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Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison for tweeting

theverge.com

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Re: Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison for tweeting

#31

Post by random314 »

quantified wrote: post #28
chitowneats wrote: post #2

What an absolute human rights disaster Saudi Arabia is. That the U.S. government continues to engage with and support that regime is all the evidence you need of our hypocrisy on the issue.

If you drive a car, fly on a plane, have trucks in your supply chain, use plastic anywhere in your life- you support that engagement. Sucks but they're built in now.

We seem to be able to be hostile to Russia and China while depending om them for oil and manufacturing.

Extending the same courtesy to Saudi Arabia should be straightforward. Except, of course, Saudis align with NATO, Russia and China don't.

Re: Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison for tweeting

#33

Post by ethanbond »

pessimizer wrote: post #18
chitowneats wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't throw people in prison for 3 decades over social media posts.

We can just refer to the social media posts as "material support to a terrorist organization."

Equating the US to Saudi Arabia is beyond divorced from reality. No, you can't "just" do that and get anywhere close to similar outcomes as what's happened here.

Turn on your TV anywhere in America, walk into a coffee shop, talk to a friend. Conversations freely and frequently come to vigorous criticisms of those in power. Now go try to do that almost anywhere in the Middle East. You'll struggle to find someone willing to even remotely entertain that conversation with you.

That's what oppression looks like. Not hypotheticals like the one you're proposing here.

Re: Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison for tweeting

#34

Post by Volundr »

pessimizer wrote: post #18
chitowneats wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't throw people in prison for 3 decades over social media posts.

We can just refer to the social media posts as "material support to a terrorist organization."

Any examples of this happening?

Re: Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison for tweeting

#35

Post by random314 »

whiddershins wrote: post #12
chitowneats wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans like to pretend that we fight for higher ideals than naked self interest or national interest.

Americans fight for ideals all the time. Individual Americans do, and this includes individuals in government. It is true to say that much that is represented as being about ideals is really something else in disguise. And there is rampant corruption and so forth. But it takes cynicism too far to say that ideals never factor in. There are many principled people with ideals having impact in the world every day, and th…

> Americans fight for ideals all the time

The US government, post ww2, fights for Corporations in the NATO axis that benefit from a particular regime being in power in a particular country.

Sometimes these regimes are democratic, other times they are not. The ideals are kool aid to sell to the public to garner support for war.

For eg, US has toppled democracies in Haiti and Iran to support corporate interests. It supported dictatorship in Haiti, Saudi, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran etc to promote the interests of NATO corporations.

Re: Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison for tweeting

#36

Post by robotnikman »

quantified wrote: post #28
chitowneats wrote: post #2

What an absolute human rights disaster Saudi Arabia is. That the U.S. government continues to engage with and support that regime is all the evidence you need of our hypocrisy on the issue.

If you drive a car, fly on a plane, have trucks in your supply chain, use plastic anywhere in your life- you support that engagement. Sucks but they're built in now.

They also contribute a lot to VC funds iirc

Re: Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison for tweeting

#37

Post by HL33tibCe7 »

jfax wrote: post #14

I'm reminded of how under in the UK a person was made to do community service after making a tweet.[1] Obviously not as steep of a sentencing, but a prosecution nonetheless. I only point that out because reading these headlines now doesn't make me feel protective of liberal democracy, it only makes me despair of a global trend. 1. https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/31/23004339/uk-twitter-user-...

A man was given a suspended jail sentence in the UK for making a joke video about Grenfell. To (on the whole) great and uncritical applause from the media and general public.

Re: Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison for tweeting

#38

Post by rndgermandude »

siva7 wrote: post #11
jiggawatts wrote: post #4

Any time you read a headline like this, replace the innocuous-sounding non-crime (“tweeting”) with “upsetting people in power.” Suddenly you’ll realise that the same kind of thing happens everywhere in the world. E.g.: Julian Assange, who’s main crime was upsetting people in power . Unless you think it’s a crime worthy of being hounded for over a decade by multiple nations’ security agencies for trying to — and faili…

Not really. Tweeting your opinion is legal, leaking state secrets not so.

So if I leaked Saudi state secrets, should I be extradited to Saudi Arabia? Or is that only if I leaked the secrets of a state you consider a "good guy" state?

Re: Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison for tweeting

#39

Post by HL33tibCe7 »

chitowneats wrote: post #2

What an absolute human rights disaster Saudi Arabia is. That the U.S. government continues to engage with and support that regime is all the evidence you need of our hypocrisy on the issue.

Hypocrisy or realpolitik, depending on how nuanced your worldview is.

Re: Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman to 34 years in prison for tweeting

#40

Post by Bolkan »

jiggawatts wrote: post #4

Any time you read a headline like this, replace the innocuous-sounding non-crime (“tweeting”) with “upsetting people in power.” Suddenly you’ll realise that the same kind of thing happens everywhere in the world. E.g.: Julian Assange, who’s main crime was upsetting people in power . Unless you think it’s a crime worthy of being hounded for over a decade by multiple nations’ security agencies for trying to — and faili…

Anyone knows what she actually tweeted?
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