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Slavoj Žižek: Political Correctness is a More Dangerous Form of Totalitarianism | Big Think

Big Think | November 27, 2025



Slavoj Žižek: Political Correctness is a More Dangerous Form of Totalitarianism
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Slavoj Žižek doesn’t buy into political correctness. In fact, it frightens him. The famed philosopher and social critic describes political correctness as a tacit form of totalitarianism, an act of coercion built upon the premise that “I know better than you what you really want.” This isn’t to say that people should be allowed to go around treating others poorly, but Žižek argues that employing coercion and scare tactics to instill a state of forced behavior completely missed the point. To Žižek, the kinds of obscenity targeted by political correctness are much more effective at breeding a sense of shared solidarity than most alternatives.
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SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK:

Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic. He is a professor at the European Graduate School, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London, and a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His books include Living in the End Times, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, In Defense of Lost Causes, four volumes of the Essential Žižek, and Event: A Philosophical Journey Through a Concept.

Žižek received his Ph.D. in Philosophy in Ljubljana studying Psychoanalysis. He has been called the “Elvis of philosophy” and an “academic rock star.” His work calls for a return to the Cartesian subject and the German Ideology, in particular the works of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. Slavoj Žižek’s work draws on the works of Jacques Lacan, moving his theory towards modern political and philosophical issues, finding the potential for liberatory politics within his work. But in all his turns to these thinkers and strands of thought, he hopes to call forth new potentials in thinking and self-reflexivity. He also calls for a return to the spirit of the revolutionary potential of Lenin and Karl Marx.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Slavoj Zizek: Of course I have nothing against the fact that your boss treats you in a nice way and so on. The problem is if this not only covers up the actual relationship of power, but makes it even more impenetrable. You know, if you have a boss who is up there, the old-fashioned boss shouting at you, exerting full brutal authority. In a way it’s much easier to rebel than to have a friendly boss who embraces you or how was the last night with your girlfriend, blah, blah, all that buddy stuff. Well then it almost appears impolite to protest. But I will give you an example, an old story that I often use to make it clear what do I mean by this. Imagine you or me, I’m a small boy. It’s Sunday afternoon. My father wants me to visit our grandmother. Let’s say my father is a traditional authority. What would he be doing? He would probably tell me something like, “I don’t care how you feel; it’s your duty to visit your grandmother. Be polite to her and so on.” Nothing bad about this I claim because I can still rebel and so on. It’s a clear order.

But what would the so-called post-modern non-authoritarian father do? I know because I experienced it. He would have said something like this, “You know how much your grandmother loves you, but nonetheless I’m not forcing you to visit her. You should only visit her if you freely decide to do it.” Now every child knows that beneath the appearance of free choice there is a much stronger pressure in this second message. Because basically your father is not only telling you, you must visit your grandmother, but you must love to visit it. You know he tells you how you must feel about it. It’s a much stronger order. And I think that this is for me almost a paradigm of modern permissive authority. This is why the formula of totalitarianism is not — I don’t care what you think; just do it. This is traditional authoritarianism. The totalitarian formula is I know better than you what you really want and I may appear to be forcing you to do it, but I’m really just making you do what without fully knowing what you want and so on. So in this sense yes, I am horrified by this. Also another aspect this new culture of experts where an injunction is presented just as a neutral statement.

For example, one example that I like and let’s not have a misunderstanding here. I don’t smoke and I’m for punishing tobacco companies and so on and so on. But I’m deeply suspicious a…

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Comments

This post currently has 44 comments.

  9. @Merry-m4g

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    I would pay to see someone just listen to a sound byte of him saying something before he can finish the thought and reclaim his posture towards certain "offensive" sentence/phrase.
    I'm glad that people hear him out fully but it would be very funny to see reactions of small sentences. And then ask "What do you think of this?" and after a crazy, absurd reaction, make them hear the rest.
    A good lesson about how we cannot just pay attention to headlines, for example.

  11. @EyalAvrahamov

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    In the first 3 minuets, the story with the son and grandmother and the friendly boss, those stories represents clearly what Marcuse meant in the "on dimensional man". because modern capitalism is much like that, the worker is bombarded with so much good and services, and even "benefits", as the state workers calls it, that it becomes unethical to rebel. Capitalism can actually rule just by adjusting socialist elements in the system.

  13. @OliveJewel

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    I feel like this is what Nietzsche was saying as well. That Christianity screwed up the master-slave mentality where people could clearly see who held the power, and reversed it so that the weakest were almost fetishized, which was a way of obscuring the power dynamic.

  15. @TarpeianRock

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    I always disliked this habit of calling bosses by their first name : it creates a false sense of informality that masks the real power structure. I would prefer to call them Mister X or Madam Y : that way everyone understands clearly the dynamic. I must admit I like to be standoff-ish towards a person who has power over me, it creates a much needed distance and clear headedness.

  21. @TheLuckyTim7

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    Very insightful. It’s a shame people hear this and think “now I can be openly racist.” We need people like zizek to continue these conversations in the nuances they exist in

  25. @kestrel09

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    One of the joys of work is banter between colleagues. A great opportunity to learn more about each other and have fun as well. Includes a bit of cruelty.

  27. @iqgustavo

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:

    00:00 🤨 Concealing power dynamics behind a friendly facade can make rebellion more challenging.
    01:16 🧐 Modern permissive authority can exert stronger pressure by masking orders as free choices.
    02:12 😳 Totalitarianism lies in manipulating individuals into doing what they're not fully aware they want.
    03:07 🚬 The critique of smoking might not solely rely on health but also on controlling one's passions.
    04:24 😶 Political correctness may suppress racism but not truly eliminate it, fostering controlled racism.
    06:15 🤣 Shared obscene jokes can create a sense of solidarity and bridge gaps, even in the face of ethnic tensions.
    08:32 🤝 Friendly obscenities can facilitate genuine human connection and understanding.
    09:30 🤔 The absurdity of political correctness, exemplified by banning an opera due to a scene near a tobacco factory.
    10:28 🤯 The importance of precision in addressing racism to avoid reproducing harmful stereotypes and conditions.

  28. @lucasgambit7248

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    The world should watch this.
    A new kind of opression for sure! And the best part: disguised as respect and beautiful behavior.
    Like the master said, it's harder to rebel if someone is aggressive, so let's just make up beautiful and totally correct RULES.
    Better than motivate behavior from within.

  32. @polarbleed3440

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    I remember back when Zizek debated Jordan Peterson on “communism vs capitalism”. All the idiot woke and PC people were initially cheering for Zizek because they all hate Peterson, but then fell silent when there was no animosity between the two? It was the weirdest “debate” I have ever heard in my life.

  37. @davidpar2

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    Political correctness is a push for forced dishonesty. Marxism 101 destruction of society: Erase its history and replace it with lies over the course of multiple generations

  38. @victorlandaverde3063

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    I think he’s so behind on acceptance of degradation Xbox player have been doing it for year and regardless of the racial homophobic misogynistic language it’s all joke and they create friend structure despite their differences

  42. @djkoti74

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    In my opinion he got the authoritarian/totalitarian line of thinking related to traditional approach/woke aproach 100% right. On the other hand he got the racism thing only partially right because he himself in his exmaples and hes not a racist. I would like to see Žizek & Chappelle together in an interview, I think they would get along great and come up with hilarious and insightful content.

  43. @hanchenhoste5725

    November 27, 2025 at 5:28 am

    In my belief, I think that you need to have some knowledge of the other person's culture and personality to make these kind of jokes tactfully. But it is true that if we try to avoid certain topics we will engender a counter reaction to what was initially the intention. After all we have reached a point of society that is disproportionately afraid of pain, and this is only one of the many manifestations that could lead to a worse outcome.

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