In movies, the villain always rips off their disguise to reveal their true, monstrous nature. In conversation, we treat authenticity as a binary switch: you are either genuine (mask off) or fake (mask on).

They are just a version of you that needed a little help being born.

Psychologically, we all wear masks (or what Carl Jung called personas) every day. You wear a different mask with your boss than you do with your toddler. You wear a different mask at a funeral than you do at a birthday party.

We are raised to believe that masks are bad.

This isn't hypocrisy. This is .