[snogglethorpe]

In the end, it seems kind of irrelevant. Whether ad-blocking is "OK" or "not OK" certainly accounts for a lot of the arguing, but it probably won't play a huge part in determining whether people use ad-blockers or not.

I think the general public can be swayed by ethical arguments, but the threshold is pretty high, and an appeal to the financial well-being of companies almost certainly doesn't make the cut.

[Note that despite the enormous amount of money and effort that has been spent in an attempt to demonize copying of music/movies, the public still doesn't care a whit about those arguments, and copying is still generally considered a perfectly reasonable thing to do as long as you don't get caught.]

[stegosaurus]

I tend to think that people underestimate the cognitive load that would be imposed as a result of dealing with the world in such a 'rational' way, and that's why we don't see it.

Permit the use of an analogy.

I've been poor. When you're poor, you agonize over every financial decision. At least, I did. You walk through a supermarket trying to buy the absolute cheapest variety of protein. Maybe you go to another supermarket and see if you can get it cheaper. Do you get the bus to see a friend? It'd be a lot better to stash that five quid away for some inevitable future expense.

It's paralyzing. You spend so much time playing this little game for every minor thing that others may well take for granted that you hardly get anything done if you're not careful.

Having battled my way through that.. it seems as if there's a whole new level, a new stage, called 'ethics', that people seem to be taking to an extreme extent in some areas.

I choose my battles; there are a few things I do personally that most don't, to 'save the world'. But for me to deeply care about the full externalities of everything I do (and seek out alternatives) is simply untenable. There's too much out there.

Blocking ads is so far along the spectrum of 'things I might do that might be bad' that it doesn't even register.

Similarly I'm not going to think about the carbon impact of every foodstuff I buy. I'm not going to agonize over taking the bus.

I just do things, to get on with my life. It's really probably not all that bad; sometimes I wonder where people get the energy, the wherewithal, from, to inject so much drama into seemingly minor problems.

I block ads; I don't block ads; the internet exists; the content might change; it really doesn't matter. The world continues to spin. We didn't even have this 'Internet', a few short decades ago. We may not even have it soon. Enjoy it; revel in it!

edit: to elucidate further...

If I have a particular issue that I really care about; say it's animal welfare. It benefits my cause; it benefits me directly; if I (mostly) single-track in order to deal with it.

Maybe I care about global warming, but maybe it's easier for me to make the Vegan Festival if I take the car.

That really is it, I think. People fixate on the activity itself (ad blocking) and don't look at the general framework of the life it fits within. Too... extreme.