Zizek's special insights

I've pointed out before how Slavoj Zizek sometimes claims a vantage point for himself which he seems to think is denied the regular run of folk. Nigel Warburton criticizes what he sees as an example of this:

We dim-sighted ones naively rail against what he [Zizek] calls subjective violence (or what we traditionally call 'violence'), apparently blind to systemic and symbolic violence.

Whether broadly or narrowly conceived, symbolic violence isn't actual violence, and whatever the relation between them, it is useful to know the difference. Political and social systems are backed by violence, in the last resort and sometimes day to day, but this doesn't mean that all the negative features of such systems are - themselves - violence. We need some linguistic means of making distinctions, otherwise we should not be able to talk clearly. Or, put differently: there are other evils in the world than violence.

Nigel also takes Zizek to task for the claim that we in the West can't tolerate questioning of the Holocaust. The claim is - not to put too fine a point on it - false. There may be laws against Holocaust denial in some countries, but otherwise such questioning is widely tolerated, if also regretted for being a lie. The 'we' here is another 'we' of this kind.