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I deeply respect Doll, and it is awesome that it has felt so much transformation from the industry. Myself being an AI-adjacent trans, I want to add my own deep ambivalence. This is one of the debates that eternally rages in every marginalized community; I don’t really have a clean answer. +

On the one hand… Capital never lifts you up for free. It always asks for something. That might be hard to see; that might be insidious. But capital *always* collects. No amount of money saves you in the end. Many through history tried assimilation plays; not once has it provided durable security. +

But at the same time… Doll’s thread is very right. No one should judge you just for trying to pay rent, for trying to have a shred of safety or an escape route for your family. The perverse social ends against succeeding that it described are a real and scary phenomenon—that *also* serves power. +

There are no good answers; that’s the point. Power stacks the deck. Whether your situated life pulls you toward exit or integration, you will be faced with the choice to internalize the structure—through despair, through complicity—or to hold onto your soul. The cost is made high either way. +

The best of us, whether advocating exit or assimilation, pushed above all for centering telos. If you assimilate, you can *use* that—stay against structures within, never fool yourself that you belong. If you exit, you can leverage asymmetric affordances, no matter the origin—détournement. +