If viewers don’t really see him having fun, that’s by design. Donaldson has outright said he sees “personality” as a limitation for growth, once noting in a podcast that hinging your content on who you are as a person means risking not being liked. And if someone doesn’t like a creator as a person, they may not give the videos a chance.
McLoughlin’s comments hit at another bleak possibility: Viewers may hardly see MrBeast having fun in his videos because he’s not actually having a good time. In podcasts, Donaldson tells hosts that he goes so hard, he won’t stop working until he burns out and isn’t able to do anything at all. With a laugh, he admits that he has a mental breakdown “every other week.” If he ever stops for a breather, he says, he gets depressed. MrBeast is so laser-focused on generating content on YouTube that he describes his personality as “YouTube.” He acknowledges that this brutal approach to videos, which has cratered many creators over the years, is not healthy. “People shouldn’t be like me. I don’t have a life, I don’t have a personality”
While his free time seems minuscule, the rare times he does pull away from work are for dates with his girlfriend that center around activities that could enrich his videos, because he considers a single hour of a date to be worth $100K had it been dedicated to work instead.
Absolutely brutal indictment of algorithmic capitalism.
Hot take: I suspect more often than not that’s an Op. Well not a literal Op I guess, more like kayfabe. Billionaires actually fucking love their lives, they’re drinking wine on yachts, doing drugs you haven’t even heard of, going to orgies (consensual or otherwise). But they have to make it seem like they deserve this lifestyle so they tell everyone that actually they hustle 24/7 to manage these massive economic powerhouses that if collapsed would leave the world in shambles, so they act like it sucks, and really they’d probably be happier if they just lived the simple life of a tax accountant of whatever, all the cocaine orgies are just a salve for the misery of their responsibilities!
Honestly I think the left should drop this whole “oppressive systems hurt the oppressors too” line. Yeah it’s true sometimes but I think the people on top are overall having a way better time than everyone else, acting like they’re actually all super depressed just humanizes them and makes the poor think they don’t have it so bad, making it less likely they’ll get the guillotines out.
Either way their problems are fake rich people shit, mine are real