The same reason we all use(d) The Pirate Bay. Information deserves to be free, remember? We can distribute videos for free, you remember that, right? We can also pay content creators, who get ripped off by YouTube anyway. Ask them about that.

Are you suggesting that HackerNews readers should also remove their adblockers? That we are bound by a Kantian moral obligation to be subjected to enticement and manipulation for Google’s balance sheet? Will we get kicked out of Capitalism if we don’t acquiesce and watch the ads?

I guess I’m an amoral Bad Boy. Antinomian. A rebel, with strange views on religion, morality, information, and economics - heretical, unspeakable views, that I shall not utter here.

PS: I’m concerned about exposing my mind to advertisements. The risk to the computer, which is but a tool of the mind, is entirely secondary.