THE VIDEO SHELF · ethics of charity
RSA ANIMATE: First as Tragedy, Then as Farce
An RSA Animate adaptation of a Slavoj Zizek talk on charitable giving and ethical consumerism. It argues that buying products that bundle a charity donation can sustain the system that causes the problems.
Why HN readers recommended it
Frequently linked in threads on philanthropy, ethical consumption and billionaire giving as a short, approachable critique of charity.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Royal Society of Arts
- Topic
- ethics of charity
- Format
- talk
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 3
- HN mentions in dataset
- 7
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2011–2022
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
This charity-as-part-of-consumerism is the topic of Zizek's talk First as Tragedy, Then as Farce ; well worth a watch (10 minutes) and approachable by those without philosophical backgrounds: [VIDEO]
mmanfrin on Hacker News · 2015-04
In The Noble Edge Effect>I know many people who buy into these 'good feelings' products. Good, quick talk by Zizek on this phenomenon: [VIDEO]
sithadmin on Hacker News · 2018-10
In The ugly truth about the ugly produce movementSlavoj Zizek discusses this idea of "ethical consumerism" in a beautifully illustrated talk here: [VIDEO] Needless to say, the idea that you are "supporting" something by voluntary exchange (how do you know that they aren't supporting you ?) is a relatively recent development, and is …
rsj_hn on Hacker News · 2022-12
In On ‘Plant-Based’
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.