THE ILLUSION THAT MESSED WITH MILLIONS — AND YOUR MIND WILL DO THE SAME
The viral image became less about the woman in the frame and more about the people staring at their screens. In that first instant, countless viewers rushed to label, judge, and fantasize, convinced they were witnessing something forbidden. Yet the “after” frame shattered that illusion: a harmless gesture, a neutral motion, a mundane reality that stripped the moment of all its imagined heat. That jarring shift forced a quiet, uncomfortable realization. The scandal never existed; it was manufactured inside the…