You always have to make yourself aware about the time members of the Frankfurt School lived through and how it influenced their views on western civilization. B

You always have to make yourself aware about the time members of the Frankfurt School lived through and how it influenced their views on western civilization. But it is a cynicism that may not be adequate. Embracing that for a second can still be helpful to become aware of many problems though. Marxism did not supply people with more freedom than capitalism. Capitalism is an expression of human greed and a method how we can deal with it constructively. Marxism just denies negative but human traits. There still is room for criticism on capitalism, plenty of it, there are excesses that are not excusable. But people that prefer the totalitarian model of society to liberal democracies should never be called intellectuals. Maybe intellectuals with a death wish, but I guess those are an exception.