Transcendent critique loses force as society grows more one-dimensional

Evidence

The validity of such a critique depends upon the epistemo-logical self-righteousness of the critic, allowing him to distinguish between subjective and objective interests, and to separate the real evolutionary trends of society from its apparent history. What is correct in the procedure of transcendent criticism is its appreciation of the totality as reified; but this is also its weakness. Under liberal capitalism revealing the ideological status of cultural products had a significant role, the moment of falsehood and false consciousness could make a difference to social understanding; but as society has grown more onedimensional ‘critical theory must insist on the moment of truth of ideologies against technocratic reason’. The more one-dimensional society becomes the more critique must pay attention to the internal structure and relatively autonomous logic of cultural objects. This transcendent critique fails to do; its critical position outside society is as fictitious as the most abstract utopias. By its lack of inwardness, sympathy and attention to particulars, transcendent criticism is at one with domination: ‘In wishing to wipe away the whole as with a sponge, transcendent critique develop[s] an affinity to barbarism.’ — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 50

Categorization

• QUESTION: This is the core methodological constraint the reader must apply when running Adorno on post-death culture: transcendent critique (condemning the whole from outside) is now aligned with domination. How does that hold up against, say, a critique of streaming platforms?
• XREF: connects to: The proletariat’s integration forced critical theory into transcendent critique — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 190; Purely immanent criticism, dominant since New Criticism, is an illusion. — Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious, 1429; Housework produces no lasting creation, linking domesticity to transcendence’s failure — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1252 (+1 more)