mr beast

hi, i’m not sure if this kind of post is allowed on the sub so i hope this is okay.

i just finished watching season 2 of squid game, and my personal thoughts on the show aside, it is astounding that some people watch something like this, with so much gore and violence and emotion, and either take away so little from it or take away the entirely wrong thing. the show purposely and explicitly talks about the exploitation of people desperate to make money and get out of their debts, and the lengths they’re willing to go. it’s a dystopian setting that isn’t too far from where we are and one that should encourage some sort of reflection, imo.

but then i turn on my TV, or go on youtube, and what do i see? ads for Beast Games, a squid game parody by mr beast. 1000 people competing for 5 million dollars. and as a refresher i went to his youtube channel and his entire page is just “i made 100 people fight for $250,000” or making people do these insane things for money, “surviving the wilderness” especially.

i know there’s a lot of philanthropic work that goes on there too, but i just feel like mr beast’s exploitation of the working class is gross and i wish there was someone who spoke about it more from this angle. lots of allegations have come out about him and his productions, which i think deserve a lot more attention than they’re getting, but i just think this is crazy. people who have worked with him have called him psychotic and money driven, but i feel like you can gather that from his titles and apparent world-view alone.

i had to get this off my chest because i feel like i must be insane sometimes, watching so many backwards, unfair, and cruel things go on, with minimal intervention and sometimes celebration. i get his audience is mostly children so i’m not expecting them to do much… and maybe that’s why these stories that come out about him don’t have much of an impact. 7 year olds don’t use twitter. but anyway, yeah, the whole situation is gross.

i was thinking the hbomberguy community might have some good thoughts/opinions on this sort of stuff in media and it’d be nice to have a conversation about it, especially if anyone else feels this way. i’d love if we’d get a 3 hour video where mr beast ends up being the main subject and an end is put to him. but i don’t think that’s coming any time soon lol.