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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. +

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. +