Jimmy Donaldson’s video for cataracts sparks controversy

In his most recent video, Beast, a YouTuber known for his extravagant gifts and philanthropic stunts, paid for 1,000 surgeries to treat curable blindness. Although many viewers praised the creator, the stunt drew mixed reactions on social media.

Beast's acts of kindness are just for the views. Others wondered why the surgery is so inaccessible, using Mr. Jimmy Donaldson, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Donaldson posted a video on Sunday, saying that many people with cataracts could be cured with a 10 minute surgery. Cataracts, which can obscure vision by obscuring the lens of a person's eye, are one of the leading causes of vision impairment and blindness, according to the World Health Organization.

We have all the technology to fix it, Mr. Smith said. By replacing the clouded natural lens with a clear artificial one, Beast said.

Nearly half of the population with curable blindness doesn't have access to this surgery, he said. I wanted to give this to as many people as possible. The creator's video is the latest in a series of extravagant — and widely criticized stunts.

In 2021 he hosted a real-life squid game, inspired by the South Korean Netflix drama, that followed poor participants as they competed in life-or-death games for a chance to win a fortune. Beast s competition contended in nonfatal challenges in hopes of winning $456,000. Although his video received hundreds of millions of views, many criticized it for not focusing on the point of the show, which was a critique of the wealth disparity in Korea.

Donaldson is known for his charitable videos. The second channel, Beast Philanthropy, donates all of its revenue to various charities.

His latest video has caused some online to accuse the creator of being charitable for views. One Twitter user wrote that there was a realization that we have moved to the native advertising model of charity. We can never stop doing acts of kindness from brand building. It is the never ending cycle of content creation that makes Mr. The Beast feel insidious, they wrote in a separate tweet. The idea that if the camera weren't on to feed the machine wouldn't happen. We rely on YouTube views instead of competent government for assistance, which is a dystopian thought. Others online did not criticize Donaldson directly, but expressed frustration over the fact that the video even exists.

Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer and political pundit, called it a deeply, deeply frustrating concept in a recent stream.

I watched the video and I'm filled with rage that we shut off access to a 10 minute procedure because we paywalled it and decided that some people just can't get it, Piker said. It is so insanely frustrating that people who are too poor can't see how one YouTube guy decides to make content out of it. Artist Brandon Bird wrote in a tweet that he believes that a stunt would not need to exist in a healthy society.

People would simply get surgery if they needed it, he wrote, neither misfortune nor acts of kindness would be paraded for views, and something I think is under-remarked upon by people who wouldn't need to be megarich to do something good.