Stop asking for authenticity — You don’t actually want it.

AI doesn’t threaten your authenticity. You do.

You say you want authenticity.
But you can't handle what it really means.
You want the aesthetic, not the burden.
You want the image, not the cost.

So let’s talk.

I. You don’t want authenticity. You want its shadow.

Authenticity sells.
It became a marketing tool.
Soft words. Handwritten fonts. Natural light. Recycled cotton. Local produce.

You can buy the look of authenticity.
But you can’t buy the guts it takes to live it.
Real authenticity is not a filter.
It’s not an aesthetic.

Authenticity is congruence.
Alignment. Integrity.
The radical coherence between what you believe, what you think, what you say, and what you do.

II. Authenticity is pain. Because freedom is pain.

We say we want to be free.
But most of us mean: free from discomfort.
Not free to face ourselves.

Real freedom comes with weight.
And that weight is called responsibility.

If you want to be true to yourself, then prepare to say no.
To walk away.
To stand alone.
To be misunderstood.

Authenticity isn’t pleasant.
It isolates you.
It demands that you reject what others accept.
It demands that you choose who you are — again, and again, and again.

So no, you don’t want authenticity.
Not really.
You want a version of it that doesn’t hurt.

III. The fear of AI is not about AI.

People are scared that AI makes everything feel inauthentic.
But they type on keyboards instead of writing by hand.
Does that make their thoughts fake?

AI is a tool.
It helps you write.
It doesn’t think for you. Not yet.

It’s like a brush.
You can paint garbage with it. Or you can create a masterpiece.
Same with words.
Same with code.
Same with thought.

We’re already cyborgs.
We extended our memory with drives.
We extended our voices through screens.
AI is just the next layer.

The real fear is not about losing authenticity.
The real fear is becoming obsolete.

IV. The authenticity trap.

You accuse others of being fake.
Because they don’t match your idea of what ‘authentic’ should look like.
But maybe you’re just projecting.

Maybe the one who's inauthentic… is the one calling others inauthentic.

Maybe you think artisanal equals honest.
That raw equals real.
But someone can sell you raw lies, and someone else can sell you polished truth.

So what is authenticity then?

It’s not a style.
It’s not artisanal, or minimalist, or handmade.
It’s not about using or not using AI.
It’s not about being digital or analog.

It’s about alignment.

It’s about whether what you show aligns with what you are.
And sometimes, you can’t see that in others.
And they can’t see it in you.

V. So what matters?

Not whether something looks real.
Not whether someone seems sincere.
Not whether this post was ‘written by a human’.

The only thing that matters is this:

Are you willing to live authentically?
Are you ready to take the risk?
To lose approval?
To speak, when silence is easier?
To stay silent, when everyone screams?

Are you willing to live without pretending?

Because maybe, just maybe, you’ll become the example you were waiting for.
Quietly affirming that it’s possible.

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Written with a human voice.
Helped by a machine.
Aligned with something deeper.

People don’t want the truth. They want the illusion of sincerity.