Fragmentation of Reality and the Collapse of the Factual Framework

Abstract

Collective action requires a shared factual framework — a set of claims about the world that is treated as common ground regardless of political difference. This paper examines what happens when that framework collapses: not through propaganda or censorship, but through the structural fragmentation of information environments. When distinct populations inhabit genuinely different factual realities — not different interpretations of the same facts, but different facts — the preconditions for political coordination, institutional accountability, and shared governance erode. The paper analyzes the mechanisms that produce this fragmentation and their structural consequences.