Being 'interesting' doesn't make you more likely to understand VPNs and opsec. I expect it makes you more likely to try, but there's a good chance of doing it ineffectively.

I disagree, it does significantly increase the likeliness. Like having cancer makes you significantly more likely to know a lot of medical facts about cancer.

If you fear for your life you are much more likely to have spent time researching how to protect yourself digitally.

Fair point. But there are lot of educational resources for whistleblowers and others. OPSEC is crucial nowadays.

There's a lot of nonsense too. In another HN thread, someone was explaining to me that email is more secure than Signal, and desktops more secure than phones - and they had a link to someone's blog to prove it.

That's a HN reader. For the non-technical, it is a minefield.