Which highlights that making drug use illegal is far more about “You using drugs is unpleasant Tobe near, so I’m going to send you to jail” than anything else.

Making drug sales illegal unless through mandated sources make a lot of sense because of the harm it can bring.

The same thing that is happening now. EU mandated micro USB on all phones and Apple pleaded exceptionalism. Industry has moved on to USB C and EU is updating mandate. Apple is not being allowed to plead exceptionalism again.

How is Tesla worth 5x SpaceX. That’s just insane to me.

…being treated like animals by their government, rather than the humans they are.

…and so what do you have instead?

There is no point in engaging with someone playing such games. They’re not going to be convinced when they’re already putting words in the opposition’s mouth.

Yes, even those ones. I’ve met a few and the stories they tell send shivers down my spine. They think they’re telling me good thing about their country, and I listen respectfully. However, it sounds like being caged in a zoo. The keepers provide your essentials, but you have no freedom.

Kid: “Mommy, what’s a strawman?”

Mother: “Take a look a this post here. See how they speak for both sides of the argument?”

Kid: “Yes, they’re arguing with themselves.”

Mother: “Exactly, and they can make their opponent say what they want.”

Kid: “That seems like an easy way to make your argument look good”

Mother: "Yes. It’s like fighting someone who can’t put up any resistance. They could be made of straw. A strawman. "

Kid: “Oh, I see.”

Do you know how China got such a huge poverty by the 1980s? Do you know how China got the wealth to start impacting it’s poverty?

Hint: the CCP took power in 1949. The Maoist era ended 30 years later, and massive economic liberalisation reforms started.

China today is a world trade powerhouse governed by an elite class (The CCP) with the proles given just enough to keep them where they are. It’s lifted them out of poverty, but it is the shining example of a totalitarian capitist state. If anybody thinks the proletariat have power in China, and it is therefore a socialist state…or that it’s classless with no elite and a communist state… well… You need to talk to some Chinese people.

All of this sounds at odds with representative democracy. What political system would you see working with socialism as you describe it?