@tess Oh I mean I don't have an academic understanding of it, really.
I'm trying so hard rn to find frames that make sense of the culture/patterns side of this stuff, because I need the feel for it—and I kinda have that for fedi but not for AT. A lot of it is just experience in all those trenches, as you say—as someone who makes or exists in those landscapes—which is why I trust my doubts, and yours.