Judith Butler's public conversation at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid on September 26, 2025, drew lines so long that many couldn't get in. The auditorium sat in what El País called "thunderous, attentive silence," punctuated by ovations and shouts more typical of a concert than an academic talk. When it ended, everyone stood. The headline that followed read: "We are witnessing the restoration of patriarchy and racism."
It's a scene that raises a question: why do some intellectuals break out of seminar rooms and become what El País calls "rock stars of ideas"? The list is broad—Butler, Slavoj Žižek, Byung-Chul Han, Thomas Piketty, Yuval Noah Harari, and the late Mark Fisher, who achieved great posthumous success. What they share isn't just originality or depth. It's the ability to generate useful concepts in uncertain times and to move easily in broader cultural circles.
The Business of Ideas
Stefano Micali, whose book How to be a Successful Philosopher: A Guide to Contemporary Thought is due in December 2026, writes with what El País calls biting sarcasm: "Thinkers behave like small businesses, seeking to maximize their visibility in the marketplace of ideas." He identifies three paths to success. One is the prophet of dystopia, associated with Han and Giorgio Agamben. Another is spectacular performance—Žižek's constant production of texts and lectures, his improvisation, his mixing of high and low culture. The third is becoming a brand, which Micali attributes to Butler, whose name has become inseparable from gender.
Micali writes that the "brand-thinker" must address burning issues like ecology or gender identity and create the impression of having radically shifted discourse. The three models aren't mutually exclusive. Giselle Etcheverry, a curator of literary and intellectual projects, says these authors resonate across different social strata through frequent, short publications that capture the spirit of the times. She points to Han's continuous flow of short essays and Žižek's ability to analyze current events in books almost before they happen.
Publishers and Platforms
Publishers play a role too, and the effect varies by country. Etcheverry says Han, whose works are translated from German, receives attention in Spain that he doesn't get elsewhere. Authors like the Slovenian sociologist Renata Salecl and the Belgian philosopher Vinciane Despret enjoy great fame in Latin America. "And that's the work of publishers," she says. Social media, short videos, and memes with pithy quotes help spread ideas. Simple, clear concepts go viral more easily.
Javier Correa Román, editor of the magazine Filosofía&Co and founder of the Malaletra bookstore in Madrid, says these figures offer a toolbox for understanding the present. "They handle concepts very well, moving away from academic language: [their works and speeches are] aimed at an audience that seeks a useful diagnosis for understanding the world. [The audience] reads [and views] things that they then see in their daily lives," he says. When theory is adapted to everyday experience, readers feel not only understood but also astute, able to interpret reality beyond its surface.
Correa Román says analyzing popular culture sells well when it's not treated as empty but as something in which certain forces operate. He gives Temptation Island as an example. Žižek isn't the only one who likes popular culture—the late Mark Fisher based much of his discourse on the analysis of capitalist realism.
Techniques and Traits
Micali identifies techniques that help an influential thinker succeed: inversion, reversing the dominant thesis on a topic; declaring oneself the first to grasp the essence of an issue; and criticizing colleagues from a position of clear superiority. "The tone must be peremptory," Micali writes. "One doesn't make an argument, but rather states something as being obvious, an irrefutable fact." El País notes these techniques can also be useful in ordinary bar conversations.
Personal traits help too. Žižek's halting diction and frantic gestures, Han's enigmatic image and his obsession with his garden and pianos, Butler's non-binary identity—these make them stand out among many essayists who lack notable attributes.
Etcheverry names a second tier of authors less mainstream but essential in their fields: Donna Haraway and cyborg thought, Wendy Brown and her critique of neoliberalism, Rosi Braidotti and the posthuman concept. She also points to the "collective intellects" compiled by McKenzie Wark in Twenty-One Thinkers for the 21st Century, published nine years ago, saying they're part of a body of knowledge that can only be achieved collaboratively.
Despite awards, tours, and book sales, the most celebrated authors are often viewed unfavorably by academia, which considers their fame disproportionate to their original contribution or judges them careless. Correa Román says that's unfair. "These are authors with a high level of public exposure: many others probably wouldn't withstand the scrutiny they're subjected to," he says.
El País ends by saying that in an era of overproduction of stimuli and ideas, when people are saturated with opinions and experts, these authors offer useful narratives about the world and our role in it. "And, at the very least, they make us feel smarter."
Why This Matters:
The success of thinkers like Butler, Žižek, and Han reflects something more than celebrity culture. It shows a hunger for frameworks that make sense of a fragmenting world—rising authoritarianism, climate crisis, gender politics, digital exhaustion. These intellectuals don't just diagnose; they give people language to articulate what they already feel. That's a democratic function, even if academia views it with suspicion. The tension between scholarly rigor and public reach is real, but so is the need for ideas that travel beyond the seminar room. In a time when far-right populism thrives on simplicity and conspiracy, the left needs thinkers who can speak clearly, widely, and usefully. The fact that publishers, platforms, and audiences have built this ecosystem around certain voices suggests that intellectual work still matters—if it connects.