Critical-Theory

This most excellent comic was made by Nolen Gertz. You can support Nolen's art by funding him on Patreon (he's trying to make a Nietzsche children's book)  or checking out his book "The Philosophy of War and Exile." The philosophers are (from left to right): Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Buber.

Unfortunately, a well-reasoned critique of consumer capitalism isn't enough to stop the tears of your betrayed loved ones when you have rightfully boycotted "The Holidays." And while "planting a tree in your name" seems to be entirely socially acceptable, "I wrote your name on a rock and threw it at a cop" seems not to be. "I don't want anything" seems to be equally taboo. So, for all of those who have to shop for a critical theorist, radical or metaphysical asshole, you may behold the commodification of the revolution. Or jump to these categories: Movies - Wearables -  Art - Books Knick Knacks Noam Chomsky Candle Pay homage to the patron saint of fighting imperialist propaganda with a Noam Chomsky candle. Via Unemployed Philosopher's Guild. Nietzsche Drink Koozies Shameless self promotion alert. Screen-printed, by hand, by me (and my brother). Via Etsy. Karl Marx Piggy Bank Via Amazon. Philosopher Finger Puppets Frederick Douglass Emma Goldman Baruch de Spinoza Hannah Arendt

If you enjoy A) wasting your time and B) Slavoj Zizek, get ready - there's a game that's perfect you. Entitled "Zizek Dress Up", the online game allows players to customize the head, torso and legs of Slovenian theorist Slavoj Zizek, along with his accompanying background. Users are also given the option to save their monstrous creations as a .PNG file. It started as a joke, creator Cameron Kunnelman told us via email.  "My friend @kaborso made a one-off tweet as a joke and, as I often do, I took it way more seriously than I should have,"  Kunnelman explained. "I put a call out on Twitter and James Wragg sent me an email. I immediately saw that he had the look and the feel of Zizek's weirdness. So we were off and running." It was inspired, in part, by "Pervert's Guide to Cinema," where Zizek frequently assumes the appearance of popular movie characters. It's not Kunnelman's first foray into game-making. They've made games like  "Oh No," which features a menacing Michel Foucault head

Verso Book's "The Left Hemisphere: Mapping Critical Theory Today" is finally coming out in paperback this Tuesday, and to celebrate we've teamed up with them to give you lots of free stuff. We are giving away 5 copies of "The Left Hemisphere" to 5 lucky people along with a Critical-Theory Bookmark and a Karl Marx Koozie so that you'll never lose your page or have a lukewarm beverage while enjoying it. To enter, you just have to follow us on Twitter below (you can unfollow us if you really want later, but we'll be a little sad). Contestants also get an extra entry if they follow Verso Books. All that jazz is below, so go ahead and enter! Contest ends at 11:59 on Tuesday, November 4. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Earlier this month Laurent Joffrin, Editorial Director of the French publication Libération, criticized Alain Badiou for his take on the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It wasn't just his criticism that drew Badiou's ire, but his choice words - Joffrin said Badiou "was a kind of Maoist dinosaur lost in our time." Today, the Verso blog has published a translated version of Badiou's response that is thoroughly amazing and worth a read.  Badiou starts by responding to the claim that he "is just a frozen dinosaur." Joffrin’s method of showing my frozenness is a simple and speedy one: the very expression ‘Cultural Revolution’ alone provokes in him he numerical ejaculation of ‘seven hundred thousand dead’, along with horrific – true – details regarding the abuse of a well-known intellectual at the hands of the Red Guards. "Joffrin is certainly more outdated, old-fashioned and out of touch than I am," Badiou writes, as he adds up the death toll from liberal democracies. "Let’s imagine that in

From Existential Comics.

7 Totally Continental Moments in Gilmore Girls

Today, The Guardian hosted a "live" webchat with Slavoj Zizek, cultural critic extraordinaire.

Lacan: philosopher, psychoanalyst, icon. Also, a dick.

This week's 8-Bit Philosophy tackles the question "What is a Woman?" with Simone de Beauvoir and Metroid. Watch below.

It’s fall, and America is once again infatuated with pumpkin spice everything. What started as a simple fascination with pumpkin spice lattes has now spread - pumpkin spice is now a culinary cancer on otherwise fine food. Pumpkin spice also offers the perfect opportunity to understand Jean Baudrillard, the thinker of simulation and inventor of the Matrix. But first, some history. Pumpkin spice lattes are the demon spawn of Starbucks, who concocted the beverage about 11 years ago.  As of last year, the company had sold more than 200 million. Now, pumpkin and pumped-spiced themed items grace our shelves in the form of beers, cookies and other delectables. Starbucks even began peddling pumpkin sauce and US pumpkin-flavored sales amounted to $308 million in 2013, up from $290 million in 2012,  Vox.com writes. We live in a world where our globalized and industrialized agricultural system has erased seasons. Back in the day you were stuck with what was seasonal - you ate tomatoes and

In 1979, Edward Said was invited by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir to France for a conference on Middle East peace. It was in the wake of the Camp David Accords that ended the war between Egypt and Israel, that the author of "Orientalism" and ardent supporter of the Palestinian people, was invited to contribute with other prominent thinkers. Said offered effusive praise for Sartre when recounting his adventure, writing for the London Review of Books: "He was never condescending or evasive, even if he was given to error and overstatement. Nearly everything he wrote is interesting for its sheer audacity, its freedom (even its freedom to be verbose) and its generosity of spirit" But despite admiring Sartre and de Beauvoir, Said was disappointed after meeting his intellectual heroes. Upon arriving in France, Said received a mysterious note informing him that, for security reason, the proceedings were to be held in the home of Michel Foucault. Upon arriving, Said encountered de

George Orwell never dabbled much in philosophy "proper," despite the highly political underpinnings of his work. But when philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote "The Portrait of the Antisemite" in 1945, Orwell was offered an opportunity to give his thoughts on the famous French existentialist. "I have just had Sartre's book on antisemitism, which you published, to review. I think Sartre is a bag of wind and I am going to give him a good boot." That letter, to his publisher, was actually about his final attempts at completing his famous book "Nineteen Eighty-Four." It's only in the final paragraph that Orwell decides to warn his publisher that he intends to give Sartre a "good boot," before wishing to give everyone his love. Orwell would indeed go on to give Sartre a "good boot." As Open Culture notes, Orwell published his review of Sartre's book the next month, in November of 1948. Antisemitism is obviously a subject that needs serious study, but it seems unlikely that it will get it in