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I came across the following sentence and could not understand the gist of it:

To the extent that it foresaw the effect the Internet would have on society, what makes the Frankfurt School—an early 20th century school of thought concerned with how rampant consumerism harms the self— suspect is not so much that it explodes much of what has sometimes proven to be a symbiotic relationship between our “real selves” and our “digital selves” as that it imagines a world so positively dystopian that it becomes but a(n) caricature of the times in which we live.

I can see that there are a lot of things going on in this sentence. I don't understand the structure, the dashes, the gist and also how to tackle these kind of sentences in the future. How to break them into parts and understand the meaning to get the overall gist?

Any help is appreciated.

Deepak Ahire
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    The gist is that “The Frankfurt School is suspect because it imagines a positively dystopian world” – Jim Jul 15 '20 at 05:29
  • @Jim, can you kindly explain part by parts? – Deepak Ahire Jul 15 '20 at 05:32
  • Please could you outline specific things you have problems with? – marcellothearcane Jul 15 '20 at 05:45
  • @marcellothearcane, I have problem with everything. The structure, the dashes, the gist – Deepak Ahire Jul 15 '20 at 05:47
  • The dashes signify a subordinate clause that explains what the Frankfurt School is. So you can read "what makes the Frankfurt School suspect is..." – marcellothearcane Jul 15 '20 at 05:50
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    You can see from the meaning-in-context tag that "A SPECIFIC CONCERN must be emphasized." - you could try breaking it down into several questions, but a lot of queries have been answered before: https://english.stackexchange.com/a/342884/194281, https://english.stackexchange.com/q/367060/194281, https://english.stackexchange.com/a/361255/194281 – marcellothearcane Jul 15 '20 at 05:55

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