You people have it all wrong! The lesser-known definition/concept of ideology (favored by Gramsci, Althusser,
Foucault, Hall etc.) is less about a "visible set of beliefs" and more about the internalization of how one perceives and interacts with their reality. Though somewhat indirectly related, it generally has nothing to do with politics and economic policies.
Ideology is everything
under the hood, everything you
take for granted without consciously realizing it. Therefore, it would be safe to say that language is an ideology, since it follows a set of grammatical rules that we have to take for granted in order to communicate.
It would also be safe to say that love is an ideology, as loving someone does not take any conscious reasoning. Love is so
deep-seated in us that we treat love as an unstoppable force, and not as simply as chemical fluctuations in the brain and body.
Really, anything could be seen as an ideology if we start deconstructing the very foundations of reality.
Me, an intellectual: Man... thinking back, university were the good days, really learned a lot there.
Typical hate-mongering political
zealot: Yeah... good days when you were
indoctrinated with leftist
ideology garbage!
Me, an intellectual: Heh, ideology. You keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means.