Episode 317: For Shame

Very Bad Wizards is a podcast with a philosopher, my dad, and psychologist, Dave Fesaro, having an informal discussion about issues in science and ethics. Please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm not allowed to say, and knowing my dad, some very inappropriate jokes. Son, The meeting has spoken. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. Who are you? Who are you? A very bad man. I'm a very good man. Good man. They think they've lost, and with no more brains than you have. Pay no attention to that man. Anybody can have a brain? You're a very bad man. I'm a very good man, just a very bad wizard. Welcome to Very Bad Wizards. I'm Tamler Summers. Dave, a lot of the most famous comedians in the world, including some VVW favorites like Bill Burr and Dave Chappelle, are getting slammed for agreeing to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia because of their human rights abuses and purported role in nine eleven. I mean, we know we know it really happened there, but, you know, some people buy that story. So anyway, here's my question. If some Saudi Arabian official or prince offered us a big bag of money, I think they got a lot of money to do this, To do a live show at a Riyadh podcast festival. Would we do it? I am gonna do it. People like Bill Burr and Dave Chappelle do it, so it can't be that bad. That's bad. I mean, like, are aren't we complicit in this system by doing a podcast in The US? You know? What what are we guilty? Like, what like, blood is on our hands, Tamela. Blood is on all of our hands. So we might as well have crisp $100 bills in those hands as well. To go with all the blood. To go with the blood. Some gold coins, you know, these doubloons. What's your answer? Well, I mean, I do think that has a lot of merit, but I don't love the implications of it. But, like, that's what even some people were saying defending these comedians. They perform in The United States. We're complicit in a genocide. We've been responsible for some of the most horrific things over the last, like, sixty or seventy years, that you can imagine. And so, like but I don't know. I would like to, you know, reserve the right to take a stand against something, like, even if we're so complicit and we all deserve to die and burn it out. One man VVW show, Riott coming soon. David Pizarro, the good one. The rich one. I mean, that's the thing, you know. Like, this is something that can set a person up for life. Part of the thing is that a lot of these people are doing fairly well already. I mean, look. Like, I obviously have problems with human rights violations and all that. So …