I decided to allow ads on one site today

I decided to allow ads on one site today. I use the Ghostery and AddBlock Plus Firefox addons to block not just ads but trackers, social media, etc. Basically everything.

But today I felt sympathy for Slashdot.org. I have read the site for many years and I like them. I like the community on there and the discussions. I kind of feel like they are family in a way. Maybe a slightly dysfunctional, weird family that argues at times, but nonetheless a family. So, wanting to help them, I thought “Why not disable ad-blocking on their site?” just to see what it was like to actually view ads.

I am not opposed to ads. I guess for me it has been to a considerable extent an ergonomic issue. Pages load faster and it is easier to focus on desired content without ads. Also there is less display space used for ads and hence more available for desired content.

But then, I also do appreciate the ad industry and that people want to promote products or services for their companies and organizations. That is business, the economy.

On the other side of this, with respect to the consideration of unblocking ads, one thing I think of though is not wanting to support the oligarchy – that means not wanting to support companies that are part of the oligarchy and already are making too much money and ripping off too many Americans.

So I’m not entirely sure on what other sites I would eventually choose to allow ads, but I don’t think I would for sites that are run by the huge media conglomerates which fuckover the population and deliberately distort the news in order to control the masses.