Deviation itself gets standardized, not exempt from it

Evidence

My by no means new observation (cf. Minima Moralia, p. 395ff., Section 132) that even that which deviates is by no means secure from standardization has recently been used to discredit the polemic application of the concept of conformism - as if the fact that there is a second-rate conformism, preceded at least by an act of resistance, somehow makes more palatable that first spineless conformism, that swimming along with the current and simultaneous adjustment to stronger battalions. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 169

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Key nuance: ‘second-rate conformism’ — even resistance is a conformism of sorts — explains why Adorno’s framework resists the standard co-optation critique of it.
• XREF: This preempts the common objection that ‘critique of the culture industry is itself commodified’ — Adorno folds that objection in as second-rate conformism. Essential to running the analysis without falling into the trap.