Authenticity For Dumbies!

Thomas Frank uses the term, "authenticity" in his book, What's the Matter with Kansas? to describe the class wars of the middle and upper classes. Being authentic becomes an objectified aesthetic when taken to extreme, when you're preoccupied with how people see you. I can't believe how pervasive this is. I don't really know if it has always been as such, being that most people don't like to discuss "authenticity" in this way, unless they are accusing someone else of being unauthentic.
Damn, I can't think.