A lot of gatekeepers in the comments who seem to love the idea of a UBI, but hate any attempt to test the viability of one.

I think this is a great step towards proving the benefits of a UBI for the greater population. I believe supporting the arts is always a positive endeavour, so using them as the pilot program kills two birds with one stone. I think that randomising who gets to enter the pilot program may allow some people to game the system, but the benefits outweigh the possibility of one schyster scamming a paycheque. The lottery system stops this becoming a bonus for established or famous artists, and supports creatives in all areas.

All in all, this is a good thing, and the people who want “all or nothing” are short sighted.

Sure, but removing knowledge kind of goes against what creating a Wikipedia backup is about…

And how many of these comedians hold their tongue regarding religion and people of power when performing in their home country? Or when touring internationally on non-state-funded tours?

Don’t take my opinion of these comedians as anti-Saudi. I was plenty anti-Saudi before this. If these ‘comedians’ agreed to take money from the US president to not make mean jokes about him, I’d be just as disgusted at their lack of spine.

Not the same scenario. The equivalent would be these comedians doing a set that was paid for by the White House, with a list of restrictions on what could be said. Which would receive just as much backlash

I don’t think this is an image that you could view openly in a regular workplace, even if there is no dick and balls in the image. It’s a raunchy screenshot from a porno.