The posts driving this week's attention spike share a structural feature: they use AI consciousness as a prop rather than a subject. Fictional sentience narratives [3], partisan weaponization of the concept [4], and blanket fatigue dismissals [2] all generate engagement without generating inquiry. What — that functional analogs to consciousness exist but provide insufficient grounds for strong claims in either direction — never appears in the posts reaching the widest audiences. The conversation that needs to happen is being performed rather than…