Theories must be tested by their political function, not retracted

Evidence

But what is needed is not the drawing of the line and the confession of excess (“dizzy with success,” as Stalin once famously put it) but rather the renewal of historical analysis itself, and the tireless reexamination and diagnosis of the political and ideological functionality of the concept — the part it has suddenly come to play today in our imaginary resolutions of our real contradictions. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 857

Categorization

• QUESTION: The closing clause about ‘imaginary resolutions of our real contradictions’ deserves unpacking — how exactly does the concept of postmodernism function ideologically rather than descriptively?
• XREF: connects to: Academics should police policy claims for plausibility rather than merely teach; Conspiracy theories are necessary lymph, not sickly disease, of politics — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 841