The Frankfurt School viewed anti-Semitism as a tool sustaining flawed democratic capitalism

Evidence

Adorno saw himself faced with the following problem: he and Horkheimer regarded anti-Semitism as a manifestation of blind, distorted, rebellious nature, which accompanied an unsuccessful, imperfect civilization like a shadow and was even being used to maintain and sometimes restore the conditions for a rationalized exercise of power characterized by an antagonistic combination of democracy and capitalism. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1789

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the ‘Elements of Anti-Semitism’ theme and the dialectic-of-enlightenment account of civilization’s shadow. — connects to: Frankfurt’s intellectual left of the early 1930s formed a substantial, cooperating bloc — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 458; Riesman’s anti-Semitism ideas independently coincided with Frankfurt School positions — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1820; Capitalist anti-Semitism is the bourgeoisie’s self-hatred displaced onto Jews — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 132 (+3 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The compression of ‘blind, distorted, rebellious nature’ as civilization’s shadow used ‘to maintain and sometimes restore’ power conditions is a dense dialectical formulation worth unpacking.

Broader Connections

• Capitalist anti-Semitism is the bourgeoisie’s self-hatred displaced onto Jews #expands (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 132
• Conflating capitalism with Jews made anti-capitalist hostility emotionally anchorable #expands (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 146
• Riesman’s anti-Semitism ideas independently coincided with Frankfurt School positions #corroborates (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1820
• The Institut subordinated Jewish identity and anti-Semitism to social class analysis #qualifies (0.80) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 162
• Anti-Semitism is pathological projection stripped of self-reflection, not projection itself #expands (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 150