The Qatar World Cup “Outrage” Will Largely Be Performative, Sadly

People will still embrace “the glorious game.”

We unfortunately live in a very performative era — “rules for thee, not for me,” NIMBY, and yard signs that mean nothing — and the “outrage” over the Qatar World Cup and its various modern-day slavery approaches to building new cities and stadiums will be ignored now that the competition has begun. John Oliver, who you probably know and respect more than me, even admitted as much in this segment last night:

It’s the same thing that happened in the run-up to Russia in 2018. We all cared deeply about what was happening and how Russia treats people and how the stadiums got built and how dirty FIFA is, and once the first ball was in play, we started talking about Messi and Mbappe and how the U.S. wasn’t there.

We can only hold onto injustice qualms so long, because again, the goal of life for many is convenience. It’s a noble thing to talk about modern-day slave labor, intense heat, and deaths during construction. But at some point, you want to…