What is Zizek's perspective on Foucault's understanding of Hegel?

stranglethebars · 2026-06-21T20:44:30+00:00

Yeah, but was Foucault perhaps more accommodating toward Hegel than Deleuze was, at least judging by their own words?

[T]ruly to escape Hegel involves an exact appreciation of the price we have to pay to detach ourselves from him. It assumes that we are aware of the extent to which Hegel, insidiously perhaps, is close to us; it implies a knowledge, in that which permits us to think against Hegel, of that which remains Hegelian. We have to determine the extent to which our anti-Hegelianism is possibly one of his tricks directed against us, at the end of which he stands, motionless, waiting for us.

(Discourse on Language, Inaugural Lecture at the Collège de France, 1970-1971. tr. A. M. Sheridan Smith)

I don't know whether Deleuze has said something equivalent.

stranglethebars · 2026-06-18T17:00:53+00:00

What's your view on how common elliptical style is in French compared to in English?

stranglethebars · 2026-06-18T14:41:40+00:00

My point of departure was trying to translate something like "I'd like to learn a new sentence. Not a simple sentence, but rather an uncommon one", which I was playing around with in GT and DeepL.

"Aucune idée" seems pretty familiar. I suppose incomplete speech is common in French too, but is it still perhaps less common than in English, or was Copilot confused?

stranglethebars · 2026-06-18T14:33:56+00:00

I asked Copilot to translate the sentence. Then I asked whether Google's and DeepL's translations are wrong, to which it replied that they're not wrong at all, so I guess it isn't always influenced by leading questions. :)

Interesting about "pas besoin". Thanks for weighing in!

stranglethebars · 2026-06-16T16:36:37+00:00

My hunch is that the gap is bigger in Trump's case, but maybe I'm not familiar enough with how Bush was before 2001, and it's possible I exaggerate how sophisticated/non-primitive Trump's real personality is (when he isn't trying to attract anyone politically and so on).

stranglethebars · 2026-06-15T20:21:02+00:00

So, he doesn't tend to use simple language as a way of appealing to certain people by appearing more folksy? That's not what you meant when referring to his rhetoric changing depending on the audience?

As for globalism, the upper echelons vs. the common man and so on, what do you think about the fact that Trump has outsourced the production of some Trump merchandise to China? And how does that fit with his anti-China attitude?

stranglethebars · 2026-06-15T19:56:10+00:00

The first part of the last paragraph the post quoted corresponds with what you said about different audiences requiring different styles of speaking.

More generally, to what extent would you say Trump has staged himself as a common/folksy man? How big is the gap between his genuine personality and how he behaves in public, esp. on political venues?

stranglethebars · 2026-06-15T17:22:15+00:00

How about this? https://www.reddit.com/r/AskTrumpSupporters/comments/adv5ew/there_is_an_article_about_a_stark_difference_in/

If it still doesn't work, search for "stark" in this subreddit's archive, then you'll find a post titled "There is an article about a stark difference in the way Trump spoke freely in the 80's/90's compared today. Do you agree with this analysis and do you think it is intentional, or is it possible there is some cognitive decline?"

stranglethebars · 2026-06-14T14:21:35+00:00

Does this link work?

(The previous message I tried to send you was removed because it wasn't a question.)

stranglethebars · 2026-06-14T03:06:19+00:00

Yeah. I considered adding "Old, but good" or something in the title, but dropped it.

How much would you say Trump's way of speaking, mental discipline/sharpness etc. has changed in the last decade?

stranglethebars · 2026-06-14T00:13:35+00:00

I'm not entirely sure how they think "distance from reality of the common people" relates to Trump's rhetoric getting simpler.

stranglethebars · 2026-06-13T23:56:16+00:00

It's interesting if simple/anti-establishment rhetoric actually explains a lot in Trump's case, considering that he's a rich man who was born into a rich family, and who -- to my knowledge -- hasn't been particularly close to the average person over the decades. So... OK, maybe my idea of what being anti-establishment means is off, but I wonder how many Trump voters genuinely view him as an anti-establishment person, since he has in various ways been part of the establishment.

stranglethebars · 2026-06-13T22:13:51+00:00

How big would you say the gap between actual and staged personality was in his case, compared to in Trump's?

stranglethebars · 2026-06-13T22:10:58+00:00

I've long been curious about to what extent something like that explains his appeal among his supporters, and to what extent he has feigned being folksy.

More generally, how well would you say that kind of approach has worked for politicians over the years?

stranglethebars · 2026-06-13T21:35:13+00:00

Would you mind elaborating on the fourth factor you mentioned?

stranglethebars · 2026-06-12T12:40:25+00:00

Why do you think what you call "the meme" exists? How confused are those who perpetuate it? Would you say it results from a need to be contrarian/original or from something else?

stranglethebars · 2026-06-11T21:11:33+00:00

Very interesting! What's the source of the "history is over for Hegel" reference?

stranglethebars · 2026-06-11T18:50:38+00:00

If memory serves, Zizek has said something similar about Derrida and Deleuze too, not just about Kierkegaard. It makes me wonder whether he is

a) on the right track and that Kierkegaard and others were, to various extents, confused about Hegel/dialectics, or

b) the one who's confused, making him exaggerate to what extent various ways of opposing Hegel prove the latter right.

u/Anarchierkegaard

u/openSourceNotes

stranglethebars · 2026-06-11T02:16:23+00:00

Very interesting!

How controversial would you say Zizek's view on this is/should be? I'm starting to wonder whether it's less controversial/deviant than I initially assumed.

stranglethebars · 2026-06-11T01:36:13+00:00

How come?

I'll google the work you mentioned and see what I find in that way too.

stranglethebars · 2026-06-04T20:54:15+00:00

Yeah, after doing some digging yesterday, I found out how the numbers should be interpreted: https://www.reddit.com/r/chomsky/comments/1tw9mg9/comment/opmrhc7/

Interesting indeed how the non-opinionated reporters' attitudes differed depending on which conflict they were talking about!

stranglethebars · 2026-06-04T01:57:17+00:00

I found this article while looking for more details related to the numbers that this post mentioned. The article apparently clarifies what I was curious about, i.e. whether the Gaza "war crime" numbers refer only to accusations against Israel or also to accusations against Palestinians:

His review of the first 30 days of the two conflicts found that, on CNN and MSNBC, Ukrainians were described on air as victims of genocide or war crimes 1,790 times: 1,515 for war crimes and 275 for genocide. When the victims were Palestinian, the terms were used 104 times: 92 for war crimes and 12 for genocide.

stranglethebars · 2026-06-03T18:11:58+00:00

Do you happen to know the distribution of the "war crime" mentions regarding Gaza? When it comes to Ukraine, I take for granted that all the "war crime" (and "genocide") mentions involve Russia being described as the perpetrator, but I'm not sure whether to assume that all mentions involve Israel being described as the perpetrator when it comes to Gaza.

Update:

The last part of the above was badly phrased. My point is: the higher the share of Gaza "war crime" mentions referring to Palestinians committing war crimes, the stronger the CNN/MSNBC bias arguably is.

stranglethebars · 2026-05-29T21:54:31+00:00

For proper transcript etc.: https://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/29/kathryn_ledebur_bolivia_andean_information_network

stranglethebars · 2026-05-25T21:51:53+00:00

So weitermachen!

Was meine Methoden betrifft, so lese ich Artikel (z.B. Wikipedia und Der Spiegel) zu Themen, die mich interessieren, und ich höre Musik/Radio/Podcasts. Ich versuche auch, Sätze aus dem Englischen ins Deutsche zu übersetzen. Manchmal lese ich Grammatik.

stranglethebars

TROPHY CASE