As the Middle East is drawn into war, expats and influencers are under pressure to only share the positive side of the UAE. In reality many are at risk of being put behind bars, and often find the UK government has little interest in helping them get out
  • AmidFuror@fedia.io
    2·
    5 hours ago

    Accuracy isn’t valued as much as cheering for the right team. The UAE are bad guys, so any comment disparaging them is good, and any comment “defending” them, even to ask “Wasn’t that the Saudis?”, is bad.

    The same mentality gets you downvoted if you don’t like Iran sponsoring terrorists (“The US are the real terrorists”) or if you thought killing Israeli civilians at a concert was uncool (“They’re occupying that land, so they deserve whatever they get”).

    • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      3 hours ago

      And so you too are downvoted for writing the truth.
      Of course it’s not everybody, but there’s a lot of it. I can’t even say the example with Iranian terrorists is hyperbole, because although most would obviously not support terrorists, I have seen things quite similar to it occur here.
      An example could be the case where Iran would bomb a 100% civilian data center was generally celebrated here. Not that I was one bit better, because honestly I don’t think that data center has any value to the people. But in principle it remains wrong, but on the other hand USA deserves to be taught a lesson.
      Clearly there’s a difference between an opinion and facts. And although my opinion may not always align with higher ideals, because you may need to break some eggs to make an omelet, but our opinions should at least be based on the truth. And the truth is it was NOT UAE that tortured and killed a journalist, it was Saudi Arabia, and nobody should be downvoted for posting facts IMO.