Revisionism makes theory palatable by suppressing whatever demands praxis, notably class struggle.

Evidence

I myself understand revisionism as the act of making a theory comfortable and palatable by leaving out whatever calls for praxis or change, whatever is likely to be painful for the purely contemplative intellectual consumption of a middle-class public: thus the revision of Freud quietly suppresses what we may call his materialistic foundation, namely, the insistence on the plainly sexual etiology of personality disorders. Marxist revisionism since Bernstein has similarly involved the elimination of the notion of class struggle as such; and the reader will evidently have to make his own judgment as to such tendencies in the present work. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 21

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines revisionism specifically: stripping a theory of its praxis-demanding, painful elements for middle-class contemplative consumption — with Freud’s sexual etiology and Bernstein’s dropped class struggle as parallel cases.
• XREF: The parallel between Freudian and Marxist ‘materialist foundations’ being suppressed echoes the reader’s Adorno interest — Adorno on Freud and the critique of identity-thinking. — connects to: Revisionism neutralizes a theory by deleting its praxis-demanding content; Postindustrial society narratives ideologically mask continuing class struggle. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 39; Marxist cultural criticism must be class struggle waged within theory itself — Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious, 115 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Austerity theory’s denial of class precisely coincided with peak class conflict. #corroborates (0.88) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1570
• Postindustrial society narratives ideologically mask continuing class struggle. #corroborates (0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 39
• Marxist theory has itself ossified into the popular prejudice it critiqued #expands (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1407
• Deconstruction paradoxically requires political resistance to stay silent and unprogrammatic #complicates (0.82) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 321
• Marxist cultural criticism must be class struggle waged within theory itself #complicates (0.80) — Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious, 115
• Ideological change happens through class struggle, not through ideas alone #corroborates (0.80)
• Demands to subordinate theory to praxis can turn resistance into repression #contradicts (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 284
• Class struggle over resources is disguised as cultural incompatibility between groups #exemplifies (0.80) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 514
• Anti-enlightenment ideology unconsciously reveres what it seeks to destroy #expands (0.78)