Horkheimer mixed two incompatible theories of fascism in one 1938 essay

Evidence

In general, the article offered a mixture of elements taken from two different views. On the one hand, Horkheimer held that the epoch of liberal capitalism must be conceived of as a process which made a spiral of lasting despotism possible by atomizing human beings and producing large-scale companies and gigantic organizations. On the other, he also held that fascism was a regime of gangsters ruling through violence and the distribution of plunder; since it had destroyed every illusion and every form of cultural deception, it was guaranteed that this regime would be swept away as soon as the alliance it represented ceased to function successfully against the masses. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 302

Categorization

• QUESTION: Was this unresolved mixture a genuine theoretical incoherence Horkheimer later smoothed over, or a deliberate holding of two registers?
• XREF: connects to: Horkheimer delayed his fascism essay until the Hitler-Stalin pact and invasion of Poland — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 279; Horkheimer held incompatible theories of fascism as both despotism and passing gangsterism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1156
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Horkheimer delayed his fascism essay until the Hitler-Stalin pact and invasion of Poland — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 279; Horkheimer held incompatible theories of fascism as both despotism and passing gangsterism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1156

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer held incompatible theories of fascism as both despotism and passing gangsterism #expands (0.96) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1156