"Being real"

In response to my post about Kanye West, Marc DeGirolami adds:

In addition to the self-creation angle, I wonder whether “being real” is now a justification (or maybe only an excuse) for various sorts of vice that might coincide with brutal honesty.  Rudeness, arrogance, even cruelty – all are justified so long as one is being truthful or telling it like it is.  For a society that seems sometimes to have such difficulty with the presumption to know ‘the truth’ (scare quotes!!), this seems an unexpected development.  It also may belie the studied artificiality (i.e., the not “being real”) that is necessary to preserve and foster many types of social relationships, which may actually be quite fragile and unable to withstand honesties that are delivered with brutality.