Reality Hegemony

The cultural dominance of a particular conception of reality (usually materialist, physicalist, Western) to the point that alternative realities become unthinkable or ridiculous. Reality hegemony is maintained through education, media, and everyday language, which constantly reinforce the dominant ontology. It makes it difficult even to conceive of worlds where spirits exist, where time is cyclical, where objects are alive. Reality hegemony is the deepest form of epistemic power: it shapes not just what we know, but what we believe is possible to know.

Example: “He couldn’t accept that her indigenous community experienced the forest as a living relative. Reality hegemony: his physics‑based reality left no room for other truths.”

Evidence Hegemony

The cultural dominance of a single evidentiary standard (e.g., randomised controlled trials, quantitative data) across all domains, regardless of appropriateness. Evidence hegemony marginalises other legitimate forms of knowledge: clinical experience, patient testimony, community wisdom, historical documents. It shapes law, medicine, policy, and journalism, making it difficult to argue for anything that hasn’t been “empirically validated” by the preferred method. Evidence hegemony is often invisible to those who benefit from it—they simply call it “rigour.”

Example: “The medical board required RCTs for every treatment, even for rare diseases where trials were impossible. Evidence hegemony: one standard to rule them all.”

Reality Hegemony by Abzugal May 22, 2026