I think about that quote a lot, it’s seared in my memory. At the time I remember it was a rallying cry, people used it to define themselves as in “the reality based community” online a lot back then.
But now that I am a little clearer on what he was actually saying, and how true it was, it’s taken on a darker tone.
I’m fairly sure that history will almost instantly forget them, because they exist to be disposable, to be replaced, and as interest and attention moves on their “mark” on history will be exceedingly shallow. Maybe that’s the difference between this constructed “reality” and... reality. Something real can be lasting, while this cotton candy version of reality only seems substantial from a certain angle, for a little while. It’s a kind of shallow “reality” for shallow people with minuscule attention spans.