Eliminating the image-reality distinction can produce collective lunacy.

Evidence

The affair of Orson Welles’ broadcast ‘Invasion from Mars’ was a test performed by the positivistic spirit to determine its own zone of influence and one which showed that the elimination of the distinction between image and reality has already advanced to the point of a collective sickness, that the reduction of the work of art to empirical reason is already capable of turning into overt lunacy at any moment, a lunacy which the fans who send trousers to the Lone Ranger and saddles to his horse already half affect. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 110

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: The ‘Invasion from Mars’ panic is an early case of reality fusing with spectacle — a useful precursor to test against post-truth media and QAnon-style mass belief.