working on internalizing the lesson that “freedom to do something” doesn’t mean “no one will criticize you for it”

examples:

- you are an author with a hundred thousand readers. No matter what you write, at least a few of your readers will say you did it wrong, maybe even call you a bad person. They do not have power to ruin your livelihood. They are just venting their frustration where you can see it. (This is not a lack of freedom.)

- you are living in poverty so extreme that there is no legal way to stay alive. No matter what you do, you could be arrested for it. (This is a lack of freedom.)

- you are working at a job where there is no way to complete all your assigned tasks, due to both contradictory instructions and excessive workload. Every order you follow will get you punished because it makes it impossible to follow a different order. No matter what you do, your boss will tell you that you aren’t doing your job, and will threaten to fire you. (This is a lack of freedom.)

Questionable example:

- same job scenario– except no one actually threatens to fire you. No matter which orders you follow, you do get criticism saying you did the wrong thing, from people who are your superiors in the workplace hierarchy.

However– it is impossible for you to tell which criticism is “this-may-threaten-your-employment” level of seriousness, and which is just “venting frustration.”

(There’s clearly some of each. For the moment it doesn’t seem like you’re doing anything badly enough to get fired? But, if that changes, how the hell would you know?)

(Is this a lack of freedom? Idk. Does freedom even exist in this world in any meaningful way? Does it matter?)

(fuck this.)