Like A Thief In Broad Daylight: Power in the Era of Post-Humanity

by Slavoj Žižek

‘Communism’ becomes an island to which one ‘subtracts’ oneself – a nice case of what one can call ‘principled opportunism’, i.e. sticking faithfully to abstract ‘radical’ notions as a way to remain ‘pure’, avoiding ‘compromises’ because one also avoids any engagement in actual politics.

The problem is not that Trump is a clown. The problem is that there is a programme behind his provocations, a method in his madness. Trump’s (and others’) vulgar obscenities are part of their populist strategy to sell this programme to ordinary people, a programme which (in the long term, at least) works against ordinary people: lower taxes for the rich, less healthcare and workers’ protection, and so on. Unfortunately, people are ready to swallow many things if they are presented to them with laughter.