20220422-adblock.txt
So today I randomly remembered a Youtuber (whom I will not name)
claiming that blocking advertisements is a form of stealing. He/she
wasn't the first I've heard whine about it.
Now I can understand why a content creator would think that: they're
in it for the money. They want every click they can get. There's
motivation there. It actually makes sense. What I don't understand is
how people have become brainwashed into thinking that blocking ads is
the same as stealing from creators. These are end users, watchers, not
people who actually gain anything other than lost time. That just
floors me. People were actually vehemently defending the right for
someone to force ads you don't want down your throat, as if you must
ingest 0.1 uL of cyanide with every gallon of water you consume as
some sort of sacrificial payment.
I understand how those lemmings think viewing ads is "paying" for it.
My reply is if you're giving your content away for free, then you
can't cry about how not everyone is watching ads. Capitalism run amok
and greedy scumbags have brainwashed these lemmings into thinking that
simply not staring at unrelated crap for at least 30 seconds is
stealing. I don't get it. My position is you don't have to read a
billboard, you don't have to read every single advertisement in a
newspaper, you don't even have to watch commercials on TV if you don't
want to, so how is blocking ads any different morally?
On occasion, but very rarely, I will enable ads briefly and even click
a few if I really appreciate what the creator is doing. I won't buy
anything, but I'll do something to help him/her out. I will donate
(one-time) to them. But the idea that every single byte must be paid
for on the Internet is just so perverse, especially to someone who
understands the value of Gopher. I once had a professor (in ethics, no
less) ruminate on how cable is basically a scam because we're paying
for TV but we still have to watch advertisements. It's completely
true. My mom watches TV all the time and unless I'm there, she doesn't
mute the commercials. Of course she's rarely paying attention to them
anyway, but still. Capitalism in the USA (and abroad) has convinced
people that copious amounts of advertisements are just plain normal.
I'll agree they are ubiquitous, but I don't find it "normal." And this
is why capitalism without a conscience fails: when you don't take care
of both the customer and the seller, most people lose. I don't drive
as much but I really, really hope those hideous cars that are
basically driving billboards never become popular.
Free (gratis) is free. If you believe your content is worth more than
free, you should charge for it. If you depend on advertising or
Youtube for your primary income, your business sense sucks. If your
channel is big enough to get sponsored ads that are literally part of
your videos, you should shut the f*** up about adblockers.
