Is an act of kindness invalidated if you use the act for personal gain?

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

I bring this up because of what happened with Mr. Beast and the internet's response specifically. He funded the surgeries of 1000 people internationally to restore their eyesight in exchange for him to be able to film and monetize the video. The argument could be made that this line of entertainment (making people's lives better for the heartwarming effect the story tells on the audience) falls in the same line of voluntourism when you volunteer to build a school in a 3rd world nation despite knowing nothing about construction.

With voluntourism specifically, people in the area will go out of their way to make the children seem sadder and more pathetic to gain sympathy, telling them to hide their toys so they get new ones, put dirt on their faces so they seem more helpless, etc. I don't know that Mr. Beast went out of his way to ask these people who he gave surgeries to make their lives seem somehow worse than they were for the sake of the huge happy turnaround when they got their sight back, but I'm curious what others' thoughts are on it.

His entire platform is built around being rich and using those resources to give back to people for the sake of views and monetizing his videos. It's part of his income, does that invalidate the kindness he might have intended?

[Weapon77]

Eh, actions are actions. Our opinions of them do not change what they are. Smoking cigarettes doesn't change its affect on the body just because of our opinion or our reasons behind it (it'll still cause harm). Planting a tree doesn't stop being beneficial because of our motivation. So monetizing a video that gives a ton of people something beneficial to them doesn't become bad just because of possible motivations behind it. For all we know, he's only monetizing it so he can afford to oay for all of those surgeries AND raise awareness. But once again, those are just things that happene that hapoen to benefit some people whole harming no one. Technically, kindness is usually defined as something that brings benefit and causes no harm. It really depends on of we decide that mutual benefit isn't kind. But if we relied solely on people dojng things that ONLY benefit other people, our species would go extinct or succumb to the people who only do what benefits them. So isn't transactional kindness the way our species best functions?

[NamerOfStars]

Not at all- why do you assume you only do something for one reason? Hell, why do you think you CAN do something for only one reason? Put a coin atop your thumb and flip it- what determines which side it lands on? The forces you placed on it in flipping it? Yes- but also the size, shape, and position of the facings of the coin, the gravity of the Earth, the movement of the air around it, the density and humidity of said air, the rotation of the Earth, the pull of the Sun, the magpie the swoops down and grabs it out of the air and flies off with it, and so on.

It's no different with human actions- if anything, it's MORE complex. I mean, he's monetizing to turn a profit with these videos- but he's investing that money in helping people, so the problem is... where, exactly?

[DaveJord]

Yup, its invalidate if you do something expecting to get something back in exchange is not a true act of kindness nothing really is... even you do something just to make yourself feel better you're still doing it to satisfy your own need to feel better.

Which is still better then not doing nice things verse doing nothing.

[jennifer_bloom]

I would say his behaviour is incorrect but I can understand why he did it. When I do good deeds, that help others, I sometimes have a desire to tell people because I want them to share in my joy that I helped somebody else. Over the years I've learned to curb my appetite for recognition but it was a temptation for a while.

[NathanDavis]

Mr Beast is not a "rich guy trying to get famous"

he is just a guy that monetizes one video... and the money he earns on such video gets invested on the next video and so on...

he's been up to 10million, and as low as 500 dollars...

a lot of people do not bother to check the few interviews he has done about this which is something he gets asked on every single video... lol

[Danael31]

I've heard about the story, but I've heard more about people giving to the homeless in a video that they monetized just to be famous. That makes me sick, but it is the truth they helped once. But it is also true that most of the time they don't care, and worse, they make money on poverty, etc. I despise that personally, that's hypocrisy.

[Leopard23]

It's a moral grey area. I don't think it's kindness on his part if it's the way you describe it more like a mutually beneficial arrangement. He makes money and they get their sight back.

[DevikaButts95]

It is near impossible to be actually altruistic. Even if you wanted to try and be kind just to be altruistic, that in turn becomes personal gain.

[NotTacocaT6969]

Yes and no.


It makes the act of kindness less sincere, but the positive effects still count.

[gorydetails]

I am going to say 'no'. Because everyone who gives does so for some modicum of return. Even the satisfaction and emotional lift you get from helping others are getting something in return according to some.