Signs and images claim to represent something real, but no representation is taking place and arbitrary images are merely suggested as things which they have no relationship to. Baudrillard calls this the "order of sorcery", a regime of semantic algebra where all human meaning is conjured artificially to appear as a reference to the (increasingly) hermetic truth.

  • happybadger [he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    1 month ago

    I went to an old landlord's house once. Real lenin-palace energy looking around his $600k McMansion next to an interstate highway. His new spouse was extremely fixated on aesthetic presentation but also had the aesthetic sensibilities of the clearance bin at Hobby Lobby. The only piece of wall art on the entire first floor was one of these signs that said "café" with a little cup of coffee. The petit bourgeois yearn for the posterboard with arbitrary cursive words written on it, and now it's bleeding into hustle culture so they can stare at motivational quotes telling them to work harder as if they're art.

    • SkingradGuard [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      1 month ago

      petit bourgeois yearn for the posterboard with arbitrary cursive words written on it

      I could've been grifting them this whole time with badly made signs from the cheapest factory I can find? cap-think

      • happybadger [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        1 month ago

        If you write a European word or "faith" on a piece of wood, white people will maul each other like hyenas to buy it for $100 at a farmer's market. Nothing but teeth and blood.