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I care about reality. AI art Introduction In a clip titled I Don’t Care About Jordan Peterson’s Metaphorical Truth , Matt Dillahunty, former host of The Atheist Experience , delivers a candid reflection on his encounter with Jordan Peterson. At one point, Dillahunty declares: “I don't care about metaphorical truths at all. I care about reality.” What seems like a straightforward appeal to common sense is, on closer inspection, laden with philosophical assumptions. Dillahunty’s statement not only distances him from Peterson’s symbolic interpretations of religion, but also inadvertently invites scrutiny from thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, George Lakoff & Mark Johnson, and Jacques Derrida. Their theories of language and meaning challenge the sharp divide Dillahunty posits between metaphor and reality, and reveal the fragility of this opposition. Metaphorical Truth and Its Discontents Jordan Peterson has often suggested that biblical narratives, while not literally f...

Nostalgic? AI art Introduction: Provocation or Gaslighting? In a widely circulated video clip in YouTube titled “Why People Were ‘Happier’ Under Communism,” Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek delivers a provocative thesis: that people in communist regimes experienced a peculiar form of psychological stability, even happiness, precisely because their lives were constrained. The following is a summary of selected moments from the video: “ The notion of happiness itself is very ambiguous and has deep implications. There was a brief period of political openness in Prague in 1968. Then, the Soviet tanks came and crushed the reforms. But here's the paradox: people often claim they were happier during that period. Because their material needs were modestly met. Maybe once a month you'd go to the supermarket and buy coffee. It wasn’t much, but there was a certain comfort in the limitations. You weren’t constantly bombarded with choices and pressure to succeed...

The Caudillo. AI art, photorealism "There is no power that does not leave a scar" — Augusto Roa Bastos (my translation) Introduction On July 31, 2025, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved a constitutional reform allowing President Nayib Bukele to run indefinitely for reelection. The decision, supported by a pro-government parliamentary majority, has drawn national and international criticism for its impact on the separation of powers and institutional weakening. This recent episode revives a figure deeply rooted in the continent’s political history: the caudillo . Far from being an anomaly, the concentration of power in the hands of charismatic, paternalistic, and authoritarian leaders is part of a tradition that has marked Latin America since the 19th century. Literature has served as a relentless mirror of this reality, revealing the mechanisms of absolute power, the logic of fear, and the moral degradation produced by perpetual rule. This article analyzes...

The Debate. AI art Introduction The 2019 debate between Slavoj Žižek and Jordan Peterson, held in Toronto, was billed as a confrontation between Marxism and Capitalism. However, beyond economic systems or identity politics, one of the most revealing moments came when Žižek expressed distaste not for capitalism or ideology, but for marginality itself. Reacting to what he saw as a postmodern valorization of resistance without   real subversion of power , he remarked: “His project was never revolution but rather small resistances, marginal sites of power. And that’s precisely what I don’t like about what you call postmodernism. Let’s not even call them Marxists, but ‘revolutionaries.’ It’s this enjoyment of self-marginalization. The good thing is to be at the margin, not at the center. It almost makes me nostalgic for old Communists who at least had the honesty to say, ‘We don’t enjoy being marginal—we want to seize power.’ I find this celebration of marginality disgusting.” Thi...