Mass culture absorbs critique preemptively so that no ideology need be injected

Evidence

Anxious concern over the deplorable state of affairs agitates for reform and a society that is generous enough to anticipate its own critique: the ghost town of yesterday implies the full employment of tomorrow. No ideology even needs to be injected. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 112

Categorization

• SEED: A sharp criterion to run on post-Adorno works that self-critique — e.g. films critical of consumerism that nonetheless circulate as commodities.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s need to state where Adorno’s analysis still lands — absorbing critique is a strong surviving claim. — connects to: Nonconformist culture gets co-opted by mass-distribution before it can reach anyone — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 228