Exile intellectuals judged homeland and America by where influence was purchasable

Evidence

Adorno saw Germany as a colony, in which intellectual life was something unreal, a substitute. But at least it was valued as a substitute, and not despised as something valueless, as it was in the United States. Horkheimer shared Adorno’s assessment of the German situation. But if one was successful in that colony, if one counted for something, it might be possible to exercise some influence on a small scale. In the United States, intellectuals and thinkers, even in the best case, were virtually submerged. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 431

Categorization

• DEFINE: The ‘colony’ framing is Adorno’s own category: Germany as intellectual periphery where ideas are valued as substitutes yet can still count.
• XREF: Connects to the sociology of exile and to the Cold War American marginalization of Critical Theory the book traces elsewhere. — connects to: North American intellectuals lack the historical experience to judge occupied people’s choices — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 564; Exiled Institute scholars argued Europe’s crisis was best studied from America. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 409; German exiles viewed America as a place where intellectuals were subordinated to practical utility — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1745 (+2 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: North American intellectuals lack the historical experience to judge occupied people’s choices — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 564; Exiled Institute scholars argued Europe’s crisis was best studied from America. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 409; German exiles viewed America as a place where intellectuals were subordinated to practical utility — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1745 (+2 more)