False Consciousness Quotes

“People turned against each other cannot turn against those responsible.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“The more we're thrown into conflict with each other through engineered distrust, the less able we are to unite against those responsible.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“The issue of false consciousness is a genuinely difficult problem that has no definite solution. We should not approve of an unequal and brutal society because surveys show that people are happy. But who has the right to tell those oppressed women or starving landless peasants that they shouldn’t be happy, if they think they are? Does anyone have the right to make those people feel miserable by telling them the ‘truth’? There are no easy answers to these questions, but they definitely tell us that we cannot rely on ‘subjective’ happiness surveys to decide how well people are doing.”
― Ha-Joon Chang, Economics: The User's Guide

“I'm not fucking fighting to defend women's right to wear the veil, the hijab, the niqab, whatever," she declaimed. "All these young women these days who describe the veil as a signifier of their identity. I tell them they are suffering from what that presently unfashionable philosopher Karl Marx would have called false consciousness. In most of the world the veil is not a free choice. Women are forced into invisibility by men. These girls in the West making their quote-unquote free choices are legitimizing the oppression of their sisters in the parts of the world where the choice is not free. That's what I tell them and they're very shocked. They tell me they find my remarks offensive. I tell them I feel the same way about the veil. It's exhausting. I've become embittered.”
― Salman Rushdie, Quichotte

“Yes, the Illuminati have always sought a New World Order. Humanity cries out for it. Isn’t it time to abolish the old, failed ways that have enslaved so many billions? The Illuminati have incurred the enmity of all those who prosper from the Old World Order: the rich, privileged elites, the religious leaders who deceive their flocks (of sheep), and the paranoid, ill educated idiots (all the brainwashed anti-New World Order conspiracy theory nuts who don’t see that the New World Order is their only hope of liberation).”
― Michael Faust, The Hidden Masters

“Capitalism sells you “happiness”. It wants to convert you into “happiness machines”. It also sells you anxiety. If you don’t buy what they are selling, you will ipso facto be unhappy, they claim. Capitalism is all about the Engineering of Consent. You are seduced into submitting to capitalist hegemony, to accepting cultural capitalism. You have an entirely false consciousness manufactured for you by capitalism, to serve capitalist interests, which are always those of the elite 1% that run the capitalist world. Wake up!”
― Joe Dixon, The Ownership Wars: Who Owns You?

“The concept of false consciousness elucidates how individuals in positions of disadvantage often internalize societal inequalities as inevitable, thus resigning themselves to unfulfilling roles and relationships. This phenomenon perpetuates a cycle of complacency that hinders both personal growth and collective efforts towards social justice within organizational settings.”
― Carson Anekeya

“Men før arbeiderklassen er skikket til å gripe makten ved revolusjon, til å lede, må den bli sin egen situasjon bevisst. Klarsynet oppnås bare ved at den falske bevisstheten arbeiderklassen lever under, avsløres: Arbeideren er i det kapitalistiske samfunn ikke et fritt individ, han bare narres av sine herskere til å tro at han er det.”
― Andreas Hardhaug Olsen, Kateterprofetenes opprør: Arven fra Det nye venstre, og hvordan vår tids vekkelse kritiserer Vesten i stykker

“Falsk bevissthet, opprinnelig et marxistisk konsept, er bedrageriet også vår tids woke-aktivister primært sloss mot: I vestlige demokratier er vi blitt innbilt til å tro at samfunnet vi deltar i, er et rimelig rettferdig et, med nøytrale institusjoner, og at kampen mot rasisme, homofobi og kvinnehat langt på vei er vunnet. Oppgaven aktivistene har påtatt seg, er å grave bort grunnen for denne illusjonen ved å lete frem og peke på subtile former for ulikhet og undertrykkelse.”
― Andreas Hardhaug Olsen, Kateterprofetenes opprør: Arven fra Det nye venstre, og hvordan vår tids vekkelse kritiserer Vesten i stykker