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I understand the moral argument, yes tell me about your product or company from time to time, can be interesting or even funny sometimes but it should stop there.

I always use an adblock where possible. 1. I've seen too much ads trying to straight up serve malware. 2. I'm definitely not okay with the ad-industry data aggregation tracking my every move online.

Plus the algorithm is kinda dumb: I see you bought a mattress, how about another one, every day, for the next months? I was curious once about a product I would never buy but now, weeks later, I still have ten companies paying ads for the same product, each one claiming to be the real deal.

I still use google news on mobile, no adblock there, some publications are okay, others are, well... I take a screenshot when there's 0% of content on the screen → OnlyAds/NoContent folder.

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Advertising is mind rape. They're trying to force their brands and products into our minds without our consent. Any possible moral argument against ad blocking is overridden by the sheer intrusiveness and entitlement of advertisers. Our attention belongs to us, it's not theirs to sell to the highest bidder. Ad blocking is legitimate self defense.
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I hate ads as much as anyone but they are not in any way comparable to rape. Please have some sense of proportion.
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Please don't post comments like this. The only thing it can trigger is a flame war. It won't go anywhere productive.

Friends, ignore this thread. Move on. Don't engage.

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“[…] moral argument […]”

I mean, that’s pretty rich coming from the folks willfully engaging in human rights violating surveillance to overwhelm you with obscure useless nonsense that is literally an assault on your time, attention and mental health all for the 0.00001% chance of a vague hope you’ll click or tap their lie of an ad for snake oil that doesn’t work and is designed to steal your credit card number anyway, all just to make them rich so they won’t have to get a real job in the first place.

Moral argument. Right.

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The moral argument is less absurd from the people who actually run the web site and are just looking for a way to be compensated for their effort.

It still doesn't quite hold, and the fact that it's being handed to them by the companies who get most of the profit is a big red flag.

But it's at least understandable why the site owners don't see themselves nearly as badly as we see the ad companies.

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