Ideological struggle requires engaging elite adversaries, not minor ones, unlike military tactics.

Evidence

On the ideological front, however, the defeat of the auxiliaries and the minor hangers-on is of all but negligible importance. Here it is necessary to engage battle with the most eminent of one’s adversaries. Otherwise one confuses newspapers with books, and petty daily polemic with scientific work. The lesser figures must be abandoned to the infinite casebook of newspaper polemic. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1541

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines a core distinction between ideological and politico-military fronts and the proper object of each kind of struggle.
• SEED: This distinction between newspaper polemic and scientific engagement could seed an essay on how academic critique should select its adversaries.
• XREF: connects to: Ideological struggle requires engaging one’s strongest adversaries, unlike warfare; Ideological struggle must target the strongest adversary, not the weakest — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1541; Ideological fronts differ fundamentally from military fronts in strategy

Broader Connections

• Ideological struggle requires engaging one’s strongest adversaries, unlike warfare #corroborates (1.00)
• Ideological struggle must target the strongest adversary, not the weakest #corroborates (1.00) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1541
• Ideological fronts differ fundamentally from military fronts in strategy #expands (0.75)