I agree that taking the Kolmogorov option is justifiable in direct proportion to the risk of your situation and the difficulty of causing change. Appealing to i

I agree that taking the Kolmogorov option is justifiable in direct proportion to the risk of your situation and the difficulty of causing change. Appealing to it in the US today is vastly less convincing than appealing to it in the USSR of the 50s and 60s. That said, I'd also note that writing an article like this inherently means not taking the Kolmogorov option. This is a clear case of "do it, don't say it" - Kolmogorov himself would have been risking his life by publishing a piece like this, since it raises an air of "I might have unacceptable views I'm not announcing". (I'm not sure where the Trump bit comes in here - it seems like Aaronson's one mention of him is in exactly the opposite direction of yours.)