Are you just a puppet on strings? How do you separate yourself from the masses?
Do you believe you are being manipulated? The first sign of manipulation is denying that others have influence on you. The second sign is believing what others tell you. The third sign is giving up your freedoms for some irrational fear. Do you believe your thoughts are your own? Every word you learned was passed on to you by someone else. Does anyone ever have anything original to say? When you utter an original word, it has no meaning to others only you, not until you make others believe in the word and its meaning. This is how inventions are given names, this is how slang is created.
Ultimately, we are all cogs in some machine, non of us who live within society are truly unique. Because we are all just reflections of what culture we come from. The only truly unique are those separated from all culture, from human interaction completely oblivious to it. But to do so would be feral.
If you are reading this, you are not feral, for you understand words. And words come from society same as the technology you use. Even if you think you are free, you will always be brainwashed. Even those who sit at the top of the Illuminati themselves are brainwashed.
The steps to achieving freedom are only relevant to creating change in our lives, it does not mean we are free. Once you are in the system, you can never be free, you can only sever yourself from society. But still you will carry its traits with you for the rest of your life.