In the late 1980s, Žižek came to public attention as a columnist for the alternative youth magazine Mladina, which was critical of Tito's policies and Yugoslav politics, especially the militarization of society. He was a member of the League of Communists of Slovenia until October 1988, when he quit in protest against the JBTZ trial together with 32 other Slovenian intellectuals.[33] Between 1988 and 1990, he was actively involved in several political and civil society movements which fought for the democratization of Slovenia, most notably the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights.[34] In the first free elections in 1990, he ran as the Liberal Democratic Party's candidate for the former four-person collective presidency of Slovenia. He only slightly missed becoming elected, receiving the fifth-most votes.[24]

It's worth reading Mladina's wiki page to get an overview as well, but here's a few brief excerpts.

Trying to publish Nazi imagery:

In 1987, the poster design contest for the annual Relay of Youth, a customary Yugoslav youth relay race intended to celebrate the birthday of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, was won by an entry by Neue Slowenische Kunst, a Slovenian avant-garde art collective. The design was later found to have been based on a Nazi propaganda art image by Nazi artist Richard Klein, restyled in the fashion of socialist realism which was traditionally favoured by the Yugoslavia state as a subtle protest of Tito's cult of personality. Mladina attempted to feature the image on its cover page, but the attempt was prohibited by censors; if Mladina indeed went through with the idea and went to print with the design on its cover, the magazine would have been outlawed. Instead, the editors decided to circumvent the ultimatum by publishing the image on the inner sleeve as a centrefold, printing a critical article discussing the affair under the title "In Place of a Cover" on the cover page instead.

Opposing arms to the global south:

Due to its influence and radical stances, Mladina was seen as an "enemy of the state" and was consequently monitored by the authorities because of its pacifist stance, manifested, among other things, in its firm opposition to Yugoslavia's arms sales to developing countries.

And bringing down Yugoslavia:

Mladina's reporting "pushed on the boundaries until they started to fall down"; the magazine had a direct and integral role in bringing about the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

You do not hate Zizek enough. None of you hate Zizek enough!

[–] huf@hexbear.net 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

damn, here i was thinking zizek was useless, but he's worse than useless

[–] InexplicableLunchFiend@hexbear.net 8 points 6 days ago

dude never saw a Nazi he didn't love, for some reason

[–] nohaybanda@hexbear.net 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I believe I hate this rat just the right amount, tyvm.

You're absolutely correct that Zizek's history is a lot worse than the Quirk Balkan Chungus persona he puts on, and the fact that he's held in any regard by the Western Left should be an indictment to it, if another one were at all necessary.

That said nothing you've listed above is special, beyond whatever stroke of luck allowed him to gain notoriety in western radlib circles. We have a hundred of these contrarian dipshits here in Bulgaria (and the Balkans more broadly). "Joined a student society where he made crude jokes about the party while being a sex pest, then ran for parliament in the 90s, failed and then wrote snarky/shockjock commentary for two decades" is a distinct type of guy around these parts. This is not to excuse his positions - he's every bit as culpable as all the other self-important class traitors who've come and gone since then. But to claim he played a major role is really pushing it. By the time he was on his bullshit the Warsaw pact had fallen deeply into historical nihilism as Xi Jingpin describes:

Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Communist Party of the Soviet Union fall to pieces? An important reason is that in the ideological domain, competition is fierce! To completely repudiate the historical experience of the Soviet Union, to repudiate the history of the CPSU, to repudiate Lenin, to repudiate Stalin was to wreck chaos in Soviet ideology and engage in historical nihilism. It caused Party organizations at all levels to have barely any function whatsoever. It robbed the Party of its leadership of the military. In the end the CPSU—as great a Party as it was—scattered like a flock of frightened beasts! The Soviet Union—as great a country as it was—shattered into a dozen pieces. This is a lesson from the past!

Xi Jinping, Uphold and Develop Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

The rank and file of the party was filled with careerist opportunists, and the upper echelons were realizing that they could own their own mansions instead of just being allowed to vacation in state-owned ones, if they betrayed the working class. I don't believe I'm knowledgeable enough to describe all the failures and fault lines that in the end crushed the revolution in the USSR or in the Balkan People's Republics, but to claim Zizek and grifter intellectuals like him (who weren't even well placed enough to privatize an industry or five) is just buying into their delusional self-mythology.

I urge you, place those same "achievements" listed above in the mouth of some pussy hat wearing radlib claiming they're fighting American fascism. How impressive are they really?

[–] aqwxcvbnji@hexbear.net 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I urge you, place those same "achievements" listed above in the mouth of some pussy hat wearing radlib claiming they're fighting American fascism. How impressive are they really?

I understand your point and agree with it to a large extent, but you are forgetting that Tito's Yuguslavia was much more democratic and responsive to their citizens desires and had a much more well-read population than the US, so Zizek's action were probably more influential there than the exact same actions would be in the current US.

[–] nohaybanda@hexbear.net 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There's being responsive to popular demands and then there's the grave betrayal of the revolution and the working class we're paying for to this day. The fact that five decades of our socialist experiment produced vapid intellectual shitheels like him played a major role for sure, but I just don't buy that he, as a person, was all that important. Too many senior administrators, generals, intelligence officers decided they'd be better served by siding with imperialism and becoming bourgeois. Too many party functionaries looked the other way, or simply saw where the wind blows and decided to run with it.

Even if Zizek had done the decent thing, drank himself into a stupor and drowned in the Ljubljanica back in 1988, I don't believe for a second that things would have gone any different in the end. He deserves our scorn, but none of our time. Our historical moment is here and now, Zizek is at best a distraction.

[–] jack@hexbear.net 4 points 5 days ago

Well I still hate him very much and hope he dies

[–] CommunistCuddlefish@hexbear.net 2 points 5 days ago

Does that NSK connection mean Laibach are not, in fact, Communists?