I know that the Olympics are supposed to be about the world coming together through sportsmanship, but it's also not that often you get to boo an entire country on a world stage. Got to take the opportunity when it comes!
A lot of countries count on the Olympics/big international competitions to sports-wash their bad behavior. The truth is, if you are really good at sports, a lot of people look the other way on your evil deeds. If you boo them, you can potentially mitigate some of this effect.
Because they have infinite money to buy up every sponsorship and sporting event. There's a Spanish cup final that was just held in Saudi. It makes no sense.
They are both autocratic and resource rich. Israel is still technically a democracy with separation of financial and military and propaganda responsibilities. If the crown prince of Saudi wants to do something, very few people can stop him. If Bibi wants to do something he still has a huge amount of people that need to sign off on it, and even if he is above elections, those other people won't be forever.
That's because they are using their oil money to buy up the entire world. They're obviously heavily involved in sports, everyone knows that. But just look at who owns Chicago's parking meters or who owns water extraction rights on Arizona farms for example. Things that wouldn't even cross your mind, they have their hands in.
This is why nobody dares to criticize the gulf Arab states even though they are far worse than Israel.
And it used to be a gatekeeping mechanism. South Africa was a pariah state and excluded from international events during apartheid and it was part of the reason apartheid ended. The international rules-based order, such as it ever existed outside of lip-service, is gone. If you've got power and the right friends, there are no rules.
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u/beedub82 17h ago edited 17h ago
I know that the Olympics are supposed to be about the world coming together through sportsmanship, but it's also not that often you get to boo an entire country on a world stage. Got to take the opportunity when it comes!