In our ‘liberal’ ordinary language of politics, political criticism is usually described as a product of individuals who resist collective pressures; here, “the collective” appears as that which suppresses critique. This is mirrored by a “sociology of critique” that sees critical activities as being founded in individual capacities. Against this kind of assumption, this paper tries to show how nonconformist acts of criticism are internally tied to collective processes. For this purpose, it uses concepts from Durkheim’s social theory (which emphasizes aspects of the sociality of mind that are not emphasized in pragmatist analyses). Through this, the paper also tries to show what a Durkheimian approach can contribute to a sociology of critique.