But seriously, boss—I’m tired. Are our attempts to preserve internet freedom futile?

Nah, we're fine. It's just that serious secrecy is a lot more effort and I'd rather not need that. But we do have all the tools.

That's 80% of the frustration for me. They have already lost that fight for control when they legalized encryption. Now the cat is out of the bag.

For example, encrypting things and hiding them in normal pictures and posts. Using code words in normal online interactions, woven into sentences where there is nothing to decrypt and the message only makes sense to people looking for a message.

Properly executed encryption isn't just indistinguishable from regular white noise, if it's mixed into a channel already carrying a message, an observer not looking for something will never see the difference.