I fleshed out this framework a bit in a piece for The Poleax entitled "Alternative Facts and Anna Karenina," published today:
“...there is an even older, analog precursor to what’s going on here, one that operates outside Trumpian fictive reality but nevertheless functions in much the same way as alternative facts: realistic fiction. Mimesis, or the imitative representation of reality in art, involves a similar kind of cognitive trompe l’oeil as post-truth propaganda. Both high-fidelity fiction and low-/no-fidelity representations of reality can create worlds that seem very real, blurring the line between art and nature, fact and fiction. ”
Read the full article here.