false consciousness

American  

noun

1. a Marxist theory that people are unable to see things, especially exploitation, oppression, and social relations, as they really are; the hypothesized inability of the human mind to develop a sophisticated awareness of how it is developed and shaped by circumstances.

2. any belief or view that prevents a person from being able to understand the true nature of a situation.

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Etymology

Origin of false consciousness

First recorded in 1855–60

Example Sentences

Her excoriating exfoliations of the many varieties of American false consciousness perfectly capture our contemporary disillusionment and dismay: “Screams of protest come cheap,” she writes.

From Washington Post

Other pieces paint a picture of bonds miraculously held together in adversity, as when an entry from Rosie’s diary speaks of an outing with her husband, who chose a sunlit pine grove to remind her that the East German state was no different than any other — “an instrument of domination” whose weapon is “false consciousness.”

From Los Angeles Times

But I seem to be guilty of false consciousness, because social media has already decided that the only possible reason a husband buys his wife an exercise bike is to guilt her into losing weight.

From Washington Post

Far from being wreathed in false consciousness, the cabal I’m talking about hide in plain view – and perhaps the best way I have of getting you to eat the proverbial red pill, and so see for the first time the true horror that enfolds you, is for me to describe a group of these evil svengalis I saw only yesterday evening, outside a pub in Mortlake, south-west London.

From The Guardian

There’s a well-documented false consciousness in the United States in which everyone thinks they are middle class.

From Slate