Unpack more.

Okay, so Baudrillard’s thing was the idea he called “hyperreality”: images, symbols, branding, and other representations that penetrate deep enough into our consciousness that they become more real to us than the physical world. In the above quote, I think he’s describing the effects of removing or destroying these hyperreal symbols; we’re left not with physical reality but with nothing, which is damaging psychologically.

BUT I haven’t read Baudrillard in detail so take my analysis with a grain of salt. I’m viewing this though the lens of Platonic forms and the whole cave allegory and all that because it was the closest philosophical concept that’s both familiar to me and seemed to map.

Sorry man. I thought you were shitposting. I didn’t see the edit to include the Baudrillard reference at the time