this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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Yet, by AdBlocking them, you are doing fuck all against their "monopolistic stance". You are strengthening their monopoly all the same. And to be clear: I don't want to blame here. Block YouTube ads, I'm doing that too. I'm more irritated by how it's somehow spun as evil that YouTube dares to want money for a service they provide.
If Google had not shut down competition by outcompeting them, do you think those competitors would be free? If not, your argument is besides the point all together.
One can be the "bad guy" without being outright evil. Their advertising tactics are heinous and exploitative, and their revenue sharing with the people actually making their content is tricky to exploit without utilizing the same shitty practices Google uses.
This is also about a relatively minor amount of users. Yes, most people on the fediverse are probably going to be running ad-blockers... but that's an incredibly small amount of people. This whole thing is about squeezing a few extra ounces of blood from "their" stone. Not a righteous battle against a foul mass who are scandalously stealing from hard working Google employees.
As I said: I'm not saying that one has a moral obligation to watch the 1000000th stupid raid shadow legends ad. Google would try and exploit us for all we're worth, so IDGAF about their revenue. It's just that all those posts along the lines of "Google tries to earn money by me using their service,! The audacity!" Rub me the wrong way. There are plenty of examples here where people try to spin their use of adblockers into some white knight story and claim moral high ground for doing so. That is hypocrisy in my eyes and this hypocrisy is annoying me. Nothing wrong with "yeah Google, I'm going to take your shit just like you help yourself to mine on a regular basis, because fuck you". Just... Let's not try to make this some moral thing, alright?
So basically you feel icky? You have a moral problem with people who have moral problems?
Cry me a fucking river. The problem isn't that Google is some nefarious Snidely Whiplash character, cackling madly as they tie some helpless waif to some train tracks... theyre "just" a business, doing business things. The problem is, at their scale, it removes opportunity and mobility of any kind of competition. Any time they squeeze their rock, it has massive implications not just in the technical landscape, but also in peoples ability to control their own life, as it pertains to the ever-growing digital landscape.
I'm sorry that all you can see is people who want free stuff... but that seems to be your own insecurities eating at you. And reflects your own motivations. Not anyone elses.