Musing on Simulacrum

Rhetoric is used because it is more plausible than logic. On the margin, logic is unbelievable and rhetoric is believable. 2 + 2 doesn't stop being 4 if that happens to make you mad. Logic cannot be adjusted to be easier to understand or more socially acceptable. Rhetoric can be, and therefore is. 

A simulacrum is a term used when rhetoric has replaced all logic. The simulacrum is "hyper"-real because it seems more real, more relevant, than the actual Reality that it has, in appearance, replaced. The superstimulus reaches the level of hyperstimulus. It is pure Satanism and pure Gnosticism; when social reality has wholly subsumed any peak or crest of physical reality.

Naturally, when the rubber hits the road, the car keeps going and the simulacrum falls to pieces. Purveyors of simulacra know this and assiduously avoid any concrete application. Equally naturally, customers of simulacra who are prone to touching grass quickly stop being customers, leaving only those who, by instinct or inclination, know never to poke their simulacrum with a stick.

E.g. a narcissist's displayed personality is a simulacrum. It's easier to believe than their real personality, by design, but completely fake. When push comes to shove, their mask falls to pieces and dissolves. They cannot walk their talk. 

That said I must remind myself that appearances are themselves a kind of reality. Form is a function. Belief is itself an object. When someone completely misapprehends physical reality for social reasons, it is physically true that they completely misapprehend physical reality. The lies have existential validity qua lies.