The whole point of a lot of what Mozilla is doing with Firefox is to optimize it as a contained and controlled ad delivery platform.

They can’t tell you this, of course, because everyone would immediately abandon the browser. Revealing it would be suicidal, so they are forced to call anyone who realizes and understands this a paranoiac or crazy.

Removing the ability — bit by bit — of the user to alter the interface? Integrating services like Pocket and the like? The “tiles” that appear when you click on the browser? Disappearing the bookmarks and making them hard to find? Even blocking tracking is just so they can nuke the competition and insert their own garbage, not out of some altruistic commitment to the user’s best interest.

This all obviously leads somewhere, and it isn’t to the desires and wants of the user. It is, however, to a tightly-constrained ad delivery platform that masquerades as “ads done right” or whatever marketing material they eventually come up with.

I feel sad for Mozilla and for all the clueless people who look but do not see. It’s blindingly clear what is happening and why, but most people have the insight of a turnip so even a “told you so” after it’s all done will fail to make them realize what has happened.

The thing about a sucker is they never realize they are one, or have been one. It just never occurs to them.