Realism is a form of paranoia that dehumanizes both nature and peoples

Evidence

The unconditional realism of civilized humanity, which culminates in Fascism, is a special case of paranoiac delusion which dehumanizes nature and finally the nations themselves. … Even when the bourgeois admits that the anti-Semite is in the wrong, he still demands that the victim be shown to be guilty too. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 153

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle on victim-blaming psychology: the demand that victims prove their own guilt is the residue of a realism that treats all perception as aggressive object-pinning.
• XREF: connects to: The boundary between paranoia and accurate perception is undecidable in the present; Realism’s function is to preserve consciousness from doubt, not to copy reality — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 475; Realism is defined by avoiding the question of reality and serves ruling power — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 482 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Realism’s function is to preserve consciousness from doubt, not to copy reality #complicates (0.80) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 475
• Realism is defined by avoiding the question of reality and serves ruling power #corroborates (0.78) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 482
• False projection makes the world appear as destructive allegories #expands (0.78) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 151
• The boundary between paranoia and accurate perception is undecidable in the present #expands (0.75)
• Transparent realist form cannot escape the reader’s prevailing prejudices #corroborates (0.75)
• Comprehending the interrelation of experienced facts shatters false realism #contradicts (0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 801
• Cultural equilibria can lock in maladaptive paranoia and mutual suspicion #expands (0.72) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 447
• Corrective realism accepts terms set in advance by stereotype-makers #expands (0.72) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 162
• Realism means representing the deathly underside of market desire, not pastoral escape #complicates (0.72) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 456
• Human society is a historical reality that appropriates nature rather than submitting to it #contradicts (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 142