I think many people make the mistake of thinking that any person (theorist, philosopher, activist etc.) must have the correct takes all the time. It is entirely possible for someone to contribute significantly in theory (for example, I still think the Sublime Object of Ideology was conceptually groundbreaking in the 1990s, nowadays the concept has been normalized among the left but back then, during an era of post-Soviet collapse and when it seemed as though Western liberal capitalism had prevailed, it was something else entirely) but still have the other parts (especially as a non-specialist) wrong.

Can’t be repeated enough. Its very exhausting to see an entire body of work tossed on the bonfire because someone, particularly late in life, had a bad opinion. Whether you’re talking about Kanye West or Slavoj Žižek, you can’t lose the sight of the forest by fixating on every individual tree.

Also worth remembering that not everything is a black-and-white issue. Zizek’s got family and friends in Eastern Europe. Dude has a very real vested personal interest in the Ukraine War not spilling out over the country’s borders. Modern Russia isn’t exactly a paragon of virtue. So while the best take tends to “End the war at any cost, because this pissing contest isn’t worth the calamity it brings” (:china:), its tiresome to harangue a guy for saying what amounts to “I hope the Americans form a bullwark against this shit before my family home gets hit with the backside of a cruise missile”.