Member-only story
We Are All Jokers In 2035.
Is it just me … or is it getting crazier out there?
The mirror is cracked. There’s a flicker of fluorescent light. In that grim little apartment, silent except for the flicker of a late-night TV rerun, Arthur’s world shrinks.
He smeared clown makeup half-finished, staring at his own reflection:
Is it just me … or is it getting crazier out there?
No social worker, no meds, and no work.
Even one’s own thoughts start to feel like someone else’s script. The city decides who he is, how he should feel, and what he’s allowed to become.
Gotham’s streets scream outside, but the real chaos is inward.
No, we aren’t living in Gotham.
But tell me… how much real choice do you have these days? Your daily life is dictated by your email, your work, the rules set by others before you were born, the technology built with others’ profitability in mind…
Almost every door in your life opens only after a quiet negotiation between invisible systems; think of an interview CV filtered by AI, an insurance claim decided by AI, and online schooling, TV shows, music, and shopping all recommended by AI.
