Socialization
is measured by the exposure to media messages.
Whoever is underexposed to media is de-socialized
or virtually asocial.

Everywhere information is thought to produce
an accelerated circulation of meaning,
a plus value of meaning
corresponding to the economic one
that results from the accelerated rotation of capital.

Information is thought to create communication,
And even if,
the waste is enormous, a general consensus would have it
that nevertheless, as a whole, there be an excess of meaning
which is redistributed in all the interstices of the social —
just as consensus would have it that material production,
despite its dysfunctions and irrationalities,
opens to an excess of wealth and social purpose.
                                  –*–
We are all complicitous in this myth.

It is the alpha and omega of modernity,
without which
the credibility of our social organization would collapse.

Well, the fact is that it is collapsing,
and for this very reason:
because we think that information produces meaning,
the opposite occurs.
Information devours its own content.
It devours communication and the social.

Excerpt, Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard p. 80

The murder of George Floyd came to general awareness because his dying was captured by video, —  pixelated visual information.  The protests have been positively threatening, posing the possibility of a sea change to the status quo, because the protest images have been widely broadcast, supplemented by reporting national and international.  Argument can be made that the more extreme expressions of the incipient, informally organized protests, citizens marching peacefully with homemade signs, morphed into rioting and the police response with batons and tear gas, — the violence catalyzed by video coverage.  “Spectacular, spectacular !” to quote the unforgettable trope from the Moulin Rouge movie.  Or translated into an old news room adage, “If it bleeds, it leads.”

We are attracted to spectacle like moths to a flame.  Chaos, a riot, and as usual, a Presidential press conference becomes another video spectacle.

 “Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this a great thing that’s happening for our country.  There’s a great day for him.  It’s a great day for everybody. It’s a great day for everybody. There’s a great, great day in terms of equality.”  — Donald J. Trump, White House press conference June 11

It would be impossible to conceive a statement more devoid of meaning than this statement.  You couldn’t conceptualize a statement more inimical to the meaning of the death of George Floyd, or the meaning of the Department of Labor Statistics report.  The reported improvement in employment statistics is supposed to accrue to the benefit of the dead man, and represent a leap forward in racial equality…..  Is he going anywhere with these statements?  Nowhere at all.

The intent of the language was to create a chasm
between meaning and reality,
and to shatter
social relationships grounded
in a consensus of meaning.