Have you considered that the problem may be on your end?

I also don't understand why this was so unbelievable. I had this discussion many years ago with friends in high school. They also thought I was paranoid for saying that this kind of spying was obviously already happening or would happen soon. I thought it was rather obvious given the incentives, secrecy, technical means, and changes in society that would soon make online life very important.

Of course it's on my end. But "my end" is shared with millions of other people; and if you want to persuade them, you have to account for problems on their end, not vice versa.