Philosophy for Plebs, Session 10 - On the Hot Take

HOT TAKE: philosophy itself is actually just a series of takes, punchy opinions that take from and respond to what others have written. More often than not, these takes are lukewarm. The spicy ones tend to outlast their time and context.

But what about the everyday hot takes? We’re not talking about an edgelord “just playing devils advocate” re: fascism here, or attempting to justify why women should stay in the kitchen. We’re thinking more about the banal opinions dressed up as shocking or scandalous or mildly unhinged for the purpose of making a scene: LinkedIn profiles should be connected to dating profiles. Cereal is soup. In a media ecosystem dominated by algorithms and short-form video, what cultural role does the hot take play?

Join us for this hot session of Philosophy for Plebs, where we’ll see how far we can push the concept of performative antagonism (before it turns around and bites us). We’ll read Chantal Mouffe, along with an essay where Slavoj Žižek picks a fight with Judith Butler and Ernesto Laclau.

Link to Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1dYFRMexww4pvHFMJ9Tb7i-yYfbVsWWl6

Optional viewing: Subway Takes ?si=bcLD-p8MYkRv2KMK

You may also like the following events from ark books:

• This Sunday, 19th October, 04:00 pm, Bad Women Book Club - Hunchback in Copenhagen
• This December, 7th December, 04:00 pm, Bad Women Book Club - Sociopath: A Memoir in Copenhagen