"Block The Rich" is like an ad-blocker, but for obscenely wealthy people with overinflated egos.

About 8 months ago I got pretty tired of seeing billionaire spam online. I could not bear to read about yet another rich guy who launched themselves (or their $200,000 car) into outer space 🚀 . I did not care about their expert opinion on the latest meme coin back then. I do not care about their expert opinion on the dangers of AI today.

So… I developed a tiny, free, and open source Firefox browser add-on called “Block the Rich”. It is completely local and private. No data is tracked. No data is phoned home.

The concept is pretty simple: whenever I load a web page, the extension quickly analyzes the content and intelligently blurs out any references to the Forbes Top 10 Billionaires. Some former and wannabe billionaires are blurred out of courtesy as well (I’m looking at you Trump and Kanye 🙄).

This project is a very early prototype that I built in the span of a few days. I have so many awesome ideas for enhancements but the truth is that the wind got completely knocked out of my sails when I put myself out there on Reddit many moons ago. There was absolutely zero public interest. To this day my wife and I are the only ones using the original prototype.

People of Lemmy, do you think there is a place on the internet for such a project, or is it time that I let it go?

Edit: I am blown away by the support from you all. Thank you! I am so excited to start polishing this baby up!

strangeAlpaca,

Bro I thought this was satire!💀This is real??? I need this plugin!

tasty4skin,

Very cool add on. I don’t really browse on a standard browser usually, but this is something I would add to my browser if I did. I feel the same as you, tired of billionaires thinking their hoarded wealth makes their opinions more valid or worth hearing.

WhatAmIdoingHere,

Can it auto unblock when the news is that they are going to prison? I want to read and re-read those types of stories

aCosmicWave,

If any one of these people actually goes to prison I promise to ship myself to you in a giant cake and let you know in person.

WhatAmIdoingHere,

Haha… noting your response to hold you accountable.

It has got to happen some day. I just want it to be in this lifetime

BadRS,

I think you should be able to block people and companies. I’m tired of hearing about Tesla, people hyping Tesla, people doubting Tesla, bragging, complaining, questioning. I’m just done hearing about it.

Talaraine,
@Talaraine@kbin.social avatar

I need the opposite haha... Gimme content for @eattherich

realitista,

I love this! I also wouldn’t mind to never hear from many of these buttholes again. Though I don’t mind hearing from Gates, so maybe would be nice to choose which ones.

Steamymoomilk,

i like this idea because when i go to read the news i do not care about what rich people are doing.

housepanther,
@housepanther@lemmy.goblackcat.com avatar

Thank you for this, @aCosmicWave! I added this extension to my Firefox install because I am really sick of the same thing.

rm_dash_r_star,
@rm_dash_r_star@lemm.ee avatar

Create a filter for uBO maybe? I run a number of specialized filters in uBO. A “block the rich filter” would be good. The advantage there is content can be removed from view completely, not just blurred.

slimsalm,

Lolz, it is crazy what one needs to do to prevail sanity these days

EnderWi99in,

I have been looking for this but for a customized list of celebrities and politicians whose opinions carry little weight in the real world.

db2,

Is there a Chrom[e/ium] version by chance?

WarmSoda,

Why not use Firefox?

db2,

Why not use [browser you don’t use]?

Valk,

Is this a good enough reason for you to swap? eff.org/…/googles-manifest-v3-still-hurts-privacy…

WarmSoda,

Correct, that was my question. Why would you use a chromium browser instead of Firefox?
It’s not like firefox is expensive or difficult to get/install.

db2,

Because I don’t want to. I was somewhat involved in Gecko development, used Phoenix before it became Firefox, even compiled it on BeOS once or twice, I didn’t like the direction it took when it broke compatibility with SeaMonkey and it hasn’t gotten better from what I’ve seen. Is that enough answer?

WarmSoda,

I honestly don’t know if that was enough answer. You’re extremely defensive over a simple question.

db2,

If you say so.

finkrat,

Because they don’t? There’s FOSS Chromium-based browsers that respect privacy that would benefit from this.

WarmSoda,

I’m sorry I didn’t realize you spoke for db2

Gorgonzola_Gams,

Count me in

itsnotlupus,

Instead of simply blurring them, it’d be technically possible to feed their images through a stable diffusion prompt, like “humanoid lizards” or “frantic lemmings”…
Also, I understand that a large language model could be made to rewrite articles about them with a matching prompt.

That would be very silly, of course.

aCosmicWave,

Amazing. Love it!

Lenins2ndCat,
@Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve always believed it would be useful to have a thing like this but for brand logos.

But instead of blurring or blocking the brand logo like an adblocker what it does instead is show you the face of the top shareholder in that brand. Remove the brands and show the assholes that own them. Where it’s not a single person you replace that brand with the name of the hedgefund or bank that owns the investment.

It would bring people’s attention away from brand consumerism and to a constant consciousness of the ruling class looming over them in everything.

Screwthehole,

But then everything everywhere would look the same - whatever random picture it uses for Blackrock

Gamey,

Probably the ugly face of Larry Fink! 😬

Lenins2ndCat,
@Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world avatar

That’s kinda the point. Being able to see just how few people own literally everything and thus are influencing opinion through means that people currently completely overlook is powerful. Advertising is literally propaganda. Consumer culture is propaganda. When you cut through that and make people conscious of it on a constant minute to minute basis you will see rapid radicalisation occur. Our society relies on a system of carefully designed barriers that create separation between the people and the ruling class in a way that is unnoticeable to the average person without prompting.

Think of it like pulling back the curtain in the wizard of oz for people.

stealth_cookies,

The way I would like to see it done is that any company name can be hovered over and the top 5 shareholders pop up and if applicable it tells you who the parent company is.

Lenins2ndCat,
@Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world avatar

This would be a useful additional feature, I think the shock value of the method I’m suggesting would have potential to interest at least some press outlets (probably not the major ones who would recognise it as damaging to the people they represent though). You need some novelty in this kind of thing to get it to spread.

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