Having joined academia at one point and seen "how the sausage is made," and subsequently left for ethical reasons that I have no way of using to hold anyone to

Having joined academia at one point and seen "how the sausage is made," and subsequently left for ethical reasons that I have no way of using to hold anyone to account, I totally understand this comment. It is so hard to put into words how these systems are corrupt, because these systems create an enculturation / religion around themselves. By the time you see how the entire system works, you are powerless to simplify the mechnications that make that system corrupt (if you even choose to recognize the corruption). You can't "just start an alternative," because the system exists at a local maxima and will crush your alternative or assimilate it into the existing system. When people are taken advantage of by these secular religions, it is so normal and engrained in the societal fabric that we almost don't have the language to expose the fundamental dishonesty and fraud of these systems. Victims will say that there may be some bad actors at the edges, but on the whole, "this is the way it's supposed to be."