> There is an unwritten social contract here.

Yes, there is. It's, "I ask your server for bytes, and if your server gives them to me, I interpret and display them however I wish".

The idea that someone downloading a webpage from a publicly-hosted web server could be a "freeloader" is ludicrous.

If you really must extract some form of payment from literally everyone who visits your site, you'll have to put up a paywall. Otherwise, if you give me content when I request it, I'm going to display it however I want.

> If people aren't going to be polite and accept that contract then fine

The "contract" you describe is just something you made up. I've been on the internet since the early 90s, and that has never ever ever been the deal.

Advertising is malware for your brain. I won't let it in, and no one else should either.

Yes, the paywall is reasonable, I agree. I think what the OP meant by 'social contract' is that if everybody were to use an adblocker, we would end up with a mostly paywalled internet. All the sites that currently have ads, would have a paywall.

The reason why some people get to browse the internet free, and without ads, is because there are some people that don't. Hence the 'leeching' part.

The part that annoys me sometimes, is that when there IS the option to pay to remove ads, and people still use adblockers in this case. How is this justifiable, morally?