Brave is essentially just Chrome with an adblocker, a bunch of bloatware, and a bunch of controversies.
Brave took BAT donations in YouTuber’s names without their consent, with them keeping the money if the YouTubers didn’t claim it. https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2019/01/13/brave-web-browser-no-longer-claims-to-fundraise-on-behalf-of-others-so-thats-nice/
Brave’s search engine crawler hides itself from websites by pretending to be Googlebot, and Meta (Facebook) buys API access from them to train their AI. https://stackdiary.com/brave-selling-copyrighted-data-for-ai-training/
The business model of Brave rewards as a whole is to block all other ad networks to replace them with their own, which is unfair as only YouTubers and websites that have joined can make money from most Brave users.
If Brave actually cared, they would create an acceptable ads style feature which was free for everyone and allowed simple contextual banners while blocking ads which track you, take up most of the page, or have NSFW content.
Their approach is monopolistic as they have full control and can strangle YouTubers and websites by dropping pay at any time.
And Brenden Eich has said on Twitter that he plans to release “Brave Origin”, which is a paid version of Brave without the bloatware. That name is ironic as he is admitting that his browser is commercialised and bloated, which is similar to when gorhill gave uBlock way to Chris Aljoudi who commercialised it, which led him to create uBlock Origin.
If you use Brave, ditch it and look at using Librewolf or Helium instead, which both include no ads nor tracking and don’t have Brave News, Rewards, Wallet, Talk etc bloatware.
He is pretty much openly admitting he has right wing views and it is influencing his social media and project policy.
“Punch Nazis” is literally the only use of the phrase “punch [group]” in modern culture. Redacting specifically Nazi from the statement to make it seem like it is a general statement used, which suggests that is is note broad violent rhetoric, is a very often used dogwhistle by Nazis (and is being used daily by the extreme right wing, at this point satisfying nearly every academic hallmark of fascism, american government).
It is also relevant to note that during the project startup, someone simply suggested a 10 minute search and replace change to use more neutral language and he responded “your personal politics have no place here” even though that is not necessarily political.
Again, the only people that get that offended and snappy with something as benign as using a single different pronoun are the people who support taking basic rights away from human beings. I have never met another type person who cares at all.
The real question is, if a terrible person creates something (potentially) good and let’s their own politics create arguments and stir up drama, but just use the guise of “oh it’s because I want to be apolitical”, is it worth giving money and support to that person. How can you trust someone to always make a “free as in freedom browser” when they literally support (hypothetically) authoritarianism, mass surveillance, and taking rights away in real life? That is the antithesis of the project’s mission.
Also, life is inherently political. There is a group of people literally wanting to kidnap, torture, enslave, kill, and/or remove any rights from another large group of people. Ignoring those problems and welcoming those people with open arms gives them the chance to spread those hateful and violent views, as evidenced by their rapid growth by creating safe spaces for them on the internet.
It is a sad reality, but throughout much of human history, there has been a large groups of people don’t have the luxury to “avoid talking about politics” and “making things political” because they were literally getting enslaved and/or killed by it. And that is happening today still, visibly and publically.