[jefftk]

> A slaver to his slave: Your attempts at achieving freedom are undermining a business model that is letting a lot of people enjoy cheap clothing, and that would be selfishly making the world worse.

This ignores harm of slavery to the slave, but in both the online ads case and your burger hypothetical there are no analogs to the slave.

> I genuinely cannot understand how refusing to consume something makes me selfish.

The argument is pretty straightforward. In your hypothetical, hunger has been mostly solved: everyone can eat as many burgers as they want. But this solution is fragile, and rests on people consuming the lettuce that comes with the burgers. By choosing to remove your lettuce, you increase the risk that this falls apart and we'll be back to the status quo where some people are hungry, and others spend a substantial portion of their income on food.

(I still think this is a silly hypothetical)

[cwkoss]

Ads cause psychological harm to people. They are engineered with the intention to make them feel insecure and make worse decisions with their money.

[throwawayacc2]

I am literally harmed by ads. In my case, I suffer from internet addiction you see and those extra load seconds and interruptions are deeply harmful to me. They trigger anxiety and panic attacks.

But that’s just me. Other people are harmed way more! Maybe you can wave away my ad inducted anxiety but can you wave away people with epilepsy? Can you wave away people with ADHD? Can you wave away people with accessibility needs? Can you wave away people unwillingly outed as lgbt by the ads they are served? Can you wave away predatory ads? Can you wave away “making the world worse” through ad enabled miss information?

As for lettuce I am allergic to it. I will literally die if I don’t remove it.

Your move.

[jefftk]

> As for lettuce I am allergic to it. I will literally die if I don’t remove it.

If you're allergic to lettuce, it's very risky to eat a burger that has previously been contaminated by lettuce. Perhaps consider eating anything else?

I think the ad situation is much more complex than your hypothetical, and blocking ads for accessibility reasons is fine. But calls for everyone to block ads, even if they aren't "allergic", are calls for an end to free ad-supported things online, which includes the website we're currently using.