The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.19 Why MrBeast Attacks Are Getting Worse, With Boycotts and Conspiracy Theories Growing, & Today's News

Starting point is 00:00:00 Republicans and right-wingers are attacking Mr. Beast right now. Right now, we're seeing exactly what I said would happen. Last week, Mr. Beast took to Twitter to defend his friend Chris Tyson, who recently revealed that he's been receiving hormone replacement therapy, with Chris not coming out as any specific identity yet, but in his Twitter bio saying he uses any pronouns. And while literally the only thing Mr. Beast has done is not actively kick out one of his oldest friends from his videos

Starting point is 00:00:19 and responded to a tweet with, yeah, this is getting absurd, Chris is not my nightmare, he's my fucking friend and things are fine. All this transphobia is starting to piss me off. Based off of some of the reactions we've seen from right-wingers, you would have thought like Mr. Beast launched a video titled like,

Starting point is 00:00:31 last to leave the circle gets free gender reassignment surgery. Though I will say we've seen a range of reactions using different strategies. Some, like Ben Shapiro, are framing it as, you know, Mr. Beast is actually kind of the victim of the situation. Right, Shapiro's saying he doesn't want to expose his kids

Starting point is 00:00:43 to content featuring trans or gender nonconforming people and that other parents would have those same questions and concerns. And that's not the fault of Mr. Beast. That's the fault of Chris Tyson. He's more playing the business angle like we've seen others do. Applying pressure but not fully going after Mr. Beast's throat just yet. But then you have others going a little bit further like Matt Walsh saying Mr. Beast is sold out to the trans cult.

Starting point is 00:01:01 And then you have others going even further like Stephen Crowder saying that Mr. Beast is shoving the trans agenda on children. And in that, among a number of transphobic things, he says, you know, step one is to start the subtle infusion into children's programming. But then making it sound like Mr. Beast is part of some like larger batshit conspiracy, which again, all of this is happening. Mr. Beast is being targeted because he replied to a tweet saying he didn't like people being transphobic to his friend. Also, when I say people, I mean like literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. He just didn't leave his friend out to dry.

Starting point is 00:01:27 You know, looking at this whole situation, there's really no reason to believe that this campaign against Mr. Beast is going to stop. And that's for a number of reasons, including for these right-wing talking heads being anti-trans is a winning culture war issue when it comes to their fan base. And with Mr. Beast having literally one of the biggest audiences in the world for content that is inherently non-political, there's a lot of views, a lot of subscribers, and a lot of money to be siphoned.

Starting point is 00:01:47 And so really the only thing I don't know with this situation is how Mr. Beast is going to move forward, because this is really the first time that his business in any way has been kind of challenged. Very well different, it makes me think back to like Taylor Swift when she was being pressured by the people around her to not speak out about politics,

Starting point is 00:02:01 but she still chose to despite the risk of alienating half of her audience. So obviously with Taylor Swift, that was more proactive rather than kind of having to be reactive. But as far as how all this is actually going to play out, we're going to have to wait to see. And in the meantime, I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below. And then, I guess really quick, I should address this since it shows up on camera. This is not a fashion choice. I had an accident on my hike yesterday. Wish it was a cooler story. I was finishing up a hike. I was on the descent part. I was kind of tired. tired This is kind of older couple coming towards me the the path in general was narrow

Starting point is 00:02:27 But there was a spot that I could jump to to get out of the way so I do that It's a little hop the the ground that has a lot of loose rocks is essentially like gravel I land weird hand slam into the ground cuz you know I got a protective moneymaker It was like a three tiny chunks of skin will call it and now covered in blood and dirt and of course You know it stung and stuff But you know what actually stung the worst the couple that i was getting out of the way of they didn't stop or even say in passing like you okay it was like i didn't exist and it like it killed my faith in humanity for the the rest of the the walk back to the car where i could bandage myself up and i just

Starting point is 00:02:57 keep trying to tell myself that that that was an outlier that 99 or maybe nine out of ten of the people that are watching this without me being me, they see someone eat shit. They go like, Hey, you okay? Even if it's a question filled with a little bit of laughter because you watch someone eat shit in front of you. And I understand in no way am I like the victim of the situation. I was just so, I was so disappointed. I was like, fuck, is this where we're at? But anyway, that's just me explaining why I'm going to have a bandage on my hand for the next little bit. Also, I won't be showing you the wound in this video. It still might be up on my Instagram story, but I feel like I traumatized some people by posting that.

Starting point is 00:03:26 Yeah, that was a story about nothing. And then, babies screaming, it's one of the worst sounds in the world. And it's a sound most of us will have to live through at some point in our lives, even if we don't have kids. Right until the robots take over and we all get our private jet packs, like we're gonna have to take public transportation

Starting point is 00:03:39 to some degree. And there, there's always a chance that there might be a baby on the flight. And we all react differently to it. Before I had kids, not long, long ago, I would get very angry. I'd be feel, I would feel very personally victimized. And then when I became a parent, I realized, oh no, my God, those poor parents, not only are they having to deal with and try to calm down a crying baby, they just, they feel all the eyes on them, judging them, hating them. Or fast forward

Starting point is 00:04:00 to now, and I just turn on noise canceling. And I just, I go about my day and ignore other humans like a regular person. But understandably, everyone reacts different to a crying baby on a plane. With one man's reaction going incredibly viral and spawning a massive debate. As the video opens with a group of three flight crew members huddled around a guy while a nearby passenger records. Apparently the flight was stuck in a holding pattern for weather and the guy says that the baby's been crying for 40 minutes. When the staff asks him to stop yelling, he responds with this take. The video is almost four minutes long. The guy's yelling for nearly all of it. Well, the whole thing's incredibly off-putting. At one point,

Starting point is 00:04:42 it got so bizarre. I was like, is this a bit, is this like, is this a prank? Put cuffs on that kid, I'm good with doing the check. I don't mind the cuffs, I'm a child. the kid is a child. And once we get to the end of the video, he's seen arguing with security in the airport before being escorted away. You know, the response here has been mixed.

Starting point is 00:04:57 Some criticizing the parents for not calming the child down, saying 40 minutes is excessive, or even saying babies don't belong on planes. So on the other end, you have people saying, if you can't handle a baby crying in a public space, don't go in public spaces. And as far as my takeaway, I mean, one, we all understand this man snapped. Like, in no world am I defending him. But as far as the reaction to the baby, I think it really depends more on the context. Like, is the parent genuinely not trying? Most often than not, that's not the

Starting point is 00:05:21 case. Because again, the sound of a crying baby is one of the worst sounds in the world and they're closest to that sound. But on the other side of this, I understand the frustration of all the other passengers. You know, they made the choice not to drag their loin fruit onto the plane or have them in the first place. And yet someone else's problem is now their problem and they're stuck in it. I get it. Again, it doesn't excuse this man's behavior. But I do think it would make sense for airlines to be able to offer certain flights without kids under a certain age. But hey, that's a story. Some of my mind was rambling, and now I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then, never before in human history have you seen a human specimen quite like this. Meet the 47-year-old Scottish

Starting point is 00:05:55 ultramarathon runner who this month got third place in a 50-mile race from Manchester to Liverpool. And her stats are out of this fucking world with tracking data showing she ran a mile in just one minute and 40 seconds. Now, when I say that, it might raise a red flag for you because that's 36 miles per hour. Not even a methed out Usain Bolt's running that fast. How'd she do it? Is she super human?

Starting point is 00:06:16 No, the answer is always the simplest thing. She just cheated. Apparently she took a car for around two and a half miles of the race and then just got out and kept running. So she's now been disqualified, but her defense is she wasn't actually trying to cheat. Saying what had actually happened was a non-malicious miscommunication. Telling the BBC she got lost halfway through the race, her leg felt sore, she began to limp. So when she sees a friend on the side of the course, she says she accepted a ride in his car to the next checkpoint to tell Marshall she was pulling out of the race.

Starting point is 00:06:40 But claiming when she got there, the Marshalls told her you will hate yourself if you stop. So she said she continued non-competitively, even saying she chose not to overtake the runner in front so as not to interfere in the race. But then when she crossed the finish line non-competitively, there was a medal and a third place trophy just suddenly thrust into her arms and she went along with it posing for photos. And later telling the BBC, she kind of just spaced out and wasn't thinking clearly, saying I was tired and jet lagged and felt sick. I made a massive error accepting the trophy and should have handed it back. But you have people saying that excuse is a little bit suspect because the

Starting point is 00:07:08 race's director said she didn't make any effort to return the award over the subsequent seven days. Though you have defenders saying to be fair, it would be very odd if she intentionally cheated here. This race is just so small compared to some of the other ones she's competed at, like the 255 mile ultra marathon in Taiwan that she won setting a world record. And then let's talk about you beautiful bastards for a minute. You know, we're only 11 issues in the newly launched morning daily

Starting point is 00:07:27 dip newsletter and the feedback's been amazing. You know, the feedback's one of the specific reasons that we launched it. Each day, tens of thousands of you are reading and sharing the newsletter, thousands more taking their daily dipper polls. Sometimes it gives us a greater understanding about which stories you want to see more of, as well as extra insight on stories and topics that we talk about. Like we learned with EVs, 81% of you don't have one yet, but you want an electric vehicle. When we talked about that creepy politician out of Missouri that was talking about like kids getting married at 12, we learned that 72% of you think that the legal marriage age should be at least 18. Also, while it's an incredibly biased poll, I was happy to see that around 90% of you are loving the Daily Dip so far,

Starting point is 00:07:59 which honestly I'll say is way higher than we expected at launch because, you know, we're figuring it out what we enjoy most, Which is also, I gotta say, if you haven't signed up yet, do it. Join the Daily Dip fam. It's free. You receive quick taste of the news that you might've missed with the PDS along with extra news stories,

Starting point is 00:08:13 as well as our daily polls, fun facts, and more. And it'll keep you informed, sometimes put a smile on your face and let you get back to your day in three to five minutes. So just go to thedailydip.co or click the link in the description to join for free. And then Fox News and Dominion have reached a massive settlement, but this is not where it ends.co or click the link in the description to join for free. And then Fox News and Dominion have reached a massive settlement,

Starting point is 00:08:26 but this is not where it ends. Because yes, the two have been engaged in a lengthy, high-profile legal battle over claims the network aired election-wise, with a long-awaited trial supposed to kick off yesterday. But instead, the two sides reached a last-minute agreement to settle for a whopping $787 million. That is how much it was worth to them to make sure that Rupert Murdoch or any of the Fox News talking heads did not have to speak under oath in court. With some outlets reporting that this is the

Starting point is 00:08:47 single biggest publicly disclosed settlement ever in an American defamation case. Though, notably, it is still way less than the $1.6 billion Dominion initially saw with the suit. Now, notably here, the exact terms of the deal have not been made clear to the public, but we saw in a statement yesterday Fox saying, We acknowledge the court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects Fox's continued commitment "'to the highest journalistic standards.'" And that specific admission there is actually super important.

Starting point is 00:09:11 It is a key thing to take away because it could have implications for the other legal battles that Fox is still facing because the network is also facing a $2.7 billion defamation suit from another voting technology company, Smartmatic, with that being over similar claims that Fox made. What's more, experts say that the historically high amount

Starting point is 00:09:25 Fox paid in the Dominion settlement also sets a precedent for how much it'll pay in similar cases like the Smartmatic suit. But even with the amounts that we're talking about here, you have some saying it's still not enough of a deterrent. Some mentioning specific numbers, noting that last year, Fox News reportedly brought in just under $14 billion.

Starting point is 00:09:39 So the settlement we've seen here, the possible settlements we'll see in the future, while sizable, still kind of can be categorized as the cost of doing business. So the specific business in question here being lying to the American public, sowing doubt in democracy, which is why so many wanted to see this go to trial to see what actually would come out on the stand. But hey, that's where we are now. We're going to have to wait to see how all this plays out. And then there are a lot of people that are pissed off about the Paralympics TikTok account. So let's talk about it, because this controversy largely deals with the official Paralympics page sharing videos of their athletes on kind of meme-y

Starting point is 00:10:07 sounds. Those videos sparking some heated debate, some calling those videos wildly offensive, arguing it's completely dehumanizing behavior, saying Paralympians deserve the same amount of respect as any other world-class performing athlete, and saying a TikTok account full of videos with a joke being their disabilities is disgusting and unprofessional. Some also comparing the Paralympics page

Starting point is 00:10:39 to the Olympics page, where there are still some meme-y TikToks, but most are just celebrating the athleticism of the competitors rather than kind of being jokey. And so with this debate growing, we saw several Paralympians being interviewed. And there we saw mixed reactions. You had a British table tennis player who supports the page, saying, a lot of the videos I've seen on TikTok of people complaining are from able-bodied people, and saying, we can also make light of our situation. And if I fall out of my chair in front of my friends and I'm not injured, we would make fun of it and we would

Starting point is 00:11:02 laugh. Also another supporter, a wheelchair basketball athlete saying, the Paralympics is a great opportunity to celebrate difference. And if we're going to celebrate the great things, we can also laugh at the funny things. And arguing, I think doing these videos and getting people to view them is just basically getting us notice and recognizing it's okay to have a disability and it's fine. Normalize it, feel comfortable around it and have a laugh with it. But there were also people who saw it differently. Like one English amputee soccer player saying that instead of promoting incredible athletes, the page just mocks them for views.

Starting point is 00:11:27 And that was a very common critique that we saw, that they've kind of lost sight of their athletes in favor of engagement. However, again on the flip side, you had others arguing that the engagement has brought more awareness to the Paralympics and these athletes in general. And according to the International Paralympic Committee,

Starting point is 00:11:38 the person running the account is a Paralympian themselves. Who they say is, quote, "'created a strong following through edgy and unique content' and saying the goal of the page is to educate an otherwise oblivious audience about the Paralympics and the achievements of its athletes, which is why ultimately with this story, I don't want to pass this question off to everyone. Specifically, if you are a part of the disabled community, what are your thoughts on this? Do you feel like this is an in on the joke, great way to get attention? Or do you feel like, no, the specific attention that comes from these

Starting point is 00:12:02 kind of videos, it's bad, that you're losing humanity in the pursuit of engagement. Any and all thoughts, I'd love to hear from you. And then, if you are a content creator, you need to disclose when you're doing ads. This is not a pro tip. It is the literal minimum bar. Otherwise, it's just an eventuality you are going to get in legal trouble.

Starting point is 00:12:16 And you're gonna find yourself in an insider report like these weight loss influencers like Jordan just did. Because she and many others worked with an app called DietBet. And for the last five years, the general plan was to get followers to join the app, join a weight loss challenge, and then the creator gets a small cut.

Starting point is 00:12:29 But the issue that popped up for a lot was it was never clear that it was an ad and their followers didn't always know, which is a major problem. And while yes, it is on the creator to put the disclosure, it didn't help that DietBet and its parent company, Waybetter, also didn't make it clear in contracts

Starting point is 00:12:41 that the creators had to disclose the relationship. Even giving examples of posts that explicitly lacked the standard hashtag ad or hashtag sponsored, also didn't make it clear in contracts that the creators had to disclose the relationship. But even giving examples of posts that explicitly lacked the standard hashtag ad or hashtag sponsored, which arguably made it seem like it wasn't necessary. And so now a lot of these creators are in a tough spot because they're gonna be lucky

Starting point is 00:12:53 if the FTC doesn't come after them. And they're possibly gonna take a hit from their audiences who go, oh, so how am I supposed to trust you? Because again, the very least you can do with your audience is to let them know when they're being advertised to. And then first it was the French, then the Brits, then the Germans, and now the Canadians are joining this chorus of workers around the world saying enough is enough when it comes to inflation. With nearly a third of federal workers there, or over 155,000 people walking off the job this morning, making

Starting point is 00:13:17 this the biggest strike Canada has seen in over three decades. And the union's demands mostly focus on pay as well as other issues like remote work and working conditions. But the first group of 35,000 tax workers initially asking for a more than 30% wage increase over three years, and the second group of some 120,000 Treasury Board workers asking for just 13.5% over the same period. We have the Canadian government saying its proposal of just 9% is fair and competitive, and arguing that the union's demands are unaffordable and would severely impact its ability to deliver services to Canadians. To which seemingly the workers responded, we'll show you what severely impacted really means. Because while essential services will remain open, others may be either delayed or just shut down. With this

Starting point is 00:13:51 including passport renewals and immigration, airport and border crossing, and everyone's number one favorite, tax returns. With those being a key thing because the deadline for filings is May 1st. But while talks are ongoing throughout this strike, there are a couple of reasons why this might not end in the union's favor. First, both sides have actually been negotiating for two years now, so the fact that they still haven't come to even a tentative agreement is very telling. And secondly, the government could pass mandatory back-to-work legislation, which is exactly what happened after the last federal strike of this size back in 1991. Though, I will say this time it's a little more up in the air whether Justin Trudeau could actually muster the parliamentary support for such a bill. Sexy Phil, he's not sexy.

Starting point is 00:14:27 Sexy Phil, he's sexy.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.19 Why MrBeast Attacks Are Getting Worse, With Boycotts and Conspiracy Theories Growing, & Today's News

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