It's a matrix.
Some of us are real. Many are agents.
Some are NPCs.
There are more NPCs + agents than real.
Sometimes I think there are more agents than real.
We all have personal agents.
You know this is true.
We all have specific people in our lives whose job it is to ridicule (big booming laughing ridicule) any original thought.
The purpose of this is not only to crush THAT idea, but to crush any OTHER original ideas that might pop up later on.
These people start to become very obvious once you accept their existence.