And thanks! What did you think of the Zizek editorial on Trump (since I seem to be being studiously ignored by some)? The whole inability of some (usually white male) leftists to grok intersectionality is getting rather tedious, if you ask me. You’d think OF ALL PEOPLE, that Zizek would understand about the dangerous of xenophobic nationalism and where that can lead to. Maybe it’s because Slovenia got off so easy compared to Bosnia and Kosova, but that didn’t stop Laibach (who are sometime collaborators with Zizek) from understanding it.
While I agree with a lot of what Zizek says regarding the neoliberal consensus, his tendency toward bombast and his sometimes narrow focus often place him perilously close to “useful idiot” territory when he’s framed by experts in media manipulation and propaganda. A smart Marxist should really know better.
Zizek is quite smart, yet lots of people find him somewhat trollish. First as Tragedy, Then as Farce is a great book, for example, and has lots of intersesting things to say. I think it’s the ego of a guy who has made his bones in academia to such an extent that he feels he can say whatever he wants and not have to really justify it. He has the same problem lots of philosophers who’ve made it have, I’m afraid.
That being said, I think his op-ed (the last link I posted) is worth diving into.
It’s not like Trump has publicly bragged he is opposed to wholesale slaughter, in fact he has said he wants to use nuclear weapons, given the chance. There are a lot of reasons not to vote for Trump, his lecherous nature is actually pretty low on the list. The fact that he is clueless about policy and diplomacy and economics are well ahead of his groping problems.
Zizek is a provocateur. You’re not meant to agree with him, you’re meant to argue with him, is my view. He throws stuff at his students and expects them to think, and he doesn’t regard himself as more than a cog in the academic mill. I had lecturers like that. If anything I guess he may misunderstand the Western cult of celebrity and how it applies to him. But Zizek is Zizek, Karl Marx he isn’t.
You’re right about Slovenia - they didn’t just get off lightly, they regarded the brief and successful war as being a bit like winning in the football world cup, and they didn’t screw up capitalism like Russia did under Yeltsin. Again, their perspective on the world is limited. But who am I to judge? I live in a country where probably 95% of the population hasn’t the first clue about the world outside, and yet were expected to make an informed decision on the subject.
I think electing Obama strangled civility in politics. As long as the president was a white male even those who disliked his policies were somewhat constrained in their criticism, respecting the office if not the man. With Obama anything was possible to say. He wasn’t an American, he was a secret Muslim, he supported ISIS. No lie is too absurd.
Given the demographic shift it’s not inconceivable that these white right wing nuts will decide that if they can’t win using democratic means they will use violence. It has happened in many countries where powerful minorities hold on to power.
I think that’s the gist of what he was saying, or at least that’s my impression of what he posted. It’s not Obama’s fault, he was merely the catalyst for the rampant racist, immigrant/muslim fear mongering. Previously these awful minded people didn’t have too much to rally around but Obama coupled with the war on terror has given them reason to band together.
However sometimes you have to let shit float to the top before you can get rid of the scum, in this case the whole situation with Trump if handled correctly will give people a chance to properly handle these now publicly known bigots. As opposed to being secretly bigoted.
UK and US tabloid/schlock media are deeply tied. Hell much of it is owned by the same guy (Murdock). It can be hard to tell which side is feeding what. Look at front pages from The Daily Mail and The NY Post going back a century. You won’t see much difference. And to the argue that The Daily Fail is only now starting to incite violence, due to Trump or otherwise, is patently ridiculous. Often enough this stuff starts in the UK and migrates westward. Remember you guys gave us the modern vaccine denial wave, and Trump’s idiocy is most often compared to European style far right nationalism. Something that hasn’t generally had much traction here.
Sure. But expanding off what @LurkingGrue says below, the nastiness was not entirely new, it just took on a newly racialized tone, which given the US context, meant it was indeed turned up several notches. Then again, the racism in general isn’t new, either (in fact helps define US history in many ways).
BULLSHIT. Republicans have been strangling civility for years. Thanks to Newt G. it’s the only game in town for those pricks. All or nothing. No compromise.
I apologise for that. I still haven’t forgiven Private Eye; I won’t buy it (for the Mail there’s the tea and kittens extension for Chrome.)
As for Wakefield, I have personal reasons too private to raise here for saying “rot in Hell, should there prove to be one.”
It was during the Clinton era, as I recall, that the Republican view was that they owned the White House and there couldn’t be a legitimate blue President.
Then came Obama.
Assuming HRC gets in and lasts two terms, followed by the Republicans for 2 terms, 2032 is going to be the year of the black woman President, probably opposed by a Republican candidate who has had plastic surgery to look like Lincoln and who turns out to be a serial killer, and whose running mate is a robot operated by remote control from the Cato Institute.
I too agree with your entire post except, I don’t think that it was ever necessary for “the media” to take him seriously. Public interest is their engine, they take that seriously. Nor is it necessary for the public to take him seriously… just to want to see what happens next.
Sickening as it is this election is certainly one of the events of our time. I feel a need to know just about everything. Count me among the clickers.
