[cfiggers]

We're literally talking about the capacity of vibes-based regulations to turn out doing more harm than good.

"We need to reduce single use plastics" + "Banning plastic drinking straws reduces single use plastics" => "We need to ban plastic drinking straws" is a logic trap, and we've got to stop falling for it and ones that pattern match to it.

Does it feel good? Does it have good optics? Will it get someone somewhere reelected? These are not scientific questions.

Is this an effective thing to mandate? What does it actually do (as opposed to what it seems like it will do)? Is it literally even better than doing nothing instead? These are scientific questions.

I believe policy decisions should be governed by the latter far more than by the former.