Editing Slavoj Žižek (section)

==Thought and positions==
Žižek and his thought have been described by many commentators as "[[Hegelianism|Hegelo]]-[[Lacanianism|Lacanian]]".<ref name="Humphreys" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Butler |first=Rex |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xr5cCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA14 |title=The Žižek Dictionary |date=2015-08-12 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-32443-0 |pages=14 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Barber |first=Daniel Colucciello |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1X9JAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT27 |title=On Diaspora: Christianity, Religion, and Secularity |date=2011-11-01 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-62189-103-1 |pages=27 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Vighi |first=Fabio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QteoAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |title=Critical Theory and Film: Rethinking Ideology Through Film Noir |date=2012-05-03 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4411-3912-2 |pages=18 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Vardoulakis |first=Dimitris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=naBlCKjmKfsC&pg=PA225 |title=Spinoza Now |date=2011-06-29 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-7280-6 |pages=225 |language=en}}</ref> In his early career, Žižek claimed "a theoretical space moulded by three centres of gravity: [[Hegelian Dialectic|Hegelian dialectics]], [[Lacanianism|Lacanian psychoanalytic theory]], and contemporary criticism of [[ideology]]", designating "the theory of [[Jacques Lacan]]" as the fundamental element.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=For They Know Not What They Do |date=1991 |publisher=Verso |location=London & New York |page=2}}</ref> In 2010, Žižek instead claimed that for him Hegel is more fundamental than Lacan—"Even Lacan is just a tool for me to read Hegel. For me, always it is Hegel, Hegel, Hegel."<ref>{{cite web |last1=O'Hagan |first1=Sean |title=Slavoj Žižek: interview |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/jun/27/slavoj-zizek-living-end-times |website=Guardian |date=26 June 2010 |access-date=6 May 2022 |archive-date=17 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220617191634/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/jun/27/slavoj-zizek-living-end-times |url-status=live }}</ref>—while in 2019, he claimed that "For me, in some sense, all of philosophy happened in [the] fifty years" between [[Immanuel Kant]]'s ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'' (1781) and the death of [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] (1831).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=Slavoj Žižek on what really makes him mad |url=https://blog.oup.com/2019/09/slavoj-zizek-on-what-really-makes-him-mad/ |website=Oxford University Press |date=17 September 2019 |access-date=18 May 2022 |archive-date=18 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190918141717/https://blog.oup.com/2019/09/slavoj-zizek-on-what-really-makes-him-mad/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Alongside his academic, theoretical works, Žižek is a prolific commentator on current affairs and contemporary political debates.

===Subjectivity===
For Žižek, although a [[Subject (philosophy)|subject]] may take on a symbolic (social) position, it can never be reduced to this attempted symbolisation, since the very "taking on" of this position implies a separate 'I', beyond the symbolic, that does the taking on. Yet, under scrutiny, nothing positive can be said about this subject, this 'I', that eludes symbolisation; it cannot be discerned as anything but "that which cannot be symbolised". Thus, without the initial, attempted, failed symbolisation, subjectivity cannot present itself. As Žižek writes in his first book in English: "the subject of the signifier is a retroactive effect of the failure of its own representation; that is why the failure of representation is the only way to represent it adequately."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=The Sublime Object of Ideology |date=1989 |publisher=Verso |location=London & New York |isbn=0860919714 |page=175}}</ref>

Žižek attributes this position on the subject to [[Hegel]], particularly his description of man as "the night of the world",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=The Parallax View |date=2006 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=9780262240512 |page=22}}</ref> and to [[Lacan]], with his description of the barred, split subject, who he sees as developing the [[Cartesianism|Cartesian]] notion of the [[Cogito, ergo sum|cogito]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=The Sublime Object of Ideology |date=1989 |publisher=Verso |location=London & New York |isbn=0860919714 |page=72}}</ref> According to Žižek, these thinkers, in insisting on the role of the subject, run counter to "[[Culturalism|culturalist]]" or "[[Historicism|historicist]]" positions held by thinkers such as [[Louis Althusser]] and [[Michel Foucault]], which posit that "subjects" are bound by and reducible to their historical/cultural(/symbolic) context.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj and Sbriglia, Russell |title=Subject Matters |date=2020 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |location=Evanston |pages=3–21}}</ref>

===Political theory===
====Ideology====
Žižek's Lacanian-informed theory of [[ideology]] is one of his major contributions to political theory; his first book in English, ''[[The Sublime Object of Ideology]]'', and the documentary ''[[The Pervert's Guide to Ideology]]'', in which he stars, are among the well-known places in which it is discussed. Žižek believes that ideology has been frequently misinterpreted as dualistic and, according to him, this misinterpreted dualism posits that there is a real world of material relations and objects outside of oneself, which is accessible to reason.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=McManus |first=Matt |date=2019-04-30 |title=The Politics of Slavoj Zizek |url=https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/30/the-politics-of-slavoj-zizek/ |access-date=2022-08-23 |website=Areo Magazine |language=en-US |archive-date=23 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823173430/https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/30/the-politics-of-slavoj-zizek/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

For Žižek, as for Marx, ideology is made up of fictions that structure political life; in Lacan's terms, ideology belongs to the [[symbolic order]]. Žižek argues that these fictions are primarily maintained at an unconscious level, rather than a conscious one. Since, according to [[psychoanalytic theory]], the unconscious can determine one's actions directly, bypassing one's conscious awareness (as in [[Freudian slip|parapraxes]]), ideology can be expressed in one's behaviour, regardless of one's conscious beliefs. Hence, Žižek breaks with orthodox Marxist accounts that view ideology purely as a system of mistaken beliefs (see [[False consciousness]]). Drawing on [[Peter Sloterdijk]]'s ''[[Critique of Cynical Reason]]'', Žižek argues that adopting a cynical perspective is not enough to escape ideology, since, according to Žižek, even though postmodern [[Subject (philosophy)|subjects]] are consciously cynical about the political situation, they continue to reinforce it through their behaviour.<ref>{{cite book |last=Žižek |first=Slavoj |year=1989 |title=The Sublime Object of Ideology |place=London & New York |publisher=Verso |chapter=Chapter 1}}</ref>

====Freedom====
Žižek claims that (a sense of) political freedom is sustained by a deeper unfreedom, at least under [[Economic liberalism|liberal capitalism]]. In a 2002 article, Žižek endorses [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]]'s distinction between formal and actual freedom, claiming that liberal society only contains formal freedom, "freedom of choice ''within'' the coordinates of the existing power relations", while prohibiting actual freedom, "the site of an intervention that undermines these very coordinates."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=A Plea For Leninist Intolerance |journal=Critical Inquiry |date=2002 |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=542–544|doi=10.1086/449051 |s2cid=162381806 }}</ref> In an oft-quoted passage from a book published in the same year, he writes that, in these conditions of liberal censorship, "we 'feel free' because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=Welcome to the Desert of the Real! |date=2002 |publisher=Verso |location=London & New York |page=2}}</ref> In a 2019 article, he writes that Marx "made a valuable point with his claim that the market economy combines in a unique way political and personal freedom with social unfreedom: personal freedom (freely selling myself on the market) is the very form of my unfreedom."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=Hegel, Retroactivity & The End of History |journal=Continental Thought & Theory |date=2019 |volume=2 |issue=4 |page=9}}</ref> However, in 2014, he rejects the "pseudo-Marxist" total derision of 'formal freedom', claiming that it is necessary for critique: "When we are formally free, only then we become aware how limited this freedom actually is."<ref name="webchat"/>

Žižek co-signed a petition condemning the "use of disproportionate force and retaliatory brutality by the [[Hong Kong Police Force|Hong Kong Police]] against students in university campuses in Hong Kong" during the [[2019–2020 Hong Kong protests]]. The petition concludes with the statement: "We believe the defence of [[academic freedom]], the [[freedom of speech]], [[freedom of the press]], [[freedom of assembly]] and [[Freedom of association|association]], and the responsibility to protect the safety of our students are universal causes common to all."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hongkongwatch.org/all-posts/2019/11/26/renowned-academics-among-over-3700-supporting-the-petition-by-global-academics-against-police-brutality-in-hong-kong|title=Renowned Academics Among Over 3,700 Supporting The 'Petition by Global Academics Against Police Brutality in Hong Kong'|work=Hong Kong Watch|date=2019-11-26|access-date=31 August 2023|archive-date=31 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230831113759/https://www.hongkongwatch.org/all-posts/2019/11/26/renowned-academics-among-over-3700-supporting-the-petition-by-global-academics-against-police-brutality-in-hong-kong|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Theology===
Žižek has asserted that "[[Atheism]] is a legacy worth fighting for" in ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=Atheism is a legacy worth fighting for Slavoj Zizek |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/13/opinion/atheism-is-a-legacy-worth-fighting-for.html |website=The New York Times |date=13 March 2006 |access-date=18 May 2022 |archive-date=28 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161128135937/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/13/opinion/atheism-is-a-legacy-worth-fighting-for.html |url-status=live }}</ref> However, he nonetheless finds extensive conceptual value in [[Christianity]], particularly [[Protestantism]]: the subtitle of his 2000 book ''The Fragile Absolute'' is "Or, Why Is the Christian Legacy Worth Fighting For?". Hence, he labels his position '[[Christian Atheism]]',<ref>{{cite web |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj (2017) |title=Christian Atheism |date=10 September 2017 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UOM3C3q7II |publisher=YouTube (European Graduate School Video Lectures) |access-date=4 May 2022 |archive-date=4 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220504152841/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UOM3C3q7II |url-status=live }}</ref> and has written about theology at length.<ref>See his ''The Fragile Absolute'', ''The Monstrosity of Christ'', ''The Puppet and the Dwarf'', and ''On Belief''.</ref>

In ''[[The Pervert's Guide to Ideology]]'', Žižek suggests that "the only way to be an Atheist is through Christianity", since, he claims, atheism often fails to escape the religious paradigm by remaining faithful to an external guarantor of meaning, simply switching God for natural necessity or evolution. Christianity, on the other hand, in the doctrine of [[Incarnation (Christianity)|the incarnation]], brings God down from the 'beyond' and onto earth, into human affairs; for Žižek, this paradigm is more authentically godless, since the external guarantee is abolished.<ref>Fiennes, Sophie (dir.). (2012). ''The Pervert's Guide to Ideology''. London: P Guide Productions.</ref>

===Communism===
Although sometimes adopting the title of 'radical leftist',<ref name="http">{{cite web |url=http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/15/slovenian_philosopher_slavoj_zizek_on_the |title=Slovenian Philosopher Slavoj Zizek on Capitalism, Healthcare, Latin American "Populism" and the "Farcical" Financial Crisis |publisher=Democracynow.org |access-date=13 August 2010 |archive-date=11 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220711165755/https://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/15/slovenian_philosopher_slavoj_zizek_on_the |url-status=live }}</ref> Žižek also controversially insists on identifying as a communist, even though he rejects 20th century communism as a "total failure", and decries "the communism of the 20th century, [[Anti-Stalinist left|more specifically]] all the network of phenomena we refer to as [[Stalinism]] as "maybe the worst ideological, political, ethical, social (and so on) catastrophe in the history of humanity."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=20th Century Communism |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThTJBKYPiNo&t=153s |website=YouTube |date=13 April 2022 |access-date=7 May 2022 |archive-date=13 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220613131415/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThTJBKYPiNo&t=153s |url-status=live }}</ref> Žižek justifies this choice by claiming that only the term 'communism' signals a genuine step outside of the existing order, in part since the term 'socialism' no longer has radical enough implications, and means nothing more than that one "care[s] for society."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj and Tyler Cowen |title=Slavoj Žižek on His Stubborn Attachment to Communism |url=https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/slavoj-zizek/ |website=Conversations With Tyler |date=7 July 2018 |access-date=7 May 2022 |archive-date=14 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614152849/https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/slavoj-zizek/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In ''[[Marx Reloaded]]'', Žižek rejects both 20th-century totalitarianism and "[[Spontaneous order|spontaneous]] local [[Self-organization|self-organisation]], [[direct democracy]], [[Workers' council|councils]], and so on". There, he endorses a definition of communism as "a society where you, everyone would be allowed to dwell in his or her stupidity", an idea with which he credits [[Fredric Jameson]] as the inspiration.<ref>Barker, Josef (dir.) (2011). Marx Reloaded.</ref>

Žižek has labelled himself a "communist in a qualified sense"<ref name="democracynow.org">[http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/11/everybody_in_the_world_except_us ''Democracy Now!'' television program online transcript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220423203148/https://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/11/everybody_in_the_world_except_us |date=23 April 2022 }}, 11 March 2008.</ref> and as a "moderately conservative Communist".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Slavoj Žižek: We Need a Socialist Reset, Not a Corporate "Great Reset" |url=https://jacobin.com/2020/12/slavoj-zizek-socialism-great-reset |access-date=2023-11-02 |website=jacobin.com |language=en-US |archive-date=2 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231102184106/https://jacobin.com/2020/12/slavoj-zizek-socialism-great-reset |url-status=live }}</ref> When he spoke at a conference on ''The Idea of Communism'', he applied (in qualified form) the 'communist' label to the [[Occupy Wall Street]] protestors:
{{blockquote|They are not communists, if 'communism' means the system which deservedly collapsed in 1990—and remember that the communists who are still in power today run the most ruthless capitalism (in China). ... The only sense in which the protestors are 'communists' is that they care for the commons—the commons of nature, [[Knowledge commons|of knowledge]]—which are threatened by the system. They are dismissed as dreamers, but the true dreamers are those who think that things can go on indefinitely the way they are now, with just a few cosmetic changes. They are not dreamers; they are awakening from a dream which is turning into a nightmare. They are not destroying anything; they are reacting to how the system is gradually destroying itself.<ref>{{cite book|last=Slavoj |first=Žižek |year=2013 |chapter=Answers Without Questions |editor-last=Slavoj |editor-first=Žižek |title=The Idea of Communism |volume=2 |place=London & New York |publisher=Verso |pages=198–9}}</ref>}}

===Electoral politics===
In May 2013, during [[Subversive Festival]], Žižek commented: "If they don't support [[SYRIZA]], then, in my vision of the democratic future, all these people will get from me [is] a first-class one-way ticket to [a] [[gulag]]." In response, the center-right [[New Democracy (Greece)|New Democracy]] party claimed Žižek's comments should be understood literally, not ironically.<ref name="Mionis interview">{{cite news |last=Mionis |first=Sabby |date=6 March 2012 |title=Israel must fight to keep neo-Nazis out of Greece's government |url=http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/israel-must-fight-to-keep-neo-nazis-out-of-greece-s-government-1.416802 |newspaper=Haaretz |access-date=6 March 2012 |archive-date=6 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306212641/http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/israel-must-fight-to-keep-neo-nazis-out-of-greece-s-government-1.416802 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Slovenian philosopher Zizek proposes 'gulag' for those who do not support SYRIZA |url=http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_20/05/2013_499789 |date=20 May 2013 |access-date=20 May 2013 |archive-date=7 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607112545/http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_20/05/2013_499789 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Just before the [[2017 French presidential election]], Žižek stated that one could not choose between [[Emmanuel Macron|Macron]] and [[Marine Le Pen|Le Pen]], arguing that the [[neoliberalism]] of Macron just gives rise to [[neo-fascism|neofascism]] anyway. This was in response to many on the left calling for support for Macron to prevent a Le Pen victory.<ref>{{cite web |last=Žižek |first=Slavoj |date=3 May 2017 |title=Don't Believe the Liberals – There Is No Real Choice between Le Pen and Macron. |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/french-elections-marine-le-pen-emmanuel-macron-no-real-choice-a7714911.html |work=The Independent |access-date=19 June 2018 |archive-date=15 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170615015040/http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/french-elections-marine-le-pen-emmanuel-macron-no-real-choice-a7714911.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2022, Žižek expressed his support for the Slovenian political party [[The Left (Slovenia)|Levica]] (The Left) at its 5th annual conference.<ref>{{Citation |title=Slavoj Zizek gives support to Levica and comments on the Ukrainian crisis |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpE6D1c8CZw |website=YouTube |language=en |date=15 March 2022 |access-date=3 April 2022 |archive-date=3 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220403014106/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpE6D1c8CZw |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Support for Donald Trump's election====
In a 2016 interview with [[Channel 4]], Žižek said that were he American, he would vote for [[Donald Trump]] in the [[2016 United States presidential election]]:
{{blockquote|I'm horrified at him [Trump]. I'm just thinking that [[Hillary Clinton|Hillary]] is the true danger. ... if Trump wins, both big parties, Republicans and Democratics, would have to return to basics, rethink themselves, and maybe some things can happen there. That's my desperate, very desperate hope, that if Trump wins—listen, America is not a dictatorial state, he will not introduce Fascism—but it will be a kind of big awakening. New political processes will be set in motion, will be triggered. But I'm well aware that things are very dangerous here ... I'm just aware that Hillary stands for this absolute inertia, the most dangerous one. Because she is a cold warrior, and so on, connected with banks, pretending to be socially progressive.<ref>{{cite web |title=Slavoj Žižek: 'I would vote Trump' |url=https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154211377601939 |via=Facebook |publisher=Channel 4 |access-date=18 May 2022 |archive-date=20 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120145722/https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154211377601939 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

These views were derisively characterised as [[accelerationist]] by ''Left Voice'',<ref>{{cite web |last1=Steinman |first1=Ian |date=4 November 2016 |title=From Farce to Tragedy: Žižek Endorses Trump |url=https://www.leftvoice.org/from-farce-to-tragedy-zizek-endorses-trump/ |website=Left Voice |access-date=18 May 2022 |archive-date=22 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220622140145/https://www.leftvoice.org/from-farce-to-tragedy-zizek-endorses-trump/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and were labelled "regressive" by [[Noam Chomsky]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Noam Chomsky speaks with 'Upfront' - slams media coverage, criticises third party voters |url=https://network.aljazeera.net/pressroom/noam-chomsky-speaks-%E2%80%98upfront%E2%80%99-slams-media-coverage-criticises-third-party-voters |website=Al Jazeera |date=24 November 2016 |access-date=18 May 2022 |archive-date=20 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220620182428/https://network.aljazeera.net/pressroom/noam-chomsky-speaks-%E2%80%98upfront%E2%80%99-slams-media-coverage-criticises-third-party-voters |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2019 and 2020, Žižek defended his views,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |date=26 June 2019 |title=Voices Was I right to back Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton? Absolutely |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-hillary-clinton-populist-right-left-democratic-party-civil-war-a8975121.html |website=The Independent |access-date=18 May 2022 |archive-date=4 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190704121910/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-hillary-clinton-populist-right-left-democratic-party-civil-war-a8975121.html |url-status=live }}</ref> saying that Trump's election "created, for the first time in I don't know how many decades, a true American left", citing the boost it gave [[Bernie Sanders]] and [[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]].<ref name=Humphreys>{{cite web |last1=Humphreys |first1=Joe |date=1 August 2020 |title=Slavoj Žižek: 'Joe Biden is long-term the same catastrophe as Trump' |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-joe-biden-is-long-term-the-same-catastrophe-as-trump-1.4312913 |website=Irish Times |access-date=18 May 2022 |archive-date=13 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220613130609/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-joe-biden-is-long-term-the-same-catastrophe-as-trump-1.4312913 |url-status=live }}</ref>

However, regarding the [[2020 United States presidential election]], Žižek reported himself "tempted by changing his position", saying "Trump is a little too much".<ref name=Humphreys/> In another interview, he stood by his 2016 "wager" that Trump's election would lead to a socialist reaction ("maybe I was right"), but claimed that "now with coronavirus: no, no—no Trump. ... difficult as it is for me to say this, but now I would say '[[Biden]] better than Trump', although he is far from ideal."<ref>{{cite web |author=Valuetainment |date=16 May 2020 |title=Communist Philosopher Debates Capitalism - Slavoj Žižek |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHH96Fc0_lo&t=0s |website=YouTube |access-date=18 May 2022 |archive-date=18 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220518165647/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHH96Fc0_lo&t=0s |url-status=live }}</ref> In his 2022 book, ''Heaven in Disorder'', Žižek continued to express a preference for Joe Biden over Donald Trump, stating "Trump was corroding the ethical substance of our lives", while Biden lies and represents big capital more politely.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |year=2022 |title=Heaven in Disorder |location=New York & London |publisher=OR Books |page=119}}</ref>

===Social issues===
Žižek's views on social issues such as [[Eurocentrism]], [[immigration]] and [[LGBT]] people have drawn criticism and accusations of bigotry.<ref name="Žižek, Antagonism and Politics Now">{{cite journal |last1=Kapoor |first1=Ilan |title=Žižek, Antagonism and Politics Now: Three Recent Controversies |journal=International Journal of Žižek Studies |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=1}}</ref>

====Europe and multiculturalism====
In his 1997 article 'Multiculturalism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Multinational Capitalism', Žižek critiqued [[multiculturalism]] for privileging a culturally 'neutral' perspective from which all cultures are disaffectedly apprehended in their particularity because this distancing reproduces the racist procedure of Othering. He further argues that a fixation on particular identities and struggles corresponds to an abandonment of the universal struggle against [[global capitalism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=Multiculturalism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Multinational Capitalism |url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/i225/articles/slavoj-zizek-multiculturalism-or-the-cultural-logic-of-multinational-capitalism |journal=New Left Review |date=1997 |issue=I/225 |pages=28–51 |access-date=12 November 2022 |archive-date=12 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221112150424/https://newleftreview.org/issues/i225/articles/slavoj-zizek-multiculturalism-or-the-cultural-logic-of-multinational-capitalism |url-status=live }}</ref>

In his 1998 article 'A Leftist Plea for "Eurocentrism"', he argued that Leftists should 'undermine the global empire of capital, not by asserting particular identities, but through the assertion of a new universality',<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=A Leftist Plea for "Eurocentrism" |journal=Critical Inquiry |date=1998 |volume=24 |issue=4 |page=1008|doi=10.1086/448904 |s2cid=211516308 }}</ref> and that in this struggle the European universalist value of ''egaliberte'' ([[Etienne Balibar]]'s term) should be foregrounded, proposing 'a Leftist appropriation of the European legacy'.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=A Leftist Plea for "Eurocentrism" |journal=Critical Inquiry |date=1998 |volume=24 |issue=4 |page=1006|doi=10.1086/448904 |s2cid=211516308 }}</ref> Elsewhere, he has also argued, defending [[Marx]], that Europe's destruction of non-European tradition (e.g. through imperialism and slavery) has opened up the space for a 'double liberation', both from tradition and from European domination.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=The Impasses of Today's Radical Politics |journal=Crisis & Critique |date=2014 |volume=1 |page=11ff}}</ref>

In her 2010 article 'The Two Zizeks', [[Nivedita Menon]] criticised Žižek for focusing on differentiation as a colonial project, ignoring how assimilation was also such a project; she also critiqued him for privileging the European Enlightenment Christian legacy as neutral, 'free of the cultural markers that fatally afflict all other religions.'<ref>{{cite web |url=http://kafila.org/2010/01/07/the-two-zizeks/ |last1=Menon |first1=Nivedita |title=The Two Zizeks |date=7 January 2010 |access-date=25 April 2023 |website=KAFILA – Collective explorations since 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116065758/http://kafila.org/2010/01/07/the-two-zizeks/ |archive-date=16 January 2010 }}</ref> David Pavón Cuéllar, closer to Žižek, also criticised him.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pavón-Cuéllar |first=D. |year=2020 |title=Žižek, universalismo y colonialismo: doce tesis para no aceptarlo todo |journal=International Journal of Žižek Studies |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=1–22 |url=https://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1193/1225 |format=pdf |language=es |access-date=5 February 2021 |archive-date=1 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401081650/https://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1193/1225 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the mid-2010s, over the issue of Eurocentrism, there was a dispute between Žižek and [[Walter Mignolo]], in which Mignolo (supporting a previous article by [[Hamid Dabashi]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dabashi |first1=Hamid |title=Can non-Europeans think? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/1/15/can-non-europeans-think/ |website=Aljazeera |access-date=16 November 2022 |archive-date=16 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116210112/https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/1/15/can-non-europeans-think/ |url-status=live }}</ref> which argued against the centrality of European philosophers like Žižek, criticised by [[Michael Marder]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Marder |first1=Micheal |title=A post-colonial comedy of errors |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/4/13/a-post-colonial-comedy-of-errors/ |website=Aljazeera |access-date=16 November 2022 |archive-date=16 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116210106/https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/4/13/a-post-colonial-comedy-of-errors/ |url-status=live }}</ref>) argued, against Žižek, that decolonial struggle should forget European philosophy, purportedly following [[Frantz Fanon]];<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mignolo |first1=Walter D. |title=Yes, we can: Non-European thinkers and philosophers |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/2/19/yes-we-can-non-european-thinkers-and-philosophers/ |website=Aljazeera |access-date=16 November 2022 |archive-date=16 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116210106/https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/2/19/yes-we-can-non-european-thinkers-and-philosophers/ |url-status=live }}</ref> in response, Žižek pointed out Fanon's European intellectual influences, and his resistance to being confined within the black tradition, and claimed to be following Fanon on this point.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=The Impasses of Today's Radical Politics |journal=Crisis & Critique |date=2014 |volume=1 |page=9ff}}</ref> In his book ''Can Non-Europeans Think?'' (foreworded by Mignolo), Dabashi also critiqued Žižek for privileging Europe;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dabashi |first1=Hamid |title=Can Non-Europeans Think? |date=2015 |publisher=Zed Books |location=London |isbn=978-1783604227 |page=1ff}}</ref> Žižek argued that Dabashi slanderously and comically misrepresents him through misattribution,<ref name="A Reply to My Critics">{{cite web |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=A Reply to My Critics |url=https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/a-reply-to-my-critics/ |website=The Philosophical Salon |date=5 August 2016 |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-date=7 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807230212/http://thephilosophicalsalon.com/a-reply-to-my-critics/ |url-status=live }}</ref> a critique supported by [[Ilan Kapoor]].<ref name="Žižek, Antagonism and Politics Now"/>

====Transgender issues====
In his 2016 article "The Sexual Is Political", Žižek argued that all subjects are, like transgender subjects, in discord with the sexual position assigned to them. For Žižek, any attempt to escape this antagonism is false and utopian: thus, he rejects both the reactionary attempt to violently impose sexual fixity and the "[[Postgenderism|postgenderist]]" attempt to escape sexual fixity entirely; he aligns the latter with 'transgenderism', which he claims does not adequately describe the behaviour of actual transgender subjects, who seek a stable "place where they could recognise themselves" (e.g., a bathroom that confirms their identity). Žižek argues for a third bathroom: a "GENERAL GENDER" bathroom that would represent the fact that both sexual positions (Žižek insists on the unavoidable "twoness" of the sexual landscape) are missing something and thus fail to adequately represent the subjects that take them on.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=The Sexual Is Political |url=https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-sexual-is-political/ |website=The Philosophical Salon |date=August 2016 |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-date=3 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803083821/http://thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-sexual-is-political/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In his 2019 article "Transgender dogma is naive and incompatible with Freud", Žižek argued that there is "a tension in LGBT+ ideology between [[social constructivism]] and (some kind of [[Biological determinism|biological]]) determinism", between the idea that [[Social construction of gender|gender is a social construct]], and the idea that gender is essential and pre-social. He concludes the essay with a "[[Freudian]] solution" to this deadlock:
{{blockquote|...psychic sexual identity is a choice, not a biological fact, but it is not a conscious choice that the subject can playfully repeat and transform. It is an unconscious choice which precedes subjective constitution and which is, as such, formative of subjectivity, which means that the change of this choice entails the radical transformation of the bearer of the choice.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=Transgender dogma is naive and incompatible with Freud |url=https://spectatorworld.com/book-and-art/transgender-dogma-naive-freud/ |website=The Spectator |date=31 May 2019 |access-date=11 June 2022 |archive-date=30 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221130083115/https://spectatorworld.com/book-and-art/transgender-dogma-naive-freud/ |url-status=live }}</ref> }}

[[Che Gossett]] criticized Žižek for his use of the "pathologising" term "transgenderism" throughout the 2016 article, and for writing "about trans subjectivity with such assumed authority while ignoring the voices of trans theorists (academics and activists) entirely", as well as for purportedly claiming that a "futuristic" vision underlies so-called "transgenderism", ignoring present-day oppression.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gossett |first1=Che |title=Žižek's Trans/gender Trouble |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/zizeks-transgender-trouble/ |website=LA Review of Books |date=13 September 2016 |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-date=6 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220506194143/https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/zizeks-transgender-trouble/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Sam Warren Miell and Chris Coffman, both psychoanalytically inclined, have separately criticized Žižek for conflating transgenderism and postgenderism; Miell further criticised the 2014 article for rehearsing homophobic/transphobic clichés (including Žižek's designation of [[Zoophilia|inter-species marriage]] as a possible "anti-discriminatory demand"), and misusing Lacanian theory; Coffman argued that Žižek should have engaged with contemporary Lacanian trans studies, which would have shown that psychoanalytic and transgender discourses were aligned, not opposed.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Miell |first1=Sam Warren |title=Slavoj Žižek is wrong about stuff |date=3 August 2016 |url=https://differentcolouredhats.wordpress.com/2016/08/03/slavoj-zizek-is-wrong-about-stuff/ |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-date=19 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019013432/https://differentcolouredhats.wordpress.com/2016/08/03/slavoj-zizek-is-wrong-about-stuff/ |url-status=live }}; {{cite book |last1=Coffman |first1=Chris |title=Queer Traversals |date=2022 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |isbn=9781350200005 |page=98}}</ref> In response to the title of the 2019 article, [[McKenzie Wark]] had t-shirts made with the [[transgender flag]] and "Incompatible with Freud" printed on them.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Erlij |first1=Evelyn |title=McKenzie Wark: reinventing the future |url=https://palabrapublica.uchile.cl/2019/07/31/mckenzie-wark-reinventing-the-future/ |access-date=11 June 2022 |archive-date=30 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221130042000/https://palabrapublica.uchile.cl/2019/07/31/mckenzie-wark-reinventing-the-future/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Žižek defended his 2016 article in two follow-up pieces. The first addresses purported misreadings of his position,<ref name="A Reply to My Critics"/> while the second is a more sustained defence (against Miell) of the article's application of Lacanian theory,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=A Reply to My Critics, Part Two |url=https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/reply-to-my-critics-part-two/ |website=The Philosophical Salon |date=14 August 2016 |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-date=3 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103135557/http://thephilosophicalsalon.com/reply-to-my-critics-part-two/ |url-status=live }}</ref> to which Miell responded in turn.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Miell |first1=Sam Warren |title=Interrogating the père's version: a response to Slavoj Žižek |date=15 August 2016 |url=https://differentcolouredhats.wordpress.com/2016/08/15/interrogating-the-peres-version-a-response-to-slavoj-zizek/ |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-date=8 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220508122849/https://differentcolouredhats.wordpress.com/2016/08/15/interrogating-the-peres-version-a-response-to-slavoj-zizek/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Douglas Lain]] also defended Žižek, claiming that context makes it clear that Žižek is "not opposed [to] the struggle of LGBTQ people" but is instead critiquing "a phony liberal ideology that set up the terms of the LGBTQ struggle", "a certain utopian postmodern ideology that seeks to eliminate all limits, to eliminate all binaries, to go beyond norms because the imposition of a limit is patriarchal and oppressive."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lain |first1=Douglas |title=The Fate of Slavoj Žižek |url=https://thoughtcatalog.com/doug-lain/2017/01/the-fate-of-slavoj-zizek/ |website=Thought Catalog |date=25 January 2017 |access-date=11 June 2022 |archive-date=11 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220611210722/https://thoughtcatalog.com/doug-lain/2017/01/the-fate-of-slavoj-zizek/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a 2023 piece for Compact Magazine, Žižek took a hard stance against access to [[puberty blockers]] for trans youth, and against trans adults being sent to prisons matching their gender, citing the case of [[Isla Bryson]], whom he referred to as "a person who identifies itself as a woman using its penis to rape two women". Both of these things were attributed by Žižek to [[wokeness]] (the wider subject of the article).<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |url=https://compactmag.com/article/wokeness-is-here-to-stay |work=Compact Magazine |date=February 22, 2023 |title=Wokeness Is Here To Stay |access-date=13 May 2023 |archive-date=22 February 2023 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230222090353/https://compactmag.com/article/wokeness-is-here-to-stay |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Zelle |first1=Melanie |url=https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2023/03/02/zizek-has-lost-the-plot/ |work=The Swarthmore Phoenix |date=March 2, 2023 |title=Žižek Has Lost the Plot |access-date=13 May 2023 |archive-date=13 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513120052/https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2023/03/02/zizek-has-lost-the-plot/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Other===
Žižek wrote that the [[Cankar Hall|convention center]] in which nationalist [[Slovene writers]] hold their conventions should be blown up, adding, "Since we live in the time without any sense of irony, I must add I don't mean it literally."<ref name="Interview_part_two">{{cite web |title=Interview] with Žižek – part two |url=http://www.delo.si/zgodbe/sobotnapriloga/slavoj-zizek-bog-daj-da-bi-ciniki-na-oblasti-res-vedeli-kaj-pocnejo.html |work=[[Delo (newspaper)|Delo]] |language=sl |date=2 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405024835/http://www.delo.si/zgodbe/sobotnapriloga/slavoj-zizek-bog-daj-da-bi-ciniki-na-oblasti-res-vedeli-kaj-pocnejo.html |access-date=21 June 2022|archive-date=5 April 2013 }}</ref>

In 2013, Žižek corresponded with imprisoned Russian activist and [[Pussy Riot]] member [[Nadezhda Tolokonnikova]].<ref name="Guardian, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot's prison letters to Slavoj Žižek">{{Cite web |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |last2=Tolokonnikova |first2=Nadezhda |date=15 November 2013 |title=Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot's prison letters to Slavoj Žižek |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/15/pussy-riot-nadezhda-tolokonnikova-slavoj-zizek |work=The Guardian |access-date=21 June 2022 |archive-date=13 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161213004047/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/15/pussy-riot-nadezhda-tolokonnikova-slavoj-zizek |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Blockquote|text=All hearts were beating for you as long as you were perceived as just another version of the liberal-democratic protest against the authoritarian state. The moment it became clear that you rejected global capitalism, reporting on Pussy Riot became much more ambiguous.}}

He criticized Western military interventions in developing countries and wrote that it was the [[2011 military intervention in Libya]] "which threw the country in chaos" and the U.S.-led [[invasion of Iraq]] "which created the conditions for the rise" of the [[Islamic State]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Slavoj Zizek: We Can't Address the EU Refugee Crisis Without Confronting Global Capitalism |url=https://inthesetimes.com/article/slavoj-zizek-european-refugee-crisis-and-global-capitalism |work=In These Times |date=9 September 2015 |access-date=1 October 2022 |archive-date=1 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001201903/https://inthesetimes.com/article/slavoj-zizek-european-refugee-crisis-and-global-capitalism |url-status=live }}</ref>

Žižek believes that [[China]] is the [[Authoritarian capitalism|combination of capitalism and authoritarianism]] in their extreme forms, and the [[Chinese Communist Party]] is the best protector of the interests of [[capitalism|capitalists]]. From the [[Cultural Revolution]] to [[Chinese economic reform|Deng's reforms]], "[[Mao Zedong|Mao]] himself created the ideological condition for rapid capitalist development by tearing apart the fabric of [[traditional society]]."<ref>{{cite web|author=Slavoj Zizek|url=https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/english_editorials/1004153.html|title=Is China's communism just another name for authoritarian capitalism?|work=Hankyoreh|date=2021-07-19|access-date=31 August 2023|archive-date=31 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230831171027/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/english_editorials/1004153.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=It is capitalism, again and again, that emerges as the only alternative, the only way to move forward and the dynamic force for change when social life gets stuck into some fixed form. Today, capitalism is much more [[revolutionary]] than the traditional Left obsessed with protecting the old achievements of the [[welfare state]]. Just consider how much capitalism has changed the entire texture of our societies in the past decades.}}

In an opinion article for ''[[The Guardian]]'', Žižek argued in favour of giving full support to [[Ukraine]] after the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|Russian invasion]] and for creating a stronger [[NATO]] in response to Russian aggression,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |date=21 June 2022 |title=Pacifism is the wrong response to the war in Ukraine |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/21/pacificsm-is-the-wrong-response-to-the-war-in-ukraine |website=The Guardian |access-date=21 June 2022 |archive-date=21 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220621104839/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/21/pacificsm-is-the-wrong-response-to-the-war-in-ukraine |url-status=live }}</ref> later arguing that it would also be a tragedy for Ukraine to yoke itself to western neoliberalism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Žižek |first=Slavoj |date=2022-08-30 |title=Ukraine's Tale of Two Colonizations |url=https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ukraine-russian-occupation-or-western-neoliberal-colonization-by-slavoj-zizek-2022-08 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830101008/https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ukraine-russian-occupation-or-western-neoliberal-colonization-by-slavoj-zizek-2022-08? |archive-date=30 August 2022 |access-date=2022-09-05 |website=Project Syndicate |language=en}}</ref>  Commenting on the [[2025 Trump–Zelenskyy Oval Office meeting|meeting]] between Presidents [[Donald Trump|Trump]] and [[Volodymyr Zelenskyy|Zelenskyy]] in February 2025, he stated, "Ukrainians are being portrayed as if they could choose peace but instead decide to engage in a war that displaces a quarter of their population, just for the sake of a [[proxy war]]. But in reality, it’s a matter of their survival." He compared the struggle of Ukraine against its occupiers to the [[Palestinians]]' struggle against the [[Israeli-occupied territories|Israeli occupation]].<ref>{{cite news |date=15 September 2022 |title=Ukraine is Palestine, not Israel |url=https://jordantimes.com/opinion/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek/ukraine-palestine-not-israel |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001201903/https://jordantimes.com/opinion/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek/ukraine-palestine-not-israel |archive-date=1 October 2022 |access-date=1 October 2022 |work=The Jordan Times}}</ref>

After the [[October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel|October 7th Hamas-led attacks]] in Israel, Zizek wrote:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Žižek |first=Slavoj |date=2023-10-13 |title=The Real Dividing Line in Israel-Palestine |url=https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/israel-palestine-hamas-and-hardliners-against-peace-by-slavoj-zizek-2023-10 |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=Project Syndicate |language=en}}</ref>

{{Block quote|text=We can and should unconditionally support Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks. But we also must unconditionally sympathize with the truly desperate and hopeless conditions faced by Palestinians in [[Gaza Strip|Gaza]] and the occupied territories. Those who think there is a “contradiction” in this position are the ones who are effectively blocking a solution.}}

In April 2024, Žižek criticized Israel's [[Gaza war|actions]] in the [[Gaza Strip]], arguing that Israel's true goal, disguised under claims of eliminating [[Hamas]], was to annex both [[Proposed Israeli resettlement of the Gaza Strip|Gaza]] and the [[Proposed Israeli annexation of the West Bank|West Bank]].<ref>{{cite news |title=The world cannot just cancel Palestine |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2024/04/26/world/palestine-gaza-war-protests-canceled/ |work=The Japan Times |date=26 April 2024}}</ref>