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Comment by clavalle | Hacker News Reader

When it is all said and done the Saudi Crown is going to have significant stakes in many critical American and Western companies including huge media companies.

This makes me very uncomfortable.

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Like I commented elsewhere in this post, if anything remotely close to this was happening in any of "official" adversaries like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, etc., media would be calling for US troops on the ground. It this was in Russia or China, there would be multiple levels of sanctions imposed as we speak.

Propaganda Model is real and tangible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model

Yeah, exactly. Saudi Arabia is one of the worst offenders on human rights [1] and a leading state sponsor of terrorism [2]. Yet, somehow this ploy for the prince to assert power and attack his enemies is not questioned, and the propaganda that is given is taken at face value. This is outrageous that they are considered an ally. We must really question ourselves, if they are an ally. Here's an interesting article regarding Saudi Arabia trying to destabilize Lebanon with the forced resignation of Hariri [3].

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_terrorism#Saud...

3: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/lebanon-prime-minister-s...

Are they any worse than your US overlords?

Yes. Far worse.

Well, their views on gender equality and religious freedom on average tend to be very different from the vast majority of those in the West. So yes, they might well be worse.

Mohammed bin Salman is allegedly a lot more moderate than the past leaders.

The policy on gender and religious freedom is only the tip of the iceberg.

Freedom as a concept seems to be under direct attack in their Kingdom considering the Crown Prince is rounding up political enemies en masse with complete impunity.

Maybe on certain domestic policies (though I think it's a stretch), but Saudi Arabia is in the dark ages, so it's not hard to be considered moderate there. He has been consolidating power with these "corruption" arrests. He is also destabilizing the region into chaos with an aggressive war against Yemen, a blockade of Qatar [1], and the forced resignation of Hariri [2].

1: https://www.vox.com/world/2017/11/6/16613088/saudi-arabia-pr...

2: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/lebanon-prime-minister-s...

Did you read the title? It states which country we're talking about.

Yes.

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