It's painfully obvious that a non trivial number of users here maintain little contact to ordinary people who make up 99% of the user base.
What HN shows is that a non-trivial amount of peoples entire life is focused on exploiting others inadequacies and this exploitation is portrayed as "normal" by those who profit and abormal by those who now see how invasive ad companies become.
Letting your child sit through an ad is akin to child abuse in my head. Like taking them to a church.
"You laugh because I'm different.
I laugh because you're *normal."
*normal - Average, ordinary, unremarkable, the sameAfter all, this is what advertising (i.e. Google) is all about --- coercing people to act a certain way and buy certain things in order to fit into a particular social stereotype.
Which is worse --- being socially stunted or socially vulnerable?