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by dabbernaught420 2173 days ago
He didn't say he should be the one to decide.

Anyway, there are lots of things that people can get addicted to which aren't healthy. Banning things for that reason is an option.

1 comments

Patiently awaiting the ban on alcoholic drinks.
You're about 100 years too late.

Yes, I realize you're being sarcastic (at least I think you are), illustrating the point.

A government which bans things because they aren't deemed "healthy" (by said government) is not the right course of action (in my humble opinion). When it comes to something like alcohol, it's only "unhealthy" when its consumption is not moderated. Not to mention, what nutritionists recommend (and subsequently, what governments adopt) as health guidelines for food consumption is widely subject to change. The food pyramid that some of us were taught in the '90s is greatly recognized as being largely incorrect and is no longer taught.

Of course, the question becomes, where do we draw the line? Is it better for society for something like cocaine to be outright banned by the government or is it better for society that the government legally allows its distribution but regulates it similar to the way that it does tobacco and alcohol (effectively cutting out the market share and profits of the black market and cartels)? I don't have the answer to this question.

My point was that society/people by and large don't care about unhealthiness and/or the negative effects of addition, they simply want things that they dislike or disagree with (usually from a weird moral or intellectual high horse) to be banned. Else Americans would all be on the streets protesting the continued legality of alcohol consumption or the ridiculous amount of sugars pumped into so much of their food and drink; why the pearl-clutching over teenagers being teenagers and fooling around on a frivolous app compared to the monumental damage to society those two things inflict?
There's already a ban on them for a large portion of the population.
I'm sure you're of the opinion that that ban should be taken all the way. After all, people could become addicted and that's terrible.
The only point I've made is that something being addictive and harmful is a reasonable quality to ban something for. This was in response to the user who said "there are plenty of reasons to ban tiktok, but this ain't it" (from memory, but close enough).

This doesn't mean that I think all things which are addictive and harmful should be banned. A total ban on alcohol would probably not be effective, and would lead to more harm than good, so I wouldn't support it.