Being normal, in the sense of optimal, ain’t what it used to be.
That is, almost universally recognized as ideal.
In fact, a war on normality has long been afoot, and the latest example is a prominent YouTuber who’s being slammed for doing what Jesus did (though not single-handedly or supernaturally): cure blindness.
At issue is YouTube sensation MrBeast (actual name Jimmy Donaldson), who, it turns out, “is the highest-earning creator on the platform with a record-breaking 136 million subscribers,” American Thinker’s Rajan Laad tells us.
Donaldson’s “repertoire includes videos about planting trees, or cleaning the world’s dirtiest beaches; there are adventures and social experiments,” Laad also informs. “But most importantly, he uses his reach to perform acts of charity…. Most of his videos receive more than 100 million views.”
Now, however, the YouTuber is being accused of “ableism” for one of his recent efforts (video below): helping treat 1,000 adults’ and young children’s blindness or poor vision.
One critic called Donaldson’s efforts “demonic” (tweet below).
Another respondent impugned his motives thus:
No, it doesn’t make him a good person, not necessarily — just an effective one. As to this, Laad explains Donaldson’s business model.
“He makes videos of charitable endeavors which helps him to reap profits via views on his content,” Laad writes. “A portion of this profit is once again used for charity which becomes his content. The cycle continues.”
Laad calls this “commendable”; critics call it contemptible. But the truth is this:
We don’t know what’s in Donaldson’s mind and heart.
Maybe he has entirely mercenary motives and is a most clever con man. Perhaps he’s authentically altruistic. Most likely, though, since people are complex beings who often proceed with multiple motivations — some noble and others possibly ignoble — he both wants to earn money and enjoys helping others. If so, whether he would act charitably if he didn’t thus derive enjoyment (which would be another selfish motive), we also don’t know. But here’s what we can know:
At the end of the day, that’s between him and God.
Something else for certain is that Donaldson’s endeavors amount to the harnessing of market forces to effect good — and this absolutely is good.
Really, though, it’s likely that many of Donaldson’s critics have a disability themselves: They’re jealous — of his wealth. One of these people might be the tweeter below, who called his endeavors “charity porn.”
Maybe they are charity porn, too. But here’s what’s unsaid:
Some Donaldson critics are guilty of disability porn. Consider that, Laad relates,
Buzzfeed‘s Kelsey Weekman said there was a “huge problem” with the [Donaldson] video because “it seems to regard disability as something that needs to be solved.”
…The Daily Caller writer Julian Adorney refers to Is Everyone Really Equal? written by Robin DiAngelo (of White Fragility fame) and Özlem Sensoy. The authors refer to a hypothetical doctor who asks a disabled person, “We have the technology, why suffer unnecessarily? This question is branded as ableist for attempting to erase the humanity of the individual by endeavoring to cure their disability.”
Steve Aquino, who has multiple disabilities[,] writes that “the biggest problem with wanting to ‘cure’ blindness is that it reinforces a moral superiority of sorts by those without disabilities over those who are disabled.”
Aquino then “slammed MrBeast’s video as ‘systemic ableism on display’ implying that ‘disabilities should be eradicated — cured,’” Laad continued.
“Aquino also called [it] inspiration porn, ‘meant to portray abled people as the selfless heroes waging war against the diabolical villain known as a disability.’” In addition, Aquino wrote:
That’s pure disability porn, right there.
For the record, I have a mild handicap: binocular diplopia (double vision) in my far left field of vision. It’s both a blessing and a curse, the former when encountering a thing of beauty and wanting to see two of it, and the latter when accidentally looking hard left and seeing, perhaps, Joe Biden or Michael Moore.
Joking aside, while I wouldn’t risk vision damage to correct my handicap, if I could snap my fingers and remedy it, I would. It’s also safe saying that 100 percent of the 1,000 people Donaldson helped are happy their vision was restored.
In reality, Aquino is, you could say, like a “transgender” activist of the blind world: He apparently wants the abnormal classified as normal to make himself feel better. How selfish is that?
(Note: Some handicapped people actually choose “malfunctioning genes that produce disabilities like deafness or dwarfism” for their children, reported The New York Times in 2006, because they want kids just like themselves.)
Moreover, Aquino essentially asks “abled” (aka, normal) people, “Are you Jesus?” But he could be asked: Are you Satan?
If there’s something wrong with “curing the blind,” which Jesus did, shouldn’t Aquino have a problem with Jesus, too? Donaldson and the doctors simply mirrored the Savior — just not nearly as miraculously.
There’s a lesson here, however. Jesus “cured” the blind, but He didn’t “cure” a boy fancying he should be a girl, as being a boy is normal and reflects God’s design; blindness isn’t and doesn’t.
The larger issue here is that this is part of a wider and longstanding war on normality. Laad mentions how people were impugned as “ableist” for warning that Biden and Senator John Fetterman (D-Penn.) were unfit for office because they’re cognitively impaired. And while this was largely driven by political power lust, it does reflect the time. Just consider, for example, how saying that obesity is unhealthful is now “fat shaming.” Being 450 pounds is merely a lifestyle choice.
Worse still is the even older war on moral normality. In “Where Have You Gone, George Washington?” in 2016, I pointed out that by “gradually robbing the ‘good guys’ of their virtues, we have made the hero as relative as modern values.” The message in so many modern books and movies is that the “good” guy isn’t really good, and the “bad” guy isn’t really bad; they’re just on opposite sides of the law. Take your pick, kids!
Another example is how prostitutes have long been portrayed positively in film, as in 1983’s Trading Places. The message: Hookers are exactly like you and I; they just have different jobs. And not portraying them as damaged and desperate women with loose morals is compassionate and all fine and dandy — until your daughter starts considering a call-girl career.
Don’t worry, though, it’s not as if the abnormality pushers don’t want norms; they just demand the politically correct norms they devise. They want people canceled for what they deem racism (à la Scott Adams), “sexism,” “ableism,” and for violation of all their other woke imperatives.
And just shut-up about it, too, because they’re tolerant and you’re not.
