Slovenia: Philosopher Slavoj Zizek tells an obscene Jewish joke in an interview with Spiegel

German newspaper Spiegel interviewed Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek. The newspaper believes that the man is a genius and claims that he "is one of Europe's boldest intellectuals", "one of the most famous contemporary thinkers and cultural theorists in the world" and "a globally influential intellectual" who in a new work "argues Europe shouldn't be overly tolerant towards Islamism".  So we should reverentially heed what this intellectual super hero has to say.

In fact he doesn't say much about islamism or Islam.  Unsurprisingly Zizek had more to say about Jews than Islamism.  And the genius tells an allegdly supposedly Jewish joke - aren't Jews marvellously adept at self-derision?  But, unsurprisingly again, no joke about Muslims.  He admits that the joke is obscene, but it's always such a pleasure in Europe to poke fun at the Jews - and their Jew-obsession carries absolutely no risk:

Or take the Jewish joke -- they can be wonderful in their self-derision. Do you know this one? A Jewish woman of Polish origin -- they're considered to be particularly serious in nature -- stoops as she cleans a tile floor. When her husband gets home and sees her stretched backside, he pulls up her skirt in excitement and takes her from behind. When he is finished, he asks his wife if she has also been brought to climax. No, she says, I still have three more tiles to go. Without obscene exchanges like that, we don't have any real contact with each other -- just a cold respect.

Has the  humanist, bold philosopher anything to say about the massacre of Christians in Africa, in the Middle East? About the way the Roma are treated in Europe?  Nothing at all. The journalist doesn't bother either.  But he obviously had to bring up the Palestinians as a great universal cause. How so?

Spiegel: So how can we develop an emancipatory solidarity between groups that are culturally different?

Žižek: [..]  Everything is dependent on this: the battle for the Palestinians and against anti-Semitism, WikiLeaks and Pussy Riot -- all are part of the same struggle. If not, then we can all just kill ourselves.