Postmodernism treats consensus itself as an illusion produced by discourse

Evidence

What is important in all these internalized challenges to humanism is the interrogating of the notion of consensus. Whatever narratives or systems that once allowed us to think we could unproblematically and universally define public agreement have now been questioned by the acknowledgement of differences — in theory and in artistic practice. In its most extreme formulation, the result is that consensus becomes the illusion of consensus, whether it be defined in terms of minority (educated, sensitive, elitist) or mass (commercial, popular, conventional) culture, for both are manifestations of late capitalist, bourgeois, informational, postindustrial society, a society in which social reality is structured by discourses (in the plural) — or so Postmodernism endeavors to teach. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 736

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the postmodern stance toward consensus: the acknowledgment of difference dissolves any universal public agreement into the illusion of consensus.
• XREF: connects to: Some theorists argue consensus reality has dissolved entirely — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 1117; Postmodernism holds that truth claims are really bids for political power — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 248; Postmodernist premises applied to politics yield post-truth reality denial — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 292 (+10 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Some theorists argue consensus reality has dissolved entirely — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 1117; Postmodernism holds that truth claims are really bids for political power — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 248; Postmodernist premises applied to politics yield post-truth reality denial — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 292 (+10 more)