https://twitter.com/VaushV/status/1502591584067481604

Catching up on Zizek articles

radlib who can't read Marx but loves the guy who criticizes art and culture...folks this is why we need to get the Game Theory youtuber to read Das Kapital

and saw earlier this month he wrote those who blame Russia's invasion of Ukraine on NATO and the West are "not really leftists" and compared them to Hitler apologists lmao

Zizek: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/europe-unequal-treatment-of-refugees-exposed-by-ukraine-by-slavoj-zizek-2022-03

And now some who call themselves leftists (I wouldn’t) are blaming the West for the fact that US President Joe Biden was right about Putin’s intentions. The argument is well-known: NATO was slowly encircling Russia, fomenting color revolutions in its near-abroad, and ignoring the reasonable fears of a country that had been attacked from the West in the last century.

There is, of course, an element of truth here. But saying only this is equivalent to justifying Hitler by blaming the unjust Treaty of Versailles. Worse, it concedes that big powers have the right to spheres of influence, to which all others must submit for the sake of global stability. Putin’s assumption that international relations is a contest of great powers is reflected in his repeated claim that he had no choice but to intervene militarily in Ukraine.

Is that true? Is the problem really Ukrainian fascism? The question is better directed at Putin’s Russia. Putin’s intellectual lodestar is...

Lol fuck off no one cares about philosophy, idealist. Russia is clearly not the party doing finance imperialism to privatize farmland and keep people jobless and poor. That's the entire purpose of the IMF/World Bank (radlibs talk about geopolitics like NATO because idealists are only concerned with superstructure, not the material base)

Zizek attempts to be speaking dialectically but he's just a lazy careerist contrarian, this is why we need a commitment to historical materialism, you end up being on the level of Vaush.

coincidentally he wrote for this neoliberal website with a nerdy FIght Club name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Syndicate

Project Syndicate, which Ezra Klein described as "the world's smartest op-ed page,"

the least amount of soul

received grants from the Open Society Foundations, The Politiken Foundation in Denmark, Die Zeit, ZEIT-Stiftung, and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Zizek drew attention away from finance imperialists on a website funded by the exact people who want to turn Ukraine in a nation who doesn't own their own farmland? PMC synthetic leftist hackfraud lol

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      If you poke a bear with a stick and the bear growls at you and you keep poking the bear then whose fault is it when you get mauled?

        • spring_rabbit [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          If you poke a human with a stick and the human growls at you and you keep poking the human then whose fault is it when you get mailed?

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          You are aware, of course, of a thing called "Metaphor"?

          And, likewise, you are aware that in this metaphor the bear is neutral, while the party harassing and provoking the bear is the belligerent?

          And of course you are aware that the Bear is a commonly used symbol to represent the nation and people of Russia?

          Bears are interesting creatures. They're incredibly dangerous, but rarely attack unless directly provoked.

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              the west should have known NATO expansion was a diplomatic catastrophe waiting to happen.

              The West did, and does, know. This outcome was intended. They've worked very hard for years to provoke this war. This is exactly the political situation that NATO wanted, and is indeed the sole purpose for which NATO was created and has been maintained. NATOs entire existence culminates in this crisis and they will do everything in their power to continue to exacerbate Russia's situation, hopefully short of nuclear war.

        • FidelCashflow [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Capitalism is a system that is without reason. Animal spirit jokes aside this is a good analogy

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Rape culture is not an appropriate or acceptable metaphor for geopolitics. If you're a nation-state and you join a belligerent military nuclear armed alliance that exists solely for the purpose of destroying Russia and subjugating it's people you should expect a military invasion. In fact everyone who pays the least bit of attention to geopolitics expected this military invasion. Civilians are not actors in this drama. States are. Civilians are the people who are ground underfoot by the machinations of presidents and oligarchs. The State of Ukraine is absolutely the belligerent in this situation and presented a clear causus belli to which the State of Russia was obligated to respond in order to protect it's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The people of Russia, Ukraine, Germany, the EU, America, and beyond will all suffer from this. They are the victims. The State of Ukraine is not a victim.

    • disco [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Nobody is saying that Putin was justified invading

      Actually, lots of people are saying this.

      • Bluegrass_Buddhist [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Really? I've not seen much of that. The dominant narrative I've seen just about everywhere is to completey dismiss or ignore NATO's share of culpability for the conflict. Or to declare Putin worse than Hitler to justify US/NATO intervention.