[jerf]

There's a reason "the rich" were scare quoted. I also think it's an oversimplification. It suffices merely that there is some well-resourced entity that appears to want to use "child age verification" as an obvious trojan horse for increased power and control over the internet.

If you have trouble imagining who might want "increased power and control over the internet", I don't know how to help you. People aren't all nice.

"imagining that "The Rich" have access to some facility to change the world is just untenable."

It's called money. I literally just laid out how to use it and gave an open, public example of it in use that you can use as a template of understanding it. It seems you may be one of the people I'm talking about. Even when presented with what is basically a blueprint and an example of a building that it builds over and over again, on a schedule, you're still unable to process the idea.