State-society interpenetration replaced deliberation with managed publicity aimed at passive consumers

Evidence

What was happening was not an expansion of the authority of the bourgeois public sphere, or of the circle of persons within it, into those that would be appropriate to a socialist public sphere, but instead a mutual restriction of state and society that undermined the old basis for the existence of a critical public sphere, without providing a new one. What followed was a flourishing of publicity on the part of state, economic and political organizations and institutions seeking, and usually getting, support from a public that consisted of economically dependent consumers who were no longer accustomed to public debate and who viewed their own opinions as private ones. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2376

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ‘refeudalization’/decay thesis of the bourgeois public sphere in concrete terms—managed publicity, private opinions, no debate.
• XREF: Connects to the earlier chapters on the Frankfurt School’s critique of the culture industry and to modern ‘manufactured consent’ analyses. — connects to: Consumer society bred depoliticization even as welfare states strengthened democracy — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 27; Publicity has become its own commodity rather than an image of commodities — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 303; Mediatized market societies increasingly waste resources producing demand rather than goods — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 172 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Consumer society bred depoliticization even as welfare states strengthened democracy #expands (0.80) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 27
• Viewing mass-culture consumers as passive dupes is an unsocialist position #contradicts (0.78)
• Publicity has become its own commodity rather than an image of commodities #corroborates (0.75) — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 303
• West German corporations funded publicity to enshrine the social market economy #exemplifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 550
• Wealthy elites saw social-welfare state publicity as an antirevolutionary necessity #exemplifies (0.75)
• Deliberation mechanisms create new social realities that information alone cannot #contradicts (0.72) — , The Rod and the Child, 7390
• Mediatized market societies increasingly waste resources producing demand rather than goods #complicates (0.70) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 172
• Industrial society’s liberties themselves capture populations as a captive audience #expands (0.70) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2582
• thought becomes a commodity when public opinion reaches a certain state #corroborates (0.70)