Criticizing a system one is embedded in constitutes epistemic collusion

Evidence

Political discourse, to follow on George Orwell’s brilliant formulations, is the chemical formula that dissolves real complexity into myth; it is, itself, constituted as a barrier that suppresses causality, connections, modalities, dialectics, and much else, even intelligence. Samantha Power’s interrogation, like Said’s own political aspersion, is not only superfluous because a genealogy of genocide was not undertaken before critiquing US foreign policy on genocides; it also reinforces the very system that the critic purports to scrutinize. By keeping the critique within the chemical formula, the critic not only places herself within its transformative power, an act of self-subjectification; she also enhances its reproductive capabilities for perpetual myth creation. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 446 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Critics are implicated in the systems they condemn; A system is refuted by its own achievements, not by external critique — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 778; The essentializing moment that criticism attacks is itself irreducible. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 1762 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Critiques conducted within political discourse reinforce the system they claim to scrutinize #corroborates (0.92) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 446
• Reform-minded dissent within a system strengthens rather than threatens it #complicates (0.85)