"The left has, in practice, been prevented from taking advantage of its own frequent disagreements with public opinion by its historically contingent attachment to democratic politics as the primary means to its ends. This allegiance has forced leftist political and cultural critics to presuppose the possibility of rational democratic politics—if only the corrupting influences of money, commercialization, and corporate control could be excised. Libertarians have the basis for a deeper critique of modern culture: they understand that what corporations sell, consumers want to buy. But, precluded by their own ideology—which effectively celebrates whatever consumers choose as, ipso facto, good—from criticizing consumerism, libertarians end up being as unthinkingly apologetic about mass culture in its commercial manifestations as the left is about mass culture in its political guise."
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Editors from the United StatesPolitical scientists from the United StatesYale University alumniUniversity of California, Berkeley alumniBrown University alumni
Original Language: English
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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Friedman_(political_scientist)
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Jeffrey Friedman (political scientist)
Jeffrey Friedman (March 25, 1959 – December 2, 2022) was a political scientist and editor of Critical Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Politics and Society.
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