Horkheimer and Adorno fled Hitler only to hit the mass market commodification tyranny of 50s America. In the 80s children scratched their head how Hitler could be so nasty as the Cold War ran down but the U.S. continued expanding into the superpower bully of the world. In the 2010s their friends and relatives voted in a the new tyrant, our POTUS, whose throne was pave by the obsequious Clintons and Obama who kissed the rings.
"(U.S. is) the product of a culture industry whose goal was to stupefy the masses with endless mass produced copies of the same thing"
‘ they also explain how pseudo-individuality is encouraged among these products in order to keep the consumers coming back for more. They argue that small differences in products within the same area are acceptable’
Small differences would become the realm of the philosophy of Giles Deleuze, where nothing really is except for how it is defined by how it differs from something else. Socially, if you don’t have a true identity for yourself, the only one you can grasp or create is one via the accumulation of signified commodities that signal your presence and make you listable.
films, popular songs and radio … 99% reinforce the obedience to the acceptable social hierarchy
peace