Philosopher Slavoj Žižek on the re-election of Donald Trump & his fears for Western values

liberal democracy the way we have it now is not strong enough efficient enough to cope with the problem we are confronting stop my God I want to be like Hitler you saw the greatest movie of chaplain uh uh The Great Dictator or what when they applaud and then Hitler says like this and they stop applauding give me at least this dignity thank you very much president joing us once again and also of unique I wanted to start talking about your books on Christian atheism you said in that book that the only way to be an

atheist is through Christianity so what do you think is so unique about Christianity that gives it that quality that means that you have to be a Christian in order to be an atheist uh it's a little bit complex but I'm very glad that we don't go just in this politic jokes that you ask a serious question because this is of course the crucial question it's my pretty unorthodox reading of Christianity but I think it's all there uh namely uh for me to be truly an atheist it's not enough just this you know everything is nature

uh we don't need spiritual values and so on no it's that uh here I again back to quantum physics I'm for nil bore against Einstein because Einstein made that famous statement God is rineer subtle but God doesn't cheat and Neil B gave a perfect answer don't tell God what to do that is to say Einstein who was officially is not an atheist more a pantheist like there is some beautiful structure in nature this is perfect example of what La would have La ja L would have called the big other if you look at it from

a proper distance universe is a beautiful totality and so on for me this is the core of in bad sense theism religion this idea that sorry for vulgar expression even if we are here or in Sudan or Ukraine or where in deep Feit nonetheless if you look at a total picture this is a beautiful harmonious Universe I think that uh this is this argument which usually assumes the form of a reference to a painting you know the idea is look at the big classical painting if you look too close you see just a stain a

dirty stain if you withdraw you see that what appeared to you as a stain really just contributed to the overall Harmony I think the whole point of Christ as embodiment of Christ as a living God God as one of us is that it's strictly prohibited to take this General view the as Hegel whom I of course admire Hegel you know the great materialist I think Mar much more idealist than Hegel Hegel said that what dies on the cross is not a representative of God like God said sent Christ we screwed it up okay God said

come back to me son maybe in thousand years we will try again no as heel put it what dies on the cross is the god of Beyond itself which is why my God read the gospels when Christ is asked how we will know that you will return his answer is when there will be love between the two of you I will be there the name of this love is Holy Ghost Holy Ghost is the Sol solidarity egalitarian solidarity what do you mean by egalitarian another wonderful detail from the Bible you remember Christ is with his

followers in a tent and somebody comes tells him your mother and family are out there waiting for you and he said sorry this is my family here don't read this literally the idea of Holy Ghost is that there is a possibility of a communal link of solidarity where old heres are suspended so this is one and the other result this is how I read this uh statement that of some Christians that God gives us freedom uh not in this cheap sense he gave us freedom of TR CH that's why there is evil but in a

much deeper sense he gave us Freedom by erasing himself out of the picture what remains is not it's totally wrong for me to wait some second coming or will no Second Coming is already here with the collective of Believers that's all there is to it I will not go not to lose too much time but but uh I think and I'm open to criticism here I think that in this sense why is this more radical than usual materialism because the usual materialism remains secretly theological in the sense that the vision it proposes is still what

Einstein believed in this kind of overall Harmony or necessity for example for me Stalin his dialectical materialism was in its basic structure deeply theological Stalin believed in a global order historical necessity which leads to Communism and he even all the time emphasizes I'm just a servant of the people I'm a servant of historical necessity and so on this is what we have to renounce and to conclude so that don't to much you will like this I love it sometimes things happen in reality which give me sorry for the vulgar expression but truly an intellectual orgasm

the last time I got this was uh a governor now a couple of months ago a governor of the province of kaliningrad you know that small one between Poland and Lithuania which is still I don't know why part of Russia a and kining Grant is ex kingburg it's the place where K Emmanuel Kant lived all his life uh he said something which is true but I'm totally opposed to it but he said we don't celebrate K here because K is the father of liberalism socialism and all this modern ideas of democracy human rights and so

on in some sense he was right why in a much more radical sense you know C is remembered us do your duty like no excuse not to doing your duty no can't goes a step further and that's human Freedom At Its most radical intended by Christianity it's uh not just do your duty you are also responsible for what is your duty because if you read Hana arent you must remember what was amman's basic defense Adolf that guy his defense was I was just doing my duty listening to orders no can't prohibits this for can't your

duty you are responsible for I cannot tell to you or to you sorry sorry amas I'm tasteless cut off your balls it will hurt me terribly but it's my duty no you can never use Duty as an excuse to do your duty this mod sorry I stop here I need a master I need a master I to repeat I already did it up my old joke you know what you really need that James Bond car from Goldfinger you know you have that red button if you press the button I please I'm sorry I apologize I'll

ask them to get it for next time um I want to move on from religion to politics Donald Trump won the American election he won the popular vote last week in 2016 you supported the idea of voting for Trump and you argued that Clinton represented a fatal inertia and he suggested that Trump winning the election would lead to some sort of uh social reaction socialist reaction sorry do you do you support Trump winning are you you welcome his come you crazy now I'm totally horrified and so on my wager was I know a little bit

risky because one good argument that I heard years ago against myself is uh that am I not repeating the mistake of Communists in Germany in 1933 when they said it's better that Hitler won now all these false intermediate positions fall away it's us and the real enemy in some sense they were right and at the end Hitler lost but I don't know how many millions with were the price so my point was that at that point and I will Define precisely that point when Trump didn't yet have okay he had a vision but he didn't

yet have a detailed program of how to reform change the whole texture of American Life at that point it would be good to give him a chance so that people will see what he is and I think I was not uh wrong in it because my idea was that nonetheless American society was so rich in its texture different groups spontaneous that you cannot simply reform it in this radical right-wing term if you have the president today the and I was also I think right at another Point uh look what happened as a reaction to Trump

I claim was that we got they are weak I know but nonetheless we got so-called Democratic socialists Bernie Sanders and so on and I don't think think they would be possible and it was for the first time after long decades that an element of not marginal group but main politics refers to itself openly as socialists and uh here uh so it was this tension within the Democratic party itself between the Clinton big Bankers corporations and uh uh Sanders and others the beautiful one AOC Alexandria he is I think he is already part of the mainstream

there but what I want to say is that the fact that there was this other dimension is for me one image and I hope we agree here you will that fascinated me as the absolute Moment of Truth do you remember Biden inauguration all that that black poet lady she is establishment pure and so on blah blah but you remember the image Biden sitting alone on stairs sorry Bernie Bernie did I say Biden my God if you take power two years of gulak for this mistake yeah Bernie was sitting alone and just sitting there and this

was the image he embodied what was fake about the Democratic party and they missed the lesson we can go on into it and uh many mistakes first mistake was uh and we should learn this from Trump extremism there is bad extremism but there is good extremism in the sense that you openly say what you think you are not too careful will I heard this will I heard that wasn't already Biden but then Cala even more doing exactly this I remember I was ashamed one month ago she was asked by some black uh TV commentator she

was simply asked you changed a whole series of your positions four years ago when you were against fracking now you are for where do you stand and her answer was I always think we should look for consensus and solidarity among the people and then the guy asked her okay but what does you know they should learn the lesson of Bernie which was ingenious now that he's old I will probably visit Birmington and try to meet him there now his nice old guy walks every day there alone no where he said no don't focus on that

old Democratic fear are we too much to the left we will lose middle voters no our true Target should be those disappointed white people and not but just white also many blacks and especially Latinos who who vote for Trump and they are our potential voters we should Target them and he proved this he repeatedly won uh he was for I don't know how many times the governor of uh uh what's his State not voming my God Vermont yeah but you know who were his voters precisely those who should have been Trump voters small farmers all

armed with guns afraid and so on so there is I will not go on but you can just enumerate mistakes so I think it's wrong those who think that uh Cala lost because she was woman and black no modern Global capitalist system is much more intelligent you here got the lesson conservatives to cover up real everyday racism conservative party today the ideal leader is a black woman of course you have it now you know they they simply and there are I will not bore you but there are so many lessons that they didn't get and

it's not simply that they didn't get they were told all the time but this is the true force of ideology today this I know very well but even if you are told the truth you ignore it so let me conclude so that you will not again with here again n b you know it I used it even here maybe he proposed a the best formula that I know of how ideology functions today you must know the story I read it in a biography of dbor he had at the entrance to his Country House horse F

in our primitive Europe This is a superstitious item allegedly it prevents evil spirits to enter the house and a scientist friend visit him said but aren't you a scientist do you believe in this you know what nil B answered of course I'm a scientist I don't believe it then friend ask but why do you have it there b answer because I was told that it works even if you don't believe in it that's how liberals effectively function today it's utter cynicism they themselves do not really believe what thank so much um I want to ask

you what you think would be the impact of trump winning on the global stage what do you think will happen in Ukraine what what do you think is happen in the Middle East here after very good question in it what I'm really afraid that will be the Paradox it's a problematic position please attack me more but what I really I don't fear so much that Trump will now do some crazy things Revolution blah blah no he already gives hints that he will act superficially much more modestly you know he will try to enforce some peace

in Ukraine by putting pressure on Ukraine and here we can debate it but I know all that Ukraine is doing wrong corruption Western capital for example do you know that 40% now of the best Ukrainian Earth fi uh Earth is the best in the world for to grow plants and so on 40% is already in Western hands and but nonetheless I think that it's I don't agree with this standard leftist idea Ukraine is leading a proxy for NATO NATO a proxy war against Russia sorry first this is so humiliating for ukrainians do you think really

they are so stupid to say we could have lived in peace but hey why don't we lead the proxy war no they are desperate they are a friend great the choice for them is not peace or War it's war or disappearance Trump is saying this all the time explicitly no Trump sorry now I'm confused second to put me in gulak for not uh but Trump's friend Putin is saying ukrainians don't exist and I don't understand how leftist have simp is here for Putin when you don't remember this I didn't think I was earlier here not

last you know when Putin started the aggression he gave two speeches 21st and 23rd of uh October 20 whatever oh no sorry of it was February or March February yeah do you know that you can find them on uh YouTube immediately he mentions critically just one name two times Lenin he said the proper name of Ukraine should be Ukraine of Vladimir ilich lening and then another time and so on so uh uh I just don't get this but let me return to so Trump is intelligent enough I think he will play this game because one

thing is true he didn't start any wors he even Eed the tensions with North Korea uh I even but this is too optimistic he gave an ambiguous hint even to Netanyahu that he should stop so what I fear is that he will not do any direct horrible things uh like new war whatever but that he will uh Pro proceed in a much more cautious way just he learned this in his for years out of power taking over fing with his people institutions slowly step by step first it's uh limitations to abortion then uh now I

read somewhere that in some states already if you are not yet 18 19 a woman you have to have parents permission to get uh the pills and so on uh uh contraception pills so that we will think oh but lives go on listen where was all the fear and step by step all of a sudden we will find ourselves in a different Universe just so I finish what fears me what is deepest in this fear is the following thing I think the most dangerous split today is the split between our Western but it's not just

our struggle for gay rights women's rights and so on and so-called third world anti-colonial struggle the danger for which we are to a large extent even mostly in the west responsible is that in many so-called third world countries to fight for LGBT women's rights gay rights and so on is considered to participate in the cultural strategy of Western imperialism for example my despair is here a year ago or when you know that the parliament in Uganda voted for the harshest loss against homosexuality if you are caught in a gay act it can be death or

at least lifelong imprisonment and you know what was the reasoning I checked Uganda times in English it's that they the speaker of the parliament who proposed this law put it very clearly if you are for gay rights you are for the neoc colonialist West this is what I find so terribly depressing that that's why I don't trust bricks the formula of bricks is for me we are together against Western imperialism but what you do to your people it doesn't concern me and so on for example Putin three or four weeks ago said officially Taliban are

not a a a terrorist organization they are our important allies in the struggle against Western Terror he said this at the very point when there is now in Afghanistan a new law which prohibits women not only to address the public but even PIV privately on the street to women to talk among themselves because a man might overhear it and woman's voice is such seductive and so on am I now imposing Western agenda no I think that in the same way you should never forget this that Israel you needs this war a proof do you remember

what happened in Israel till the war literally the biggest demonstrations public demonstrations against the way Netanyahu wanted to uh control Supreme Court and so on this was forgotten it was the same in Iran don't you remember that Masa aini a Kurdish young woman was killed by the police it exploded it wasn't just feminism it was feminism at its best feminism which mobilize the majority of population also the men this is my dream to somehow overcome this gap between what we in the west perceive as our LGBT and so on fights I fully support them and

anticolonialism although verbally we all agree here but here we have a very dangerous Gap I wouldn't like to live in a society where to be for gay rights means you are imperialist I want to move on from the uh American election before I do that I I want to ask you what you think are the factors that led to Trump winning again he's a misogynist a liar racist but he seems to be continuing to have a lot of appeal he's now winning the popular vote what are if you could give three reasons why he won

the election what would that that disgusting movie by Robert Alman wonderful uh uh when a a guy wants to leave his wife Nashville by and then he thinks three reasons why why the kids so you're asking me now to think three reasons why okay the main one is this don't I looked at the numbers Maybe I'm Wrong different but it's not that Trump won is that the Democrats lost Trump get got the same number of votes as he did when he was defeated by Biden but uh uh Democrats lost some 12 133 million of or

what of votes it's simply that then another thing which maybe I emphasize too much economy it's more complex I won't go into that but another thing is we still under uh sorry uh underestimate I will say something horrible uh the not moral corruption but the depravity of many Ordinary People depravity by ordinary I don't mean poor people intellectuals are on average worse in the sense that you know how much we enjoy hearing dirty things stupidities and so on let me give you I will not talk too long uh I always talk too long yeah uh

an example uh I thought I am a crazy say this here and but I asked my friends you know I read part two his feet I read first part of handmade stale and then the TV series okay why was it relative l so popular I have a crazy Theory we men and also some women you enjoy this new and new descriptions how they humiliate women you know they shouldn't read they should but since it's depicted as horror you can say okay of course I'm horrified and so on but you secretly enjoy it and I think

it's something of the same with Trump what so-called liberals didn't get is that uh the very features that they think will ruin Trump for example when he is caught lying improvising and so on idiots don't they see this helps him Trump has this paradoxical situation that the more he is vulgar the more he is lying and so on the more people identify with him they simply measure him that's the tragedy by different standards if Kamala is SC lying he is simply lying if Trump is C lying he's at least sincere he speaks openly like one

of us and so on and so on so let me conclude now really with something horrible uh you know we will have to think literally about some form of limitation of our not democracy as such of our type of democracy Western liberal multi-party democracy in France there was a real possibility that Marine Leen will come to power and I think maybe some of you know my text I've written about it that macron I I almost admire him was a genius but you know how he do it by de facto almost suspending democracy uh when uh

the goal established the fifth Republic in 61 to he was afraid of instability so he included in the Constitution some article which says that the president of the Republic nominates the government and then proposes to the assembly National to the people's assembly to confirm or reject the government but it's nowhere specified for how long a time does he have to wait it's not specified so now he changed the government there was no vote in the parliament about the government it was pure manipulation the facto and you know what was the result if macron were not

to do this there were probably economic crisis chaos and so on now somehow people accepted it life goes on I'm not of course not for Chinese version of soft fascism or whatever but it's obvious that in view of the crisis that we are approaching now a much stronger much stronger Global cooperation and long-term political thinking think will be necessary I met a high ranking we are not friends Chinese guy who it was cynical what he told me but he was right he said you see the problem with you in the west is that you think

in the terms how we will survive if you are the ruling party next two years or four years and he told me you know in China we don't have this problem we know that's why we think about what will happen in 20 50 and so on if we I don't know how but liberal democracy the way we have it now is not strong enough efficient enough to cope with the problem we are confronting thank you very much SL uh we will now move on to audience questions were you a good stalinist did you distribute the

questions before or you are a filthy liberal who really allows people sorry sorry talk too much please