Slavoj Zizek — the problem with the Left today

[iwouldprefernotto]

If you want to get Zizek's 'I WOULD PREFER NOT TO' t-shirt you can do so here:

[JMG_]

I bet the question he was asked here was: _"So .. How are you, Slavoj? Enjoyed the trip to Wilmington?"_

[derekspitz]

I love Slavoj, and so on and so on...

[reallythere]

He's impossible to listen to and more impossible to not listen to.

[mijmijrm]

In the West .. "fighting capitalism" is pretty much a form of entertainment and style choice. It's a video game mentality, not a serious world view.

[awalters]

Anyone else notice the hand gesture at 1:53 when he says “isolated life” lmao

[Requiredfields]

How are we supposed to understand each other when we don't even understand ourselves? I think that's a fair point.

[dixonbuttes]

It’s interesting that he says “to provoke people I call it communism.”

[joaoboechat]

What I don´t understand is why in 1864 there was an International Workingmen's Association but now in the digital era there isn´t. I don´t belive that it would be difficult to achieve something like that today, especially with Coronavirus. We could unite in a common agenda, like a more democratic United Nations Organization, this isn´t an impossible utopian revolution.
" Comrades, come rally, for this is the time and place
The Internation ideal unites the human race"

[Choronzondegreaser]

"living together with various peoples all politely ignoring each other" --- That's already life for me here in the Texas Suburbs

[dinnerwithfranklin]

I think he makes a good point. Most leftists I know have no clear goal. To be honest I have to identify goals for myself since my desire was a bit more nebulous than was useful. I always learn something from this man.

[josephbingham]

Ive started saying “and so on and so on” in my everyday life as a Zizek reference

[mallemehryar]

Thank you Zizek for tracking profound issues of life and humanity. 'I understand, I understand' is a frustrating reply which I found it rather chilling, conveying loss of recognition. It is like the listener knows it before I explain it in my own term. The juice of onversation, that shared effort to explore something fresh dies out right there.

[billthompson]

The point about Zizek I feel is that he tries, and is good at, finding a narrative that attempts to deal with the contradictions and paradoxical problems with all or most of the relevant narratives that are being put to work by those who are not philosophical but merely opinionated. The point is not to give an answer in a sage way, although i believe he does manage to achieve that, but to find a better, yet still uncertain narrative, that provides temporary solace to organic reasoners, rather than leave it up to odin or the bogeyman.

[rohiogerv]

I've been thinking a lot about the "most people don't even care enough to want a say in everything" argument lately, specifically as a problem for market socialism, and I think the real issue is that we're scared to make technology the backbone of these changes.

For example, in a retail workplace, you have to take dozens of "online trainings". Using that same type of infrastructure, give employees of a worker-operated business a categorized, tagged list of all the things they can vote on. They can vote "defer" on entire categories that they don't care about all at once, since they've been appropriately sorted and tagged, but it is their vote to relinquish.

I think largely the same idea would work in organizing a truly democratic socialist society. The voting process could be restored to being direct, but filterable. It doesn't have to be communal debate villages. We have the technology to actually scale these things up now, we're just uncomfortable with doing it.

[dust]

Everytime I click on a Slavoj video I end up with more Marx in my spirit and spit in my ears.

[humanidee]

What's wrong with the left and with the right, is we've failed to give and take constructive criticism.
Thank you Zizek.

[intrograted]

To all the people commenting on his face-touching in the middle of a pandemic, read the description! This was filmed a year ago.

(Though no doubt he's still doing it today as well lol.)

[aescubed]

“So that I can enjoy my isolated life”. - My man!

[dannya]

I always feel a deep melancholic feeling whenever I watch this. His pessimism seems more justified day after day. Nothing has been done to curtail world threatening events like global warming which is now in a positive feedback loop, covid-19, genocide, proxy wars, the fallout and chaotic subjugation of the third world, the neo fascists gaining power, and the international left is pretty much in shambles and shows no signs of building up. All our heroes are dying out and there's no one left to fill their shoes, only chaotic demonstrations, fundraisers, and hashtags with no goals.