"Ad blockers are unethical—ads are how they pay to keep the lights on!”

Exactly. It's how THEY pay to keep the lights on. It's not how I pay for anything. I didn't agree to see ads, although I'm ok with some ads; what I definitely didn't do is agree to be tracked and profiled and have arbitrary third-party code running on my computer just so I could read this awful, pointless, SEO-ified shitfest of an article that doesn't come close to answering the question I was googling.

#enshittification

“It is amazing that anyone ever came to listen to the teachings of Gautama Buddha, because from the start he declared that nobody can really save you. His central message was that you must free yourself. What he taught is counterintuitive to ego’s desire for security. While taking refuge is a central aspect of #Buddhism, it does not represent a personal savior outside of yourself—quite the opposite. It is a declaration to completely change your way of life through your own effort.”

Anam Thubten

So the CEO of online ads giant IAB made a pretty… remarkable speech, saying:

"These extremists (referring to privacy advocates) are political opportunists who’ve made it their mission to cripple the advertising industry and eliminate it from the American economy and culture."

And this, friends, is our mission statement RIGHT THERE.