Telling the truth is difficult because of people’s different assumptions.

We all project our feelings and worldview on others; we assume people are more similar to us than what they actually are. If you want to work, you assume everyone does. If, to you, figuring out you’re bisexual was a liberation, you assume everyone is bisexual. If you would never lie about something like that, you assume nobody would… And so forth. Truth. Not so.

It is very difficult to tell the truth about yourself when you assume others take it for granted that you think the way that you do. They don’t. They take it for granted that what you don’t say out loud are stuff that “needs not be mentioned”, as in “the default” – their way of thinking. They also assume that a good bunch of things that you say that contradict their way of thinking is a joke or a lie. They want to give you the benefit of the doubt because otherwise, they won’t like you as much.

Therefore, stating the obvious is sometimes necessary. That might still not help, as it can be taken for irony (a joke stating the exact opposite of what is expected as a humorous notion). It is incredibly difficult for a person unlike you to understand or believe you are what you say you are, and impossible for them to understand you are what you don’t even mention.

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