I have mixed feelings about this. The consequentialist part of me thinks that this great. The virtue ethicist part of me flinches away from this. I am happy to see people who have unmet desires (medical care, improved housing, education, food, etc.) getting access to money which allows them to meet those desires. The video also feels very manipulative.
There is something about poverty porn. The heartfelt music while we are being shown video clips of a child getting a single meal per day, the slow motion video of people smiling and laughing with inspirational music and narration about the good things GiveDirectly will do, a clip of a group of children performing a song… I know that there has been a lot written about exploitation and stereotypes when it comes to development and aid. And I can’t exactly claim that there is something wrong about using standard video editing techniques or selecting a soundtrack that sparks the emotional reaction you want in your audience. I also know that plenty of kids start performing what they think you expect as soon as they see that they are being recorded, and this happens in tourism situations (giving the tourists what they want, in a sense).
The knife sharpening seemed like pretty standard performative YouTube behavior. A couple of outsiders goofing around and being the center of attention, a large crowd of people standing around watching, a friendly and low-stakes rivalry, affectations, etc. I’m aware that “competitions” like this are common for these kinds of videos. And maybe a video lacking that kind of competition would be shared less, and spread the message less.
If this generates lots of donations that otherwise wouldn’t have happened, if this reduces the suffering in the world, then who am I to criticize or whine or complain about it?
EDIT: Of course, a perfectly appropriate response would be “your approval is not the criteria by which I measure worth, Joseph.” I do understand that in a certain sense it is kind of silly for random internet strangers to share to what extent they approve or disapprove of other people’s actions. Please interpret all of this as musings and explorations rather than as harsh and confident judgements.
First and foremost Jimmy wants to create a compelling story that gets people to watch. Maybe it all could be done a bit less dramatically, but overall I think he does a good job of representing people as just needing some resources and opportunities to build a better life for themselves.
At the end of the day, is the world better off for having this video in it and all the good done in its production? Yes, I think it’s a net positive.
At the end of the day, is the world better off for having this video in it and all the good done in its production? Yes, I think it’s a net positive.
Perhaps this is obvious, but we can simultaneously believe that having this video is better than not having it while also disliking some aspects of it and wishing that we could have had something better still. Joseph is quite clear that his feelings are mixed, not unambiguously negative.
Neither Joseph nor I were taking a black-or-white view of things. My “is the world better” thought experiment is merely a first-order approximation of a complex issue. I apologize if that was not clear.
Perhaps the virtue ethicist part of you may feel partly assuaged by GiveDirectly’s blog post about the project? I’m thinking in particular of these sections (warning—long quotes):
GiveDirectly confirmed recipients and communities want to be featured, as always:
For all media projects, we first consult with village leadership to confirm their interest and consent for participating. For this video, we also met with local and national government officials to confirm if they were supportive of such a large spotlight.
Journalists and content creators always follow this guidance when visiting GiveDirectly programs. Profiled recipients first give informed consent before sharing their story. You can read our consent forms here→
Beast Philanthropy centered the local culture:
They regularly solicited input from our local staff about whether approaches and portrayals would be received well by the community and had us give notes on the video edit.
They focused on English-speakers so recipients could share more of their story in their own voice.
They worked to capture the cultural specificity of the community, forgoing stock music for natural sounds→
After filming, GiveDirectly’s safeguarding team interviewed 9 of the filmed recipients. You can read their feedback here – some highlights:
Recipients enjoyed being on camera.
“The way they came and interacted with me and my family, that’s what I liked most. I felt in place and free with them.”
“I was very happy and I welcomed them. I showed them my land agreement together with the land, iron sheets (for my new roof) and some household materials.”
Their motivations for participating varied.
“I did accept to participate because of the challenges and poverty that my community members are facing. I needed to represent their views.”
“I needed to tell how happy I felt and also to show the rest of the community members that when given something small or large you can always use it in a way that can help raise your standard of living.”
Two gave us actionable feedback for how we can improve next time.
“I was relaxed and very happy, though my husband got anxious about the number of GiveDirectly staff who visited us.”
“I felt good about it, though I feel I should also be shown the photos and videos to watch.”
Later this month, we’ll screen the video for the featured community dubbed into Nga’Karimojong (their language), followed by a focus group discussion, then update this blog with their thoughts on the final video.
This was to me a surprising amount of beneficiary thoughtfulness for a MrBeast video (admittedly I don’t watch his content often), albeit in line with my expectations for GiveDirectly.
I have mixed feelings about this. The consequentialist part of me thinks that this great. The virtue ethicist part of me flinches away from this. I am happy to see people who have unmet desires (medical care, improved housing, education, food, etc.) getting access to money which allows them to meet those desires. The video also feels very manipulative.
There is something about poverty porn. The heartfelt music while we are being shown video clips of a child getting a single meal per day, the slow motion video of people smiling and laughing with inspirational music and narration about the good things GiveDirectly will do, a clip of a group of children performing a song… I know that there has been a lot written about exploitation and stereotypes when it comes to development and aid. And I can’t exactly claim that there is something wrong about using standard video editing techniques or selecting a soundtrack that sparks the emotional reaction you want in your audience. I also know that plenty of kids start performing what they think you expect as soon as they see that they are being recorded, and this happens in tourism situations (giving the tourists what they want, in a sense).
The knife sharpening seemed like pretty standard performative YouTube behavior. A couple of outsiders goofing around and being the center of attention, a large crowd of people standing around watching, a friendly and low-stakes rivalry, affectations, etc. I’m aware that “competitions” like this are common for these kinds of videos. And maybe a video lacking that kind of competition would be shared less, and spread the message less.
If this generates lots of donations that otherwise wouldn’t have happened, if this reduces the suffering in the world, then who am I to criticize or whine or complain about it?
EDIT: Of course, a perfectly appropriate response would be “your approval is not the criteria by which I measure worth, Joseph.” I do understand that in a certain sense it is kind of silly for random internet strangers to share to what extent they approve or disapprove of other people’s actions. Please interpret all of this as musings and explorations rather than as harsh and confident judgements.
First and foremost Jimmy wants to create a compelling story that gets people to watch. Maybe it all could be done a bit less dramatically, but overall I think he does a good job of representing people as just needing some resources and opportunities to build a better life for themselves.
At the end of the day, is the world better off for having this video in it and all the good done in its production? Yes, I think it’s a net positive.
Perhaps this is obvious, but we can simultaneously believe that having this video is better than not having it while also disliking some aspects of it and wishing that we could have had something better still. Joseph is quite clear that his feelings are mixed, not unambiguously negative.
Neither Joseph nor I were taking a black-or-white view of things. My “is the world better” thought experiment is merely a first-order approximation of a complex issue. I apologize if that was not clear.
Perhaps the virtue ethicist part of you may feel partly assuaged by GiveDirectly’s blog post about the project? I’m thinking in particular of these sections (warning—long quotes):
This was to me a surprising amount of beneficiary thoughtfulness for a MrBeast video (admittedly I don’t watch his content often), albeit in line with my expectations for GiveDirectly.