this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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My armchair psychology theory is that it is the same brain mechanism why people smoke cigarettes.
We know smoking cigarettes is bad. Cigarette smokers know smoking cigarettes is bad, but they can't stop.
Obviously addiction plays a part, but they won't switch to nicotine gum, nor zyns/snus nor even vapes
Ethiopia has one of the lowest smoking rates in the world. How? It's banned in public places, it cannot be flavoured, warning labels must be included, and there are high taxes.
How do we do the same for Twitter? We ban the app from being downloaded from the apple/play store (downloading an apk is fine). We prohibit Twitter from showing ads to users in the country. We require a warning on each page load that Twitter promotes Nazi content, and we tax Twitter just to do business in the country.
If Twitter doesn't agree to those terms, they can stop doing business in this country. They still have the option of getting revenue from blue checkmarks, so it's not like it's impossible for them to operate. They just have to follow certain restrictions on how they conduct business, just like Cigarette companies have to.
In Australia cigarettes are sold behind the counter, all packets are identical brown with plain white text with the brand. You can't smoke them in public, and they're one of the highest taxed products (a 25 pack will easily cost you $50)
And yet we still have a major smoking problem here.
Mostly because of black market fags, $20 illegal import packs, and "vape wars". It's shocking when a tabbaconist shop doesn't get fire bombed by a competing shop.
That said, the tax revenue is nice, if people wanna smoke the rest of the community may as well get something out of it.
Tax the birdie.
Australia is doing better than it was 20 years ago.