Mattha Busby reports in the Guardian that Netflix has removed an episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj from Saudi Arabia after the Saudi government complained about it. The episode, which you (and Saudis) can still see on YouTube (age 16+ suggested) criticizes the dictatorship of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) — and if you didn’t know that Saudi Arabia is a dictatorship, watch the episode and see.
It’s no coincidence that Minhaj is also a critic of Donald Trump: he roasted Trump at the 2017 White House Correspondents’ dinner and in November, he said in an interview that he won’t mention Trump’s name on his Patriot Act show because:
You know how there’s characters in the Harry Potter books, and a lot of them don’t mention Lord Voldemort?... For me, he’s the man who shall not be named. Like I know he exists, but I just don’t want to give him the attention.
An Atlantic interview by Mallika Rao published last month says that after the Saudi epsiode aired:
[Minhaj] said that Instagram accounts that seemed run by bots out of Saudi Arabia started following him. I asked if the episode instilled in him a fear of death, and he said yes, adding that the sensation was heightened because of the presence of his baby daughter.
If the Saudis harm Minhaj or his baby daughter, you can expect Trump and Republicans will turn a blind eye, just as they did when the Saudis murdered and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi. Think about this the next time you see a public critic of Saudi Arabia, or of Russia, or even of Trump’s Republicans. These critics are risking something by being out there, and it’s important to support them and to defy the likes of MBS, Putin, and Trump.