People treat only thought they need not understand as understandable

Evidence

Rigorous formulation demands unequivocal comprehension, conceptual effort, to which people are deliberately disencouraged, and imposes on them in advance of any content a suspension of all received opinions, and thus an isolation, that they violently resist. Only what they do not need first to understand, they consider understandable; only the word coined by commerce, and really alienated, touches them as familiar. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 115

Categorization

• XREF: Runs parallel to the modern ‘plain language is democratic’ fallacy in science communication, and to the critique of communicability in critical media studies. — connects to: People answer what they think you mean, not what you say; People answer what they think a question means, not what is literally asked — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2542; Comprehension requires conscious confrontation with reality rather than interpretive comfort
• SEED: An essay angle on why scientific writing that is rigorous reads as elitist while commercial simplification is called accessible; Adorno’s point maps onto science communication debates.

Broader Connections

• People answer what they think you mean, not what you say #expands (0.82)
• People answer what they think a question means, not what is literally asked #expands (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2542
• Comprehension requires conscious confrontation with reality rather than interpretive comfort #expands (0.72)