I think "false consciousness" is a useful concept because there is evidence that various groups that are provably disadvantaged according to certain indicators either underestimate their disadvantage or deny it entirely when asked.
As opposed to being evidence that you're looking at the wrong indicators. At best this amounts to "the people don't care enough about the things I think they should, therefore there's something wrong with the people".
Edit: Also up-thread you said regarding the basis of your argument:
This is not the sort of thing that can be communicated by presenting scientific studies, because such studies may establish the existence of an inequity, but they do not fully convey the impact of that inequity on the lives and psyches of the population affected. The best way to acquire that sort of information is to listen to anecdotes from a number of marginalized people, a difficult thing to do on a website with demographics like LW has.
And yet you're perfectly willing to dismiss those same anecdotes as "false consciousness" if they don't support your ideas about how much impact there should be on the "lives and psyches of the population affected".
At best this amounts to "the people don't care enough about the things I think they should, therefore there's something wrong with the people".
It could amount to this, I guess. But I don't see why you'd think this is all it could amount to at best. Do you really consider it outside the realm of possibility that people could be genuinely better off with certain social changes and yet fail to acknowledge this fact due to conditioning?
...And yet you're perfectly willing to dismiss those same anecdotes as "false consciousness" if they don
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Of course, for "every Monday", the last one should have been dated July 22-28. *cough*