One of the problems of our political times is this confusion about ceremony.

The dissident right, comprising the portion of the ‘right’ literate enough to participate in discourse and the chief driver in ‘extremely online’ politics through their stalwart refusal to believe that they had been duped into supporting or providing cover for a fascist movement, often relies on this deference to simulacrum as a means of negating allegations that January 6th was, for instance, an insurrectionary act.

Such a person – and there are many – has become sufficiently confused by the ‘artificial’ nature of the narrative implanted within the protestor so as to somehow ignore what that narrative induced said individual to do.

Baudrillard is popular among these types. They are not truly illiterate. They can actually see the distortion of the spectacular mirage! They are markedly anti-consumerist.

But there are no LARPs. There are only Augmented Reality Games.