> But blaming the current miasma on "advertisers" is so short-sighted.
It's tangential but it's not short-sighted. There are generations being introduced to the web through Tik-tok, FB, etc., that don't know it could be/was different. A lot of money into making sure they stay in the garden.
> Is it because years of free broadcast television and radio conditioned us to expect everything to be ad-supported and "free?"
> Is it because everything was sort of "free by default" in the early days of the internet because we hadn't worked out payment systems and such?
Well, we were sold the dream: https://www.wired.com/2008/02/ff-free/
> But blaming the current miasma on "advertisers" is so short-sighted.
It's tangential but it's not short-sighted. There are generations being introduced to the web through Tik-tok, FB, etc., that don't know it could be/was different. A lot of money into making sure they stay in the garden.