Language intrinsically intends universality, so serving the status quo makes it self-contradictory.

Evidence

Language intends, quite independently of the psychological intentions of the speaker, the universality that has been ascribed to reason alone. Interpreting this universality necessarily leads to the idea of a correct society. When it serves the status quo, language must therefore find that it consistently contradicts itself, and this is evident from individual linguistic structures themselves. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2158

Categorization

• DEFINE: Articulates the core Frankfurt School thesis that language’s inherent claim to universality conflicts with its functionalization in service of existing power.
• XREF: Connects to Apel and Habermas’s later discourse ethics and universal pragmatics, which systematize exactly this claim about language’s inherent validity claims. — connects to: Everyday language itself contains a utopian comprehensive rationality.; Horkheimer grounded reason’s universality in language’s inherent intention. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2158; Meaning is determined by behavior and context, preventing universal translation. (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer grounded reason’s universality in language’s inherent intention. #corroborates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2158
• Meaning is determined by behavior and context, preventing universal translation. #contradicts (0.80)
• Philosophic universals designate unrealized potentialities rather than existing states #expands (0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 753