While they are stupid, they are aware of what they are doing. There is no way all of this is happening without a clear agenda.

And that agenda is the destruction of all social change and democracy. They basically want to make the internet even more stripmalled than it already is. Barring people from any online service unless it is 100% approved by them and also collect information on everyone and everything around them.

One thing this is making me realize is just what a good thing we had. I remember people told me in the past (even early-mid 2000s) that anonymity on the internet is a myth. While kinda true even then, I had no fucking idea just how little these people would know about you and your online activities in the past. Even without a VPN and all the cookies and shit it is remarkable how much anonymity you actually had.