I started reading this as I was interested in the thread that starts in digital and virtual communication media, which I feel correspon with phenomena of rationalization and reification of society, leading then into political conflict, lack of ability to reach agreement and conversations laden with hate and prejudice. I am seeking for practices in construction and uses of technological mediums that could aid in political discussion.

Starts with a criticism of Weber's view of of the process of rationalization of society. For Weber it seems that the various subsystems of society became rationalized with a shift of human consciousness and the creation of institutionalized and self-referential systems of science, art and law. However, Weber neglected to address to process of reaching understanding between participants and the need for consensus before those systems can be realized.

• About different terminology used for type of action, rational/instrumental vs value orientedhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_and_value-rational_action

Weber missed the true catalyzing forces behind the coordinated action of everyday life that enables those purposely rational action. Habermas believes that steering media such as money and power replace language as the coordinating medium for rationality. The economic system is differentiated via money and the administrative system is differentiated via power.

Only with the conceptual framework of communicative
action do we gain a perspective from which the process of societal
rationalization appears as contradictory from the start. The contradiction arises
between, on the one hand, a rationalization of everyday communication that is tied to the structures of inter-
subjectivity of the lifeworld, in which language counts as the
genuine and irreplaceable medium of reaching understanding ,
and, on the other hand, the growing complexity of subsytems
of purposive-rational action, in which actions are coordinated
through steering media such as money and power.

Habermas argues that this is the basis for the paradox of the rationalization of society and Weber spoke of. The systems of rationalization have a self destructive and disintegrative effect on the lifeworld. The same idea is present in the writings of Marx who speaks about how wage labor and the idea of offering you own labor power as commodity had a contradictory and destructive effect on economy and society. Those notions were carried on in the west by Lukacs, Adorno and Horkheimer.