I didn’t know how to say it but it really did feel like selective outrage. I don’t hear about comedians accepting blood money when touring the US, a state that’s been sponsoring numerous genocides since the 50s or Canada’s disgusting history with its indigenous population to this day where they violate treaties after another.
Death to Saudi Arabia, of course, but sometimes people’s criticisms feel like they include that they’re brown… the reference to 9/11 especially feels like it’s a racist dog whistle, or atleast adjacent to it. Idk!
You underestimate how westernized and anglicized urban Saudi Arabia is. They mainly watch American shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. Their dialect heavily leverages English as they code-switch mid sentence. In the same vein, their favourite comedians are also American (that's just how far the empire reaches). I don't think this event is meant to appeal to Western audiences at all, unless you mean that Saudi Arabians are western audiences in of themselves, which they are.
The difference for me is that a show for US troops is a show for combatants that will go out there and kill children for American imperialism and the show legitimizes that. A show in Tel Aviv is a show for settlers who's existence mandates the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and thus the show normalizes the occupation. However, a show for residents in Riyadh is for.... residents in Riyadh?
I don't ignore Saudi Arabia's heavy reliance on indentured servitude, their roads, buildings, and services depend on borderline slaves that might not be able to leave the country. I don't ignore their lead in a genocidal coalition against Yemen, where they carpet bomb civilian infrastructure and their blockades cause man-made starvation and death. I don't disagree that it is blood money, nor do I doubt the state's reasoning in using a festival as such as this as a distraction to all of the above, where ordinary Saudi Arabians are given treats to not think about the above, but that's why I say there's no difference between this happening in Saudi Arabia or the United States or Canada. It is the exact same, and as such would be selective outrage.
Why I said about what I said about the 9/11 reference is that 9/11 has been used to justify so much racially targeted violence and hate (not just by individuals but also the state manufacturing consent, there are still innocent brown people in Gitmo because of post 9/11 hysteria) that I will only naturally wince when I hear it referenced to incite a certain attitude in the reader (As in the post). I don't think we should use it in the same vein. 9/11 is blowback because of American imperialism in the middle east that Saudi Arabian state has benefited extremely from. I don't see where the average citizen fits in such a comment (unless we're talking the benefits and privileges gained from the benefits the state got)
do let me know what you think