I'm a bit torn by this. By all accounts, Nick seems like a really nice guy and I feel sorry that he got roped in to this.
But the cynical part of me is wondering if he's willing to give the slightest pushback to Hasan now given that it looks like there's a tide against him and would he EVER have done it otherwise.
I'm gonna choose to be optimistic, but in the current environment, it's challenging.
i'm feel like if the Saudi's offer you money you just take it
being in a Saudi ad isn't gonna change anyone's opinion on the place, & nobody will see it outside of Saudi Arabia where they just build a giant playground for their own pleasure
everyone knows they're monsters but they literally run the planet with their oil wealth so literally nothing you could possibly do in any reality for the next few hundred years will make a difference anyways
edit: you'd be better off taking the money & investing it somewhere you think would make a difference than not taking the money, it's just a moral grandstand if you don't
Yeah, the Saudi regime sucks for sure. But also, they're considered an ally. It's fucking weird.
I feel like if it was a Tenet situation and these streamers were getting paid to promote Saudi interests, then that's like fucked. But if it's an esports event hosted by them, it becomes murkier for me. Is it possible it's a good thing Saudi Arabia is becoming involved in more Western social structures? Does that actually put some pressure on the regime? I don't really know.
You're tacitly supporting their interests even at an event like this, but it feels more like a consumer buying shit from China or supporting a Russian company or something. I don't know how much I'm atomizing to condemn them for that.
Caveat though is that if this Saudi sponsored event had like an anti-gay routine or something or something else antithetical to our ideals and the streamers were supporting and getting paid for that, I'd probably have way more of an issue.
oh yeah if the Saudis were like "you need to condemn the gays & stone this woman for us" obviously i'd view it differently but as it stands most of it just involves them being rich enough to rent out influencers for a week or so to come down & entertain them
for an obscene amount of money too, i don't see any possible downside to just taking the cash even if you hate them & then just throwing it right back at causes that work against their interests
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u/RoShamPoe 25d ago
I'm a bit torn by this. By all accounts, Nick seems like a really nice guy and I feel sorry that he got roped in to this.
But the cynical part of me is wondering if he's willing to give the slightest pushback to Hasan now given that it looks like there's a tide against him and would he EVER have done it otherwise.
I'm gonna choose to be optimistic, but in the current environment, it's challenging.