perception runs on shortcuts. skin color, height, speech, posture—processed before the person is. most people never make it past that first compression.

so people start editing themselves, not to be liked, but to reduce friction. to avoid triggering the wrong read. it’s not insecurity—it’s adaptation. blend or be abstracted.

the more deviation, the harsher the misread. race becomes aggression. style becomes arrogance. quiet becomes cold. you’re not seen, you’re flagged.

the edits stack. tone gets rehearsed. movements pre-calculated. presence becomes performance. and eventually, the correction becomes the identity.

this isn’t confusion. it’s precision. people know what they’re doing. the tragedy is they believe they have no other option.