This is the best comment I've read on HN in a good while. Photography and consent here appear to be a logical example of what Umberto Eco called the hyper-real

This is the best comment I've read on HN in a good while. Photography and consent here appear to be a logical example of what Umberto Eco called the hyper-real, the thing that is a supersaturated version of itself which draws the eye, thereby distracting from the ubiquity of the more discreet (yet totalizing) examples of the same thing in the environment–usually serving the interests of accumulated power. The shadow side of the McGuffin, with an operational adaptation: by being visible, they reassure the viewer of their ability to discern and mark their presence... and the viewer with false confidence overlooks the more pertinent examples everywhere else. Versions of this bait-and-distract are everywhere in contemporary discourse. This is now a stock tactic of rhetoricians and demagogues, and there are dozen variations on it.