MrBeast is a YouTube sensation. His success on YouTube is like no other YouTuber ever seen before, with his videos averaging over 100 million views. Alongside being popular, one thing to know about MrBeast is that he’s rich. Insanely. Rich. It’s important to note that these two aspects of MrBeast are positively associated. Obviously, the more successful he gets, the richer he gets, but what is interesting to note is the power this money enables him with, as his richness directly funds his ever-growing success.
Now, perhaps not everyone is familiar with MrBeast and the operations of his channel, so here is a quick overview. James Stephen Donaldson, popularly known as MrBeast, has been making videos on YouTube since 2012. His videos began to take off in 2017 after he began doing multiple challenges of saying things 100,000 times. Since then, his challenges have only gotten more extreme and now involve other people; whether those be his friends or random strangers. He is now most popular for hosting insane and grand challenges in which he gives away large sums of money to people.
What is interesting about MrBeast is the public’s very split opinion of him. On one side people call him the most generous and selfless man to ever walk the earth, while on the other people say he is a greedy and exploitative capitalist. I feel there can be a middle ground though. One can acknowledge the objective good he is doing by giving away his money to those in need but also call into question the intentions behind these grandly generous actions that are filmed and posted. Performative kindness is a strange topic. I think it’s important to remain skeptical of influencers rather than fall into the trap of parasocial admiration that lies on the line of idolization.
Idolization can be dangerous for many reasons. It essentially labels the idol, whoever that is, as infallible. On top of that, if the idol is a known influencer, not only will people never question said person, they will feel inclined to follow and defend them. This essentially means the idol can do whatever they want without any fear of consequence. We all know the quote “With great power comes great responsibility” (an adage popularized by Spider-Man). Well, MrBeast seems to only care about how many views he can get. And no, this is not bad. YouTube is kind of like a competition when it comes to views and he is winning by a long shot. I get why he gets the amount of views he does. His titles sound clickbait-y and he ends up delivering. However, the power and loads of money he has basically make it so he can subject people to any challenge his mind comes up with. No matter how psychologically damaging the challenge may be for the chosen subjects, MrBeast’s army of supporters stay by his side praising and defending him.
It feels kind of dystopian, doesn’t it? I mean it is consensual and there is the option of leaving, but him dangling half a million dollars in people’s faces like this while challenging them to confinement for 100 days gives…strange vibes. A lot of people on X feel the same.
MrBeast is exploiting people in need of money for a viral video. This is not to say he is not generous. Two things can be true; while he is using these people as resources for his own gain, he is (if they complete the challenge) going to be giving them half a million dollars. In this world, money is power. This feeds into the strange vibe I was talking about. That tweet clearly painted to me how powerful MrBeast is. It seems like if he really wanted to, he could conduct a Hunger Games. Except obviously he does not have the power to kill people. But with a million dollars on the line, who knows what the people in the arena will do?
Successful, idolized, and rich beyond comprehension, MrBeast has built himself an empire. It is interesting to see how his charitable actions directly make him bigger in terms of fame and power. He is certainly making a difference in the world; though the public’s split perception of him has made it so that it’s arguable whether the overall long-term difference he’s making is good or bad. My opinion is that he is a generous but not very humble person. Having said that, I remain intrigued and scared for his future content.