Mass culture reproduces subjects already shaped by systemic coercion rather than influencing them

Evidence

[D]omination becomes an integral part of human beings. They do not need to be ‘influenced’, as liberals with their ideas of the market are wont to imagine. Mass culture simply makes them yet again what they already are thanks to the coercion of the system. It keeps a watchful eye on the anomalies, introduces the official complement of practice in the shape of ‘public morality’, and provides people with models for imitation. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 716

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts the liberal market model of influence against Adorno’s structural reproduction — relevant to the political-economy critique. — connects to: Mass culture’s technical rationality masks class domination as consumer demand. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 94; Nonconformist culture gets co-opted by mass-distribution before it can reach anyone — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 228; Decline of the family’s countersocial role made individuals more directly socialized by mass culture — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 416 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Mass culture deception is self-consenting misconception, not top-down manipulation #contradicts (0.88) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 845
• Mass culture makes audiences enact their own manipulation. #expands (0.82)