This is a great example of how focusing on specific details can blind people to a particular context and feeds conspiracy theories.
> sugar-sweetened beverages, which comprise 9.3 percent of all SNAP expenditures
That’s also the typical percentage of food spending on sugar-sweetened beverages. Money is fungible, you can specifically exclude soda from SNAP but poor people are still gonna buy junk food.
The wider context is someone is trying to justify cutting SNAP funding and making their argument as appealing as possible. Which means you need to be especially critical when evaluating their claims because the degree to which an argument resonates with you is independent of its accuracy.
PS: “far more influence over policy than the general public” yes that’s what it means to have power. It however doesn’t directly make what they are doing good or bad even if it feels that way. You still need to justify specific details.
> sugar-sweetened beverages, which comprise 9.3 percent of all SNAP expenditures
That’s also the typical percentage of food spending on sugar-sweetened beverages. Money is fungible, you can specifically exclude soda from SNAP but poor people are still gonna buy junk food.
The wider context is someone is trying to justify cutting SNAP funding and making their argument as appealing as possible. Which means you need to be especially critical when evaluating their claims because the degree to which an argument resonates with you is independent of its accuracy.
PS: “far more influence over policy than the general public” yes that’s what it means to have power. It however doesn’t directly make what they are doing good or bad even if it feels that way. You still need to justify specific details.