Critical Theory Quotes

“Visibility is a trap.”
― Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

“What can oppose the decline of the west is not a resurrected culture but the utopia that is silently contained in the image of its decline.”
― Theodor W. Adorno

“Against the urgency of people dying in the streets, what in God's name is the point of cultural studies?...At that point, I think anybody who is into cultural studies seriously as an intellectual practice, must feel, on their pulse, its ephemerality, its insubstantiality, how little it registers, how little we've been able to change anything or get anybody to do anything. If you don't feel that as one tension in the work that you are doing, theory has let you off the hook.”
― Stuart Hall

“Freud made the discovery- quite genuinely, simply through working on his own material- that the more deeply one explores the phenomena of human individuation, the more unreservedly one grasps the individual as a self-contained and dynamic entity, the closer one draws to that in the individual which is really no longer individual.”
― Theodor Adorno, Introduction to Sociology

“The more we live as 'free individuals' . . . the more we are effectively non-free, caught within the existing frame of possibilities--we have to be impelled or disturbed into freedom. . . . This paradox thoroughly pervades the form of subjectivity that characterizes 'permissive' liberal society. Since permissiveness and free choice are elevated into a supreme value, social control and domination can no longer appear as infringing on subjects' freedom: they have to appear as (and be sustained by) individuals experiencing themselves as free. There is a multitude of forms of this appearing of un-freedom in the guise of its opposite: in being deprived of universal healthcare, we are told that we are being given a new freedom of choice (to choose our healthcare provider); when we can no longer rely on long-term employment and are compelled to search for a new precarious job every couple of years, we are told that we are being given the opportunity to reinvent ourselves and discover our creative potential; when we have to pay for the education of our children, we are told that we are now able to become 'entrepreneurs of the self," acting like a capitalist freely choosing how to invest the resources he possesses (or has borrowed). In education, health, travel . . . we are constantly bombarded by imposed 'free choices'; forced to make decisions for which we are mostly not qualified (or do not possess enough information), we increasingly experience our freedom as a burden that causes unbearable anxiety. Unable to break out of this vicious cycle alone, as isolated individuals--since the more we act freely the more we become enslaved by the system--we need to be 'awakened' from this 'dogmatic slumber' of fake freedom.”
― Slavoj Žižek

“For now, we live in the mall, but I think it's closing soon.”
― Grafton Tanner, Babbling Corpse: Vaporwave and the Commodification of Ghosts

“The two of us wrote Anti-Oedipus together. Since each of us was several, there was already quite a crowd. Here we have made use of everything that came within range, what was closest as well as farthest away. We have assigned clever pseudonyms to prevent recognition. Why have we kept our own names? Out of habit, purely out of habit. To make ourselves unrecognizable in turn. To render imperceptible, not ourselves, but what makes us act, feel and think. Also because it’s nice to talk like everybody else, to say the sun rises, when everybody knows it’s only a manner of speaking. To reach, not the point where one no longer says I, but the point where it is no longer of any importance whether one says I. We are no longer ourselves. Each will know his own. We have been aided, inspired, multiplied.”
― Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

“To be intellectually humble is not to live in constant doubt. Rather, it’s to live with a mind open to correction, and a heart strong enough to prioritize truth over pride.”
― Mason Carter, Critical Thinking Unchained: From Formal Logic to Dialectics of Emancipation

“The expressions of those moving about a picture gallery show ill-concealed disappointment that they only find pictures there.”
― Walter Benjamin, One Way Street And Other Writings

“The ultimate form of dehumanization is not to reduce humans to the rank of animals, but to elevate animals to the rank of humans; the ultimate form of depersonalization is not to take away the personhood of subjects, but to give personhood to objects; and the ultimate form of demoralization is not to lower morality to the level of caprice, but to raise caprice to the level of morality.”
― Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski

“If you think about it, a book is like food for your mind. When you look at it that way, a novel could be like a cupcake. But it could also be a pot roast, or a chicken salad, or a vegetable salad. In this case, reading a book is also like eating food. And, simply put: Eating food is often a delicious activity. And reading a book is often a delightful activity.”
― Cormac McCarthy

“When some procedure is denounced as ‘ideological par excellence’, one can be sure that its inversion is no less ideological.”
― Slavoj Žižek, Mapping Ideology

“CSJ is fundamentally incompatible with the enlightenment values and scientific worldview of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Critical Social Justice (abbreviated in the text as CSJ). CSJ serves as an umbrella term for the set of contemporary Critical Theories and was originally formalised by Robin DiAngelo and Özlem Sensoy. CSJ (or “wokeness” in common parlance) is shorthand for a particularly radical political approach to achieving social justice. Its goal is to uncover the systems of power that are believed to structure society and, by so doing, create the opportunity for a revolutionary transformation into an idealised state. CSJ is characterised by activism that aims to find problems, disrupt and dismantle societal norms, centre the marginalised, privilege subjective over objective truth, and control speech.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“The material and ethical assertions of [Critical Social Justice] CSJ are controversial. Most people with apparently oppressed identities don’t think about the world through this ideological lens—it is an artifact of academia.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“A core tenet of CSJ is that emotional harm is comparable to physical harm; when you cause someone to feel a negative emotion, you are causing harm to that individual. Any level of discomfort is considered harmful and, in some cases, the equivalent of violence.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“A CSJ-driven approach to psychotherapy would exacerbate and worsen problems for individuals seeking psychotherapy. A CSJ-driven approach teaches clients to see their emotional experiences as harmful and blame their emotional experiences on oppression. Clients would learn to be constantly focused on racism, sexism, homophobia, and oppression as the cause of their problems.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“For [Critical Social Justice] CSJ, people are not individuals as such but rather representatives of particular identity groups located within a matrix of power. Therefore, when two people engage with one another, it is understood primarily as encounters between constellations of intersected identities.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Both the client and therapist are not primarily seen as human persons in relation to each other and the socio-cultural world around them. Instead, they are viewed as defined by their intersecting group identities and, importantly, the differences and inequalities these identities create. Dynamics of oppression are at the heart of the CSJ-driven therapy relationship.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“A presence-based relationship with core characteristics like openness and receptivity where the therapist strives for an attitude of un-knowing cannot manifest where both client and therapist are pre-determined in their identities and their relationship is essentially seen as oppressive from the outset.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“The phone in your pocket has eyes and ears, the search engines know your inner troubles, and the calendar knows your future while personal smart devices track your body’s biological processes”
― Scott Brodie Forsyth

“The Dean insists that we add creationism and crystal theory and spiritualism to the curriculum." ...
"We told the Dean that there was no objective evidence for any of that crap. You know what he said?" ...
"No. What?"
"He said that the alleged objectivity of materialist science was an invention of heterosexual, white males, so we shouldn't use that as a basis for judgement.”
― Larry Niven; Jerry Pournelle; Mike Flynn, Fallen Angels

“In a world without reason, reason is only the semblance of rationality; in a state of general unfreedom, freedom is only a semblance of being free. This semblance is generated by the internalization of idealism. Reason and freedom become tasks that the individual is to fulfill within himself, and he can do so regardless of external conditions.”
― Herbert Marcuse, Critical Theory and Society: A Reader

“By creating a false distinction between "good" and "bad" forms of animal exploitation and violence, the animal industry has convinced the public that there is nothing wrong with animal agriculture, per se, only with the way it is practiced. However, it isn't just the animal industry that has a stake in this. Capitalists and consumers, conservatives and liberals, small-scale farmers and corporate industrial farms alike all wish to re-"naturalize" animal husbandry as a permanent, benignant fixture of the human condition. The new hoax of "humane" meat is thus a convenience for all, a way to neutralize animal advocacy and to fend off the bad conscience of society." - The Humane Hoax”
― John Sanbonmatsu

“We need to stop talking about "factory farming." The problem is violence against animals. People will continue eating industrialized meat as long as they believe the myth that there is a "humane" alternative: "humane killing" discourse serves to legitimate the whole meat system.”
― John Sanbonmatsu

“Vekkelsen har ikke oppstått fra tynn luft. Som alle tankefenomener, har begrepet sine røtter et sted. Opprinnelsen til fenomenet ligger langt tilbake i tid, men hovedimpulsen kommer fra mellomkrigstidens nymarxister hvis "kritiske teori" lever i beste velgående i akademiske kretser. Kritisk teori avviser verdinøytral vitenskap både som mulighet og ideal, og insisterer på at vitenskap skal være frigjørende og utelukkende kritisk til det bestående.”
― Andreas Hardhaug Olsen, Kateterprofetenes opprør: Arven fra Det nye venstre, og hvordan vår tids vekkelse kritiserer Vesten i stykker

“Det er ikke nok at filosofer har fortolket verden på forskjellige vis, poenget er å forandre den, insisterte den unge Marx. Endringer oppnås ikke ved å teoretisere over tingenes tilstand, men gjennom kritisk virksomhet. Ved å avsløre.”
― Andreas Hardhaug Olsen, Kateterprofetenes opprør: Arven fra Det nye venstre, og hvordan vår tids vekkelse kritiserer Vesten i stykker

“Ideen som samlet medlemmen av Frankfurterskolen, og som ga den nymarxistiske tradisjonen et distinkte preg, var at samfunnsanalyser per definisjon skal være kritiske, at de aldri må forsvare det bestående.”
― Andreas Hardhaug Olsen

“Kritisk teori forstår seg selv som et bindeledd mellom teori og praksis. En verdsliggjøring av filosofien - rettere sagt en praksisfilosofi, praxis, hvor samfunnskritikk skal føre frem til frigjørende politisk handling.”
― Andreas Hardhaug Olsen, Kateterprofetenes opprør: Arven fra Det nye venstre, og hvordan vår tids vekkelse kritiserer Vesten i stykker

“Capitalism's final triumph is selling you the rope to hang it with, then marketing the noose as a limited-edition lifestyle accessory.”
― PIERRE LAGRENAT