tldr; self licensing effect might result in it being more harmful than there being no teamseas. They should have aimed their efforts more upstream, ex at production (I think simon was sort of indicating that they should have targeted capitalism)
I mean, Mr. Beast is literally one of the most consumerist capitalistic YouTube personalities on the platform. All his videos are about lavish displays of excess material wealth. Don’t expect his initiatives to challenge capitalism or overconsumption in any way.
Always gonna be someone complaining, eh?
Of course the point that ideally the root of the problem should be addressed is correct. But in the end the trash in the ocean still has to be cleaned up somehow. And the scenario drawn up here that engaging with TeamSea is gonna cause people to disregard the problem for longer than otherwise, is entirely speculative and hypothetical. (It’s also somewhat disingenuous in that you can’t on the one hand claim TeamSeas is making so little of a difference it’s barely noticeable and then also claim having no TeamSeas would cause the problem to pile up and become pressing so much faster.) It could easily also be the other way around. Mr Beast and the other mainstream creators are reaching a huge audience, many of whom might only have a moderate awareness of the issue. And you need to have some awareness of the issue before you can come to realize that some attempts at solving the issue aren’t sufficient.
I think if he would have just left it at saying it’s a well-meaning effort but entirely unsufficient and these concrete measures would be better, it would be a meaningful and helpful contribution to the discourse. But the needless attempt to view it negatively beyond that is just fuel for the eternal nay-sayers and know-it-alls who like to feel smug about not getting involved because the think they know everything better.
