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> Case in point - Smoking cigs are bad for your health and 80% of the people agree... So lets ban cigarettes!

Yes, please.

> While we are on this topic, everyone agrees that endlessly scrolling instagram is also bad, so let's put a time limit on social media - Everyone gets an hour a day!

Wrong conclusion. (What, you wanna cut my HN procrastination by three quarters?!?) Correct conclusion: Just ban all that endlessly scrolling shit.

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yeah, but you are creating a populace that is dependent on their government for motivation, morals and concept of time spent. Not a good long term strat, and is historically what you see in the death throws of an empire.

> creating a populace that is dependent on their government for motivation, morals and concept of time spent.

Huh? How does that follow? I don't think so. Seems at least as likely that "the government" is just collecting and codifying some of the populace's pre-existing norms.

TL;DR: [Citation needed]

> historically what you see in the death throws of an empire.

Throes.

Fuck knows if that's etymologically just a weird old spelling of 'throws' that has survived only in this particular usage or WTF it's all about, but nevertheless that's how it's usually spelled.

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