I know many on hn use ad blockers so here is a glimpse of what YouTube is like for some without them. I do not live in New Jersey, I have no association with New Jersey. I have no friends or family associated with New Jersey. And yet today every single YouTube ad is a targeted political ad for the new jersey gubernatorial election. No joke. I have zero chance of voting in a New Jersey election. About 7 years ago and not since then I used a VPN on occasion that had a new jersey IP address that's the only link I can concieve of I would have to the state. My current IP address and location is at least 100 miles from the nearest point in New Jersey. In my option Google is an economic parasite at this point that generates nothing of value. It's just an ad fraud machine.
To me this is ad fraud. Google is charging political campaigns for impressions by people not even located in the constituency.
I miss my usual bs irrelevant YouTube ads about toenail fungus, ai "live stream" finance advice pronounced with a short "I" as in lived. and dementia (I am in my 30s...)
PaulHoule•3mo ago
This season I am complaining that I have a choice of 5 candidates for 5 offices each of whom is running on both the Democratic and the Working Families Party line and at best I can leave a subtle trace in the numbers by giving my vote to candidates I believe in and withholding it from the others.
A few years back my congressional district was one of the few competitive districts in the whole country and boy were the airways saturated with ads against one or another of the candidates... And that's almost as bad as not having a choice.