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Judith Butler

Judith Butler Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Judith Butler Quotes

“In other words, they appeal to the state for protection, but the state is precisely that from which they require protection. To be protected from violence by the nation-state is to be exposed to the violence wielded by the nation-state, so to rely on the nation-state for protection from violence is precisely to exchange one potential violence for another. There may, indeed, be few other choices.”

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Book:Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?
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“Revenge tries to solve the problem of vulnerability. If I strike back, I transfer vulnerability from myself to the other. And yet by striking back I produce a world in which my vulnerability to injury is increased by the likelihood of another strike. So it seems as if I'm getting rid of my vulnerability and instead locating it with the other, but actually I'm heightening the vulnerability of everyone and I'm heightening the possibility of violence that happens between us.”

IfsWorldTryingProblemSeemsHappensViolencePossibilityProduceSolveRevengeStrikesVulnerabilityInjuryTransfersLikelihoodStrike Back
Author:Judith Butler
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“I don't think there's any way that war can have a place in peace. I think that peace is the active and difficult resistance to the temptation of war; it is the prerogative and the obligation of the injured. Peace is something that has to be vigilantly maintained; it is a vigilance, and it involves temptation, and it does not mean we as human beings are not aggressive. This is a mistaken way of understanding non-violence.”

ThinkingWayHumansMeanDoeWarDifficultUnderstandingHuman BeingsViolenceActiveObligationResistanceTemptationAggressiveMistakenInjuredNon ViolenceVigilancePrerogative
Author:Judith Butler
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“Not all bodies are born in male or female. There is a continuum of bodies and it seems to me that trying to persuade medical and psychiatrist establishments to deal with the intersex involves critique of the binary gender system. Similarly there continues to be extreme, sometimes very extreme violence against transgender people.”

PeopleTryingSometimesBodySeemsBornDealsViolenceFemaleMalesExtremesGenderMedicalEstablishmentTransgenderPsychiatristCritiqueContinuumBinaryIntersex
Author:Judith Butler
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“There are surely many ways that [media select and contextualise events determine the boundaries of public thinking] happens, but we can note at the most obvious level the way in which forms of resistance or violence get cast as "conflicts" that assume two sides that are fighting only against one another.”

ThinkingWayTwoHappensFormFightingSidesLevelsViolenceMediaEventsConflictAssumingNotesCastsDetermineObviousBoundariesResistanceSelectTwo Sides
Author:Judith Butler
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“If you speak [ about violence against Israelis], you are in an unspeakable place, have become a Nazi or its moral equivalent (if there is a moral equivalent). It certainly terrifies, but perhaps also it is a linguistic permutation of state terrorism, an assault that stops one in one's tracks, and secures the continuing operation of the regime and its monopoly on politically intelligible speech.”

IfsStatesSpeakMoralViolenceSpeechTrackTerrorismOperationsRegimesContinuingNaziAssaultMonopolyUnspeakable
Author:Judith Butler
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