You'll see politicians do this back stage at events. There will be some jet lagged, annoyed guy who is late for an appointment standing there. Then some reporter will come up, turn on their camera lights and suddenly the guy from on TV is there, confident, cool, and on point. CLICK the lights go off and late-for-an-appointment guy is back. It's kind of disturbing if you're not expecting it.
Ted Cruz is well known for being 2 people. A Texas monthly pc a couple years ago caught both sides at once when a staffer kept letting an elevator door ding as it was being held open. Ted was doing his politics side with the reporter and lost it on the staffer then went back to gentle Ted.
Have you ever had a conversation with a parent of a small child? They’re like “Yes, very nice, we should totall—PUT THAT DOWN THIS INSTANT GREGORY—totally get together next week or so. <smile>”.
Wow. I've never been able to articulate this experience, but it is something I find very jarring. It's jarring for me to see people behave outside of their usual persona. A favorite teacher of mine once had his young son in class for some reason. The class was normal except for when the son started playing with something he shouldn't have. The teacher snapped at the son with such anger and fear.
I had never seen the teacher behave this way and it was deeply upsetting at the time.
