I would have more sympathy towards the "blocking ads is theft" view if ad-supported websites and applications didn't routinely claim they were free. Either it'

I would have more sympathy towards the "blocking ads is theft" view if ad-supported websites and applications didn't routinely claim they were free. Either it's free (and we have no obligation to load ads, not that they should be involved anyway) or it costs some of our privacy and/or attention (so we should at least stick the ads on our screens, even if we don't consciously pay attention to them). But claiming that something's free and then whinging that we cut the ads out isn't on.