Critical theory must intentionally break from its own immediate conditions to be critical

Evidence

Fast food for thought, immediacy theory gorges on the very unmitigated emission demanded by the intensified circulation dispositive of too late capitalism. Because theory emerges in conditions not of its own making (the ruling ideas in every epoch are the ideas of the ruling class), it must deliberately introduce a break among its determinants. Within the manifest zeitgeist of too late capitalism, immediacy theory cleaves too close. — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 250

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that a genuinely critical theory must deliberately interpose a break among its own determining conditions is the core normative defense of mediation against immediacy.
• XREF: connects to: Theory only liberates when deliberately directed toward that end — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 134