Zappa Would’ve Had a Field Day: Beware of the Snake Oil Oozing from Your Screen

“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion.”
— Frank Zappa

We used to get snake oil from carnival barkers, which was in a bottle. It promised to cure everything from gout to heartbreak, usually sold by a man with perfect hair and an untamed grin. Today, it oozes from our PC sets instead — slicker, faster, and armed with AI buzzwords. Frank Zappa, who saw through illusion better than most, would’ve had a field day.

He might have looked at our algorithmic age and said, “Meet the new shill, same as the old shill.” Only now, the sales pitch arrives with a chatbot smile and a voice that sounds like reason itself. Instead of a medicine show, we get a “growth funnel.” Instead of tonic bottles, we get dashboards that promise to “scale your sales 24/7.”