What do you do when you can't opt out of something you distrust?

Reading about how software folks don't get to be Luddites about AI, and it reminded me of how we used to talk in the prison: you don't get to refuse the system, you just have to figure out where you can make small corruptions toward decency. People here must have had a job or a technology they couldn't walk away from but didn't trust. How did you live with it?