly see it as part of the problem. He dehumanizes those around him because he dehumanizes himself. He’s a content machine that assumes everyone else must have the same slavish dedication to views and capital that he has.

      He’s a hollow billionaire who needs to lose his influence and popularity for everyone’s sake. His toxic workplaces are a result of him being a diehard capitalist who can’t even recognize the shit he swims in. He probably doesn’t realize that his for-profit charity props up an evil system that digests everyone, rich and poor alike.

      I’m just happy we can finally call him out for the danger he poses. I suspect he’ll become more openly right wing as more progressive liberals turn on him, which sucks. I wish our world didn’t allow him to get this far.

      • Donkter@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Having watched interviews with him it’s an interesting case study cause you can kind of track how he just fell into it. He didn’t start as a rich kid, he lucked into the money with Bitcoin and started making random high-budget YouTube videos (his videos were always on the slop spectrum but in the beginning they were genuine). Over the years he has just devolved into chasing the views. He thought (and probably still thinks) that he does it for fun and it’s just his nature to follow the views but it’s pretty clear to anyone watching that fame via YouTube has changed him significantly.