Asklemmy

I have an opinion about Bill Burr in particular. I was a faithful listener of his podcast for many years but I stopped a couple months ago because it was getting extremely repetitive. Every episode, he would go on the same rant about how billionaires are the source of most of America’s problems - which is something I wholeheartedly agree with, but I listened to his podcast for a brief comedic escape from the world, not for the same political discussions that pop up everywhere else.

So when I heard he accepted a direct payment of a huge sum of money from the very people he’s constantly argued are the #1 enemies, I felt surprised and betrayed. I just don’t believe he’s in a position to take the “soft power” stance when he’s receiving money from the very royal family that’s the cause of so many human rights issues in that country. Not gonna be supporting any of his work anymore.

I think any comedian who takes part loses all rights to ever complain about freedom of speech, or cancel culture, or whatever. Since they likely won't have been kidnapped and murdered by bone saw.

I'm just sick of the Saudis forcing their way into everything just because they have lots of money and oil reserves to do it with.

They've recently acquired EA. They have a WrestleMania being hosted in their capital. They're having the 2027 Olympics hosted there. And now this.

It's like we're all catering to this idea to humanize a country that has a history of religious extremism, extreme misogyny and absolute corruption. It won't change a thing.

yes, very. Louis CK tried to make a nuanced argument about how even people suffering should be given art, and by being there he was demonstrating that this kind of world exists. sounds reasonable until you realize that he is doing all of that in service of fascists. he is not performing for "the people." he is not providing art or creativity to the group that stands to benefit from it the most, he is giving it to those who already own everything. this wasn't organized by some sort of grassroots campaign of Saudi Arabian comedians; this was for royalty. he was entertaining leaders of one of the most oppressive countries in the world, allowing them to delude him with propaganda, and was shielded from the everyday life of the real people they subjugate, enslave, and kill. fuck him.

Fuck anything and everything related to the Saudis, the deranged psychopaths who, for starters, assassinated Jamal Khashoggi and dismembered his corpse.

Fuck every single one of those comedians.

I think it's really difficult to completely avoid any sort of financial ties with companies or countries that are human rights abusers. I think we need to extend a lot of grace to people who try to continuously improve.

But when it's widely known beforehand what accepting a paycheck to perform for a country like this means, but they decide to accept that big paycheck anyway, I think they deserve all the social backlash they get.

If some performer said that about my country, "no thanks, I won't perform in the US , whose government is helping fund genocides", then I would cheer for them for standing on their principles. I wish we saw more of that.

I think as an American I already participate in the dark evil side of humanity.

Not really. So much shit going on its hard to care about it.

Chasing a buck is not a crime. If your government places specific sanctions to represent disapproval of a country then it can be. Ultimately there are people that care enough to remember these comedians transgressions and remind the world as appropriate. Chase a buck if you want but every action someone takes can have unforseen consequences. Time will tell.

I find it funny when Westerners suddenly pretend to care about human rights when bougies visit a Western client state but crickets will chirp when they visit literal settler-colonies like the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada, or when they visit countries that continue to have colonies today like Denmark, France, the U.K., or when they visit countries that gave birth or provided/continue to provide human capital to the Euroanglo-Zionazi Entity like... basically the entirety of the Global North.