Using a modern browser where real extensions don’t work (now all of them) is an exercise in frustration. It really was a good con, all the propaganda it took to convince the average person and even many smart people that fake security was enough to take away all control and configurability.

Of course, it had nothing at all to do with security but really was about further turning the internet into an ad delivery and surveillance and control network. Watching those same “smart” people get annoyed with you when you suggest that it’s not actually necessary to exert such control to make anything secure is witnessing the utter triumph of that propaganda. After all, the best kind of propaganda becomes self-reproducing because its subjects themselves believe it fully and proselytize without prompting.

I’ve learned a lot about how to con people from watching this play out over the years. People really will harm themselves greatly for very little reason, and discovering that has been a valuable lesson for me. Most people want to be fooled, and in wanting to be duped, must duplicate the con to others. To paraphrase Bill Shakespeare, it is the common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance, and it is theirs in great revenue.