Michael Downs (The Dangerous Maybe) on the quilting Point

This episode of The Vanishing Mediators features renowned blogger Michael Downs (The Dangerous Maybe), known for his work on Lacanian theory, Žižek, Nick Land and more. This episode is an in-depth conversation about Lacan's concept of quilting point (point de capiton) as discussed in Seminar III. Dangerous Maybe comments on how Lacan introduces the split between signifier and signified and builds on the idea of the quilting point, which stabilizes meaning by breaking the metonymic chain of signification.
We discuss the perspectives of Todd McGowan and Slavoj Žižek. These include the name-of-the-father, which stabilizes meaning through master signifiers. Micky connects these ideas to the clinical function of psychoanalysis, trauma, and repression, while also sharing personal insights into his own work, including a forthcoming book on Žižek and Nick Land and teaching a course on Žižek's theory of ideology.
Introduction to Slavoj Zizek with Michael Downs: theoryundergro...
"The Dangerous Maybe" Blog: / thedangerousmaybe

[@RahulSam]

What a legend! I listened to this while running, and Mikey goes so hard that I hit a 10K PR, haha!

[@GlobalTheatreSkitsoanalysis]

31:35 - Michael Down's "you are the best" example reminds me of Leon Brenner's "look out for your team mate"!

[@The_Big_Sig]

I am a hungry man 😂
That was another good one from Brenner

[@totonow6955]

Okay, THIS.

[@Kuhanapomaranca]

Cant wait to "down" this! Thanks guys!!!

[@thevanishingmediators]

@@Kuhanapomaranca get a little dangerous, maybe.

[@theswoletariat3479]

Bruh sick thumbnail game

[@thevanishingmediators]

Shout out to Max!

[@exlauslegale8534]

There is just the form of content and the form of expression, and by longing for the master signifier you boys are just fighting for your own subjection.

[@BewegtBildYT]

Hey Cutie 😘 I see you're still fighting the good fight

[@thevanishingmediators]

@@exlauslegale8534 mmm, subject me, daddy

[@exlauslegale8534]

@@thevanishingmediators No need for you to prove my point.

[@thevanishingmediators]

@exlauslegale8534 I love it when you tell me what to do 😘

[@christianlesniak]

This may be naive, but I wonder what Michael would think about the billionaire as a quilting point / target / scapegoat? Doesn't do enough, or simplifies things too much, or does it at least take us in the right direction? Is it wrong a priori? Does it obfuscate something important?
It seems different in some ways from the racial scapegoat, since there's a clear way to renounce one's membership in the billionaire class (despite the example of Trump, who is permanently in the billionaire quilt regardless of whether he's overdrafting his bank account at the moment or not).

[@TheDangerousMaybe]

I think this gets us to a helpful way of seeing the different ways different quilting points organize how we think about the social field. There’s a big difference between quilting the field with “billianaire capitalist” and quilting it with “capital”. The former gets us thinking that the big problem is one of human greed, which means the problem is one that stems from the moral failures of certain individuals. If we quilt it with the latter, however, we come to see that the core issue is one of an impersonal and structural mechanism of accumulation (M-C-M’). For me, the latter is a better quilting point precisely because capital is the structuring principle of our mode of production whether we recognize it to be or not. Humans were greedy long before capital escape from our traditional systems of values.

[@christianlesniak]

@@TheDangerousMaybe I dig it. (if I understand correctly) It sounds like "billionaire" is a particular that can take us off track from more universalist framings of inequality, so even if "billionaire" might be an obvious, and not even bad choice, it could get bogged down in the idea that THIS billionaire or THAT billionaire is the problem, or leave the underlying structure unchanged for the people at the bottom, even if we achieved 'net zero' billionaires.
It would be nice to have something as tangible as a quilting point to focus on as, say, "Elon Musk" or "Jeff Bezos"; do you think it's possible that locate a particular for capital that has a kind of tangibleness, but also captures the universal structure of accumulation, or do you think that a certain minimum level of abstraction is needed? You mentioned communism as a common quilting point (pretty abstract, I think, with the multitude of different meanings it holds to different people), and climate change is my most salient personal one, but I wonder if in my search for a really concrete particular to represent climate change I'm always going to be veering back into techno-optimism (and just looking for magic bullets), like "maybe the right new widget will save us".
Sorry for the long series of follow-ups, but this response you just made gives me something to chew on, so thanks!

[@Parsons4Geist]

kind of like when Nas collaborated with Raekwon and Ghostface Killer on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx hit single Verbal Intercourse.❤

[@thevanishingmediators]

@@Parsons4Geist from the womb to the tomb, presume the unpredictable

[@Parsons4Geist]

@@thevanishingmediators BRO!!!!!🥰

[@The_Big_Sig]

Tricked the system with the wisdom that imprisoned my son
Smoke a gold leaf
I hold heat, nonchalantly