Political Correctness, Tolerance & Wokism
Žižek's critique that 'tolerance' functions as a false-consciousness category that depoliticizes real economic and legal conflicts (racism, exploitation) by recasting them as problems of cultural understanding and distance rather than structural antagonism.
In his words 40
“martin luther didn't fight for tolerance. he fought for end of exploitation, end of injustice, inequality.”1:15:19 Why Only an Atheist Can Believe · justice vs. tolerance: the culturalization of politics
“for the price of one or two of your cappuccinos, you can change the life of... what if i were to put your glasses on? i claim something like, don't think, don't politicize.”1:07:52 Maybe We Just Need a New Chicken · charity appeals as depoliticization tokens
“Charity is today, I claim, part of the logic of the system itself. It has a very specific function: the function of depoliticizing the problems.”11:21 Living in the End Times · charity as ideological depoliticization
The stories that teach it
the jokes and anecdotes he reaches for when he works in this idea, ranked by how many of its talks they turn up in; each card is one story, with every retelling on its page
Niels Bohr's horseshoe
Niels Bohr had a horseshoe on his country-house door; when a scientist friend asked why a scientist would keep a superstitious charm, Bohr answered 'I was told it works even if you don't believe in it', Žižek's model for ideology today.
V for Vendetta morning after
In the final scene of V for Vendetta thousands of unarmed Londoners march on parliament and the people take over; Žižek says he would sell his mother into slavery to see Part 2, what happens the day after the victory.
Martin Luther King and Tolerance
King practically never mentions tolerance; for him racism was a matter of economic injustice and laws, not of attitudes to be tolerated, exposing the automatic translation of racism into tolerance as ideology.
Starbucks ethical consumerism
Buying a Starbucks cappuccino is sold as supporting Guatemalan organic farmers and saving the planet; the owner appeared like Anthony Giddens calling Starbucks an ersatz place of collective experience. The sin of consumerism and its redemption are packaged together in the same…
Bill Gates as rent-extractor from general intellect
Gates became the world's richest person not through standard Marxist exploitation of workers (who are actually better paid than average) but by charging rent for access to the digital space, the internet commons, that we all share.
Malcolm X and the loss of roots as emancipatory starting point
Malcolm X (the X standing for lost African roots) refused the game of searching for original African identity (à la Roots) and instead proposed using the dispossession of roots as a chance to build a new, freer universality, which is why he became a Muslim (the Umma as communi…
Where it comes up 165
232 moments located in the transcripts, click a timestamp to play from there