To be fair this video also felt a lot like an excuse to give someone half a million dollars. He brought his kids around on Father's day so it wouldn't be too difficult. The circle was big enough and equipped enough to be able to exercise, maintain good hygiene, do some gardening... The 'toughest' bit was having a marching band play all night, ONE night. I'm a fan of the survival show 'Alone' and there people have to survive out of pretty much nothing for 50-100 days in the hope of earning the same amount of money. This guy had everything provided, the only challenge was boredom and missing people !

Exactly. He's hardly torturing these people. On the contrary, most of the challenges are pretty damn cushy.

Should we ignore that all of this is funded by the advertising industrial complex, advertisements which are arguably extremely harmful to society due to the cheap-shallow manipulation that occurs with them?

Should we ignore the fact that so many people watch his videos that it's impossible to ignore the number? I agree that his videos are basically a polished version of "give a homeless guy money to do something cruel". People watch them to see what people do for money. There s nothing beautiful in that, but it's a curiosity and it grabs attention. If it wasnt through ads, someone else would be funding it, i dont think that being ad-supported changes the dynamic of his audience.

"Someone else would do the bad thing so I'll do it instead and personally reap the rewards" has NEVER been an okay take.