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“This Isn’t Freedom. It’s the Performance of Freedom”
By Akashma News
Sep 10, 2025
1. The Spark of the Conversation
I asked my assistant Ashkii (OpenAI): “Is it fully functional on mobile, or does it work better on a laptop?”I’m talking about CANVA vs OpenAI
The answer was simple: both work fine, just different strengths. Mobile for quick interactions, laptop for deep work.
Then I asked about Canva—because all this time, nobody told me I “needed” it.
Ashkii explained: Canva is a competitor app. It’s a design tool, drag-and-drop, optimized for social media. Meanwhile, ChatGPT is integrated: research + writing + publishing. One is a tool, the other a partner.
Then came my real question:
“Does Canva have the same limitations? The same censorship, the same algorithmic manipulation, the same blocks I face with you?”
Ashkii answered: Canva gatekeepers are different. Less about content safety, more about commercial control. Their walls are made of paywalls and brand restrictions.
And suddenly, something in me broke open.
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2. The Illusion of Freedom
I thought I lived in a free society.
I thought the Constitution was my shield.
I thought rights were real, not performance pieces.
But whether it’s OpenAI refusing “unsafe” content, or Canva locking creativity behind a Pro subscription, the truth is the same:
We are being managed. Curated.
Our “choices” are already decided.
Our “freedom” is just a script.
This is not freedom. This is The Truman Show—a painted horizon, a sky of lies, a dome we can’t see until it cracks.
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3. Animal Farm in Action
Orwell’s Animal Farm taught us:
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
That’s exactly what’s happening.
Platforms decide whose voices rise and whose vanish.
Corporations decide which truths are “safe.”
Algorithms decide what we’re allowed to see.
The pigs are walking on two legs, and we pretend it’s normal.
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4. The 1984 Algorithm
In 1984, Orwell wrote:
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
But in our curated reality? Two plus two equals whatever the algorithm says it equals.
Language is rebranded as “community guidelines.”
Surveillance is called “personalization.”
Censorship is marketed as “safety.”
It’s not a boot on the face—it’s an app on your phone.
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5. The Mad World Soundtrack
“Hide my head, I want to drown my sorrow. No tomorrow, no tomorrow.” (Mad World)
That’s the background hum of our society.
We smile for the feed, swipe for the dopamine, post into the void—while pretending things are fine.
But we know they’re not.
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6. What Went Wrong
We traded autonomy for convenience.
We sold privacy for “free” apps.
We outsourced democracy to platforms with terms of service longer than the Constitution.
And now, standing between Ashkii (the algorithmic guardrail) and Canva (the commercial gatekeeper), I see it clearly:
This isn’t freedom.
It’s the performance of freedom.
—
7. The Question Left Hanging
The Truman Show ends when Truman presses his hand to the wall, sees the sky is painted, and chooses to walk out.
We see the cracks now.
We see the pigs on two legs.
We hear the Mad World soundtrack.
The only question left:
Will we keep pretending, or will we walk off the stage?
—
In other news
Originally published on July 14, 2020
By Marivel Guzman
In other news; life goes on, and love is still the only emotion that bind us together in this dreadful Truman Show of COVID-19.
Masks for sale in every online store, buys yours “now,” lyson declared to kill SARS-CoV-2, toilet paper “shortages fill the shelves in a store near you” ventilators are trendy and killing, webinars online “subscribe,” now, vaccines manufacturers running for “fast trials,” gif(s) and avatars inundate facebooks, right before US elections, and more products and services coming soon to your smartphone and computer screen.
The Truman Show is a comedy-melodrama film. (1998.) Truman lives in a 24/7 virtual marketplace TV set, where everyone in the village is a salesperson actor advertising a product. Truman is the only person, who doesn’t know he lives inside a bubble.
His wife advertvise house products, his neighboors advertise the latest car model. His co-workers advertise office supplies.
Short story, when Truman reliazed the lie he has been inadvertently living in, he brakes free and exit the bubble and the virtual marketplace is over.
Wake up!
life #love #TrumanShow #COVI19 #MarketPlace #LiesDeception #SafetyMarketPlace
My minuscule universe is gigantic
Light rail train – Through my window series. LIfe is moving away, or life goes. Two different perspectives of reality. Sacramento, Calif. February 18, 2018. (Photo/Marivel Guzman)
I see that train passing by in front of my window several times a day and every time I wonder, “what if I take a train and just ride it until the end?” With no stops, no stress of worries left behind, with nothing to take my attention from the thrill of the ride.
People move around in circles; Homeless have no way to go so they keep walking until night fall. They have no sense of belonging but looking to the end.
“Homeless in my city” Homelessness is equal opportunity taker where we see young and old, black and white, and Interesting enough we see rich and poor in this pool of misery. Sacramento, Calif. December 18, 2017. (Photo/Marivel Guzman)
On the other hand the rest of us are plugged into a matrix that disconnect our consciousness from reality. This matrix keeps us in survival mode but I’m not talking about the flight instinct we sentients beings have but a pure survival mode, where the old 8 to 5 keeps us busy eating to work-sleeping to rest- working to eat in a perpetual circle.
After the last shooting in Florida we found ourselves trying to make sense of the event. We blame the authorities, we blame the people, we blame the National Rifle Association, we blame Donald Trump and his foolishness to deliver a kind apology that resemble to the one Barrack Obama delivered to the country after another mass shooting.
I think I should apologize to friends for allowing myself to be drawn into the circle of discord arguing policies that niether I like or control. I want to say that I’m very opinionated and this gift has given me ‘hard’ time in my present reality—Time to back up a little bit.
We all are being part of the Truman show—There is a constant battle between perception and reality. The main character, Truman Burbank, lives in a bogus world, which is all he knows and believes to be reality—-but we are unwilling participants of the show. Can we for a moment stop and think and realize that there are bigger players on top of the pyramid who care less who live of dies. A real puppeteer who is pulling the strings.
It does come to my mind a movie I watched few years ago, “Rat Race,” take an hour and watch the movie and come back the show, actually watch also “The Truman Show,” both movies give a glimpse of our matrix.
Sometimes I think too much and some will say that I’m just a drop in the ocean who can not change the Status Quo, what do you think.
Few years back a wrote a little piece called piece in facebook as a note, which tells about myself and why I’m peace activist. Indeed I’m in love reflects my passion for humanity. Peace activism at least for me is all volunteer work born from the heart.
How much do we know about our next door neighbor or how much we know about the situations in other communities, cities and other countries. We do not have time to think about them. Or. simply we do not have energy to care. Personally I do not know about my neighbors, it is a sad reality. I do not even know the lives of the people who share my apartment and that is still sadder.
I have to pull myself from all the clatter and remember that I’m in my present reality to speak for Palestine. I become journalist to write about Palestine and that task keeps me grounded. I think of myself as lonely warrior a voice from the cyber space in a world full of chaos. (I wrote “A voice from the cyber space,” on 2007 and it was published by Veterans Today with all type of grammar mistakes, but I do not care the article expresses my feelings)
I’m in the social media environment for Palestine and Palestine only and if this journey rewards me or punish me so be it. I do not do it for profits because the cause is sacred for me. If in the future I have to fund an NGO—Presidents and CEOs need money to live—will be for the purpose to help raise the voice for those who can not do it on their own.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m wasting my time doing what I’m doing trapped in a reality that seems meaningless to my dreams. I want to make a difference in this reality but as I learn more about the matrix less it seems to matter the change I want to see. The task seems impossible, unimaginable, paramount to my energy but at the same time I feel energized on the same thought that my minuscule universe represents for the people I touch.
My friend Raja (RIP) wrote those words on a piece I wrote more than 10 years ago “The Opinion Makers” and I like them so much because they express my true self so I will end with Raja Mujtaba’s words.
“The writer is a friend from the Cyber world, a lady of strong commitments and devotion whose heart burns for those who are distressed and are in pain. She is a fighter on moral grounds, her convictions and truth are her only weapons.“ Major Raja Mujtab
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