most people don’t operate with honesty

[gimmedatacc]

I tend to be very blunt, honest really, when interacting with people. If you ask me something, I’ll give you a direct answer. If I see something I don’t like, I’ll tell you. That’s just how I am. But lately, I’ve realized that in most professional or social environments, people don’t operate that way. They often fake their feelings, beliefs, or opinions just to get by. Honesty doesn’t seem to be the norm. Instead, everyone appears to be thinking two steps ahead, playing mind games.

No one seems genuinely focused on understanding what others are thinking or feeling and adjusting their behavior accordingly. They’re focused on themselves, on how to get what they want, how to maintain appearances, how to survive.

And I don’t know how to function in a world like that. I don’t know how to be anyone other than myself. I’m struggling to fit into a society that rewards masking, pretending, and strategizing over sincerity. I’m struggling to understand people and why they act this way.

I get it, we’re human, and maybe this is the natural order of things. Maybe this is the ‘norm.’ But it doesn’t feel normal to me. It feels exhausting. And learning how to cope, manage, or adapt to it is hard work. It drains me.

I can’t keep masking. It makes me feel ill. And I can’t handle being constantly surprised by people’s behavior. I try to analyze them, understand them, form a picture in my head, and then they act in completely contradictory ways. Why? Because they’re human, and humans are inconsistent. But I don’t do that. When I think or feel something, my actions reflect it. I align (mostly).

Is anyone else struggling with this too? What do you do to cope? What’s helping you?

 

[Framem4xx]

i am honest person

 

[Regular Doomer]

Yes, people can't afford to be genuine anymore, it is like how kids nowdays can't have the luxury to be kids anymore, if they're not aware of everything they won't make it

kids in their 13 to 17 can't be kids anymore, they don't play, they don't go out, their parents don't treat them like kids anymore either, even the love they recieve is completely based on results and how well they do for the market, not because their parents simply love them

Society lost its honesty and naivety

 

[Yliaster]

It's because we're living in Hyperreality, a Concept that Baudrillard predicted years ago which eventually came
to fruition in our Modern Age of Social Media

Postmodernity is said to be a culture of fragmentary sensations, eclectic nostalgia, disposable simulacra, and
promiscuous superficiality, in which the traditionally valued qualities of depth, coherence, meaning, originality,
and authenticity are evacuated or dissolved amid the random swirl of empty signals.

 

[Yliaster]

Highly recommended read

 

[Gargantuan]

People can’t act with honesty because they aren’t whole enough to. Most live in inherited self-harm loops, their nervous systems trained to equate suppression with safety. What looks like deceit, fakery, and dishonesty is usually survival code running on autopilot.

And it’s not just psychological. The whole field’s corrupted: the body’s sick, the food’s fake, the nervous system’s fried by noise and dopamine. A species this biochemically sick and spiritually atrophied can’t bear the weight of truth, it's impossible.
You’re dealing with heavily traumatised individuals trapped in loops of self-harm.

I stopped expecting authenticity after realising that. You’re not even dealing with malice per se, just damaged circuitry.

 

[Painful Cycle]

I can relate, I think honesty is my best trait and I will never be fake

 

[gigacumster3000]

at lower tiers it's more about keeping your head down and not overselling yourself so as to avoid getting filtered out if they do actually assess the full picture, which is unlikely but still happens sometimes. in general there are diminishing returns on being honest with strangers/acquaintances - most people don't really care what you think anyway unless it impacts their bottom line (job offers, sales, etc.).