DNS shouldn't be privatized at all since it's a critical part of internet infrastructure, however at the same time the idea that somehow it's something a corporation should be allowed to sell to you at all (or "give you for free") is silly given that the service is meaningless without the infrastructure of the internet, which is built by governments (through taxes). I can't even think of an equivalent it's so ridiculous that it's allowed at all, my best guess would be maybe, if your landlord was allowed to charge you for walking on the sidewalk in front of the apartment or something.
DNS is not privatized. This is not about the root DNS servers, it's just about one of many free resolvers out there - in this case one of the bigger and popular ones.
But opposite to tap water there are a lot of different free DNS resolvers that can be used.
And I don't see how my taxes funded CFs DNS service. But my ISP fee covers their DNS resolving setup. That's the reason why I wrote
> a service that's free of charge
Which CF is.