MrBeast Cured The Blind, And Sparked A Fierce Ethics Debate

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.

This led to some Twitter users voicing their discomfort, even labeling the video “demonic,” and mocking MrBeast.

In response, MrBeast’s fans grew defensive, pointing to all the acts of charity the YouTuber has funded, which likely amounts to more do-gooding than all of his critics combined; after all, most people just don’t have the inclination, or the funds, to pour money into charity.

Surely, in a world of exploitation and widening wealth inequality, isn’t it preferable to have at least one massively wealthy person out there throwing cash into good causes? There are, after all, plenty of creators out there who don’t even pretend to be interested in charity.

But many of the critiques aimed at MrBeast’s video were not aimed at the YouTuber, but the system that incentivizes this kind of content.

Political streamer Hasan Piker watched MrBeast’s “curing blindness” video on Twitch, and stated that watching it made him “filled with rage.” Piker went on to explain, “We shut off access to a 10-minute procedure because we paywalled it and decided that some people simply can’t get it.”

Piker continued to express his frustration, stating that it shouldn’t be up to “one YouTube guy” to provide surgery to people who are too poor to afford it themselves.

MrBeast is happy to take the credit for enriching these people’s lives, but would it be so difficult to take a few seconds per video to explain the conditions that led to his subject’s suffering?

To his credit, MrBeast did acknowledge the systemic injustice in a tweet that questioned why governments aren’t following in his footsteps, writing:

“I don’t understand why curable blindness is a thing. Why don’t governments step in and help?”

Piker responded to his question, writing:

”Plenty of capitalist nations have decided that healthcare shouldn’t be paywalled. unfortunately the wealthiest nation on earth ain’t one of them.”

The subjects of MrBeast’s videos are surely blessed by his interventions, but the concern is that many of the children who watch his videos are absorbing a particular ideology; that the only way to change the world is to get incredibly rich, throw some of that cash in the right direction, and make sure there’s a camera pointing your way.

There’s something bleak about that.