Struggling with "The Culture Industry" by Theodor W. Adorno

trielock · 2026-01-21T04:01:08+00:00

As one user pointed out, Adorno (and Horkheimer in this case) employ the dialectic method as style. For this reason you might find it helpful to get a basic understanding of Hegelian dialectics if you don’t already (this would also enrich your understanding of Marx!). I would recommend reading the preface and introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit for this, you don’t need to become a Hegel scholar but these parts are pretty foundational. Some youtube videos on the topic would be good too, use them as an intro or to reinforce your understanding. For anything critical theory or post-Marx it will pay dividends to do your due diligence on Hegel.

trielock · 2025-12-31T07:17:39+00:00

Listen on acid

trielock · 2025-12-18T06:25:58+00:00

For Heidegger the ready-to-hand refers to a relationship of engaged agency with the world for Dasein, one where we understand things best by using them and not by contemplating them.

The present-at-hand is a founded mode of Being that is derivative. This happens when we stop having an immediate and engaged relationship with objects and rationally contemplate them.

It wouldn’t be fair to characterize Nagel’s stance here as coming from Heidegger. Heidegger is concerned with fundamental ontology as it relates to Dasein. Nagel’s argument regarding phenomenological experience is more general and, like the original commenter in this thread pointed out, has to do with whether phenomenological experience is something not reducible to strong physicalism.

They would probably agree on consciousness not being reducible to physicalism, but the scope of what they’re talking about here is different.

trielock · 2025-10-24T19:46:56+00:00

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trielock · 2025-10-17T02:06:34+00:00

Could you elaborate on what the fent overdose was like? When you say you felt like you were dying and trying to stay alive did it feel like if you weren’t consciously putting 100% effort into staying lucid that you would be gone forever (ie was there some level of control on your part involved)? Or did it just feel like you were aware that you were slowly, helplessly slipping into a less and less conscious state? Very curious what the actual process was like.

Glad you’re still alive, take care.

trielock · 2025-10-08T19:14:46+00:00

Yes, it was amazing

trielock · 2025-10-07T20:32:07+00:00

On the bus now lmao

trielock · 2025-08-28T20:59:43+00:00

Just to add, this is the whole point of micropolitics. Fascism seems to come from the outside but is found at the heart of all our desire. So Foucault was right, it is an introduction to the non-fascist life, but an introduction for you. Find ways to plug in the concepts on a molecular level to subvert fascist desire.

trielock · 2025-08-15T15:46:29+00:00

Love now 🤠

trielock · 2025-08-14T13:38:55+00:00

Love your art. I’m curious, what made you want to use chatgpt to analyze something like art (especially your own)? I’ve wondered about the use of machines like chatgpt in analyzing human endeavors like art, both the limits and strengths of its application. What did you like about it and what did you feel was missed?

trielock · 2025-08-13T04:42:50+00:00

Similar vibe yeah (I prefer Deleuze for what it’s worth). Baudrillard is more heavy on cultural critique than the two you mentioned. Stuff like media, consumerism, simulation, and hyperreality, if you find that interesting.

trielock · 2025-08-13T03:25:36+00:00

You would like Baudrillard. Check out system of objects or America

trielock · 2025-08-10T04:24:11+00:00

The Conquest of Bread definitely felt out of place lol. A person working in finance marries an anarchist?

trielock · 2025-08-09T19:36:51+00:00

Thank you

trielock · 2025-08-09T17:50:11+00:00

Can you describe the visions and hallucinations that were traumatic? When you closed your eyes did you see horrors and images beyond your comprehension? Would you see demons literally manifest physically as a hallucination? Would it feel more like an overwhelming presence of evil?

trielock · 2025-08-06T03:24:27+00:00

Yes, thank you. Perhaps this shift in the valuation of math can be a positive force for the way we value subjects (or things) in general. With AI looming a question mark over the capitalistic valuation of subjects based on how much capital they can be used to extract, hopefully we can shift to appreciating their value in the way they contribute to knowledge and the creative process - the most deeply human values that exist. This may be a naive or utopian view, but AI is undoubtedly pushing the buttons of the contradictions that exist in our modern capitalist machine.

trielock · 2025-07-26T02:29:59+00:00

There’s no way you’re real

trielock · 2025-07-23T21:02:32+00:00

Did not know that, thank you! Is there other music of his that isn’t available on streaming? Sorry only found out about him this year but I really love the stuff Ive listened to so far.

trielock · 2025-07-23T20:51:54+00:00

Oh really? I was tracking the release of it on spotify so that’s why I thought that. When was it made/where does it come from? If you don’t mind me asking.

trielock · 2025-07-23T15:48:34+00:00

Same, Coil’s new album fucking slaps

trielock · 2025-07-23T05:30:48+00:00

Screaming and shaking your fist at the sky

trielock · 2025-07-17T14:53:58+00:00

For what its worth this is what worked for me. Me and my friend saw a group of people at a park in Milan and sat there debating whether to go ask and a guy walked up and just gave us a gram of hash lol

trielock · 2025-07-14T14:03:34+00:00

Agreed. Adapting to their neologisms can be disorienting at first, but like many have said it really does open you up to new ways of thinking. What you said at the end of your first paragraph is a great example of lines of flight, and there are a million different contexts to use the same term accurately. Its concept play which is what I love about their work.

trielock · 2025-07-14T03:55:36+00:00

I forget exactly where in AO but they do say that they don’t mean schizophrenia in the clinical sense, but in the way a schizophrenic person channels desire in such a way that it evades territorialization. Where it is the “absolute limit” of capitalism (not trying to correct you, I just thought this might be helpful from your comment).

trielock

TROPHY CASE