> Step two is to restrict what you can spend your money on
Where do people get these ideas? How do they sincerely hold them?
No non-religious government wants to restrict what you can spend your money on. They want to get a cut of your money, but otherwise it's strictly better for them if you spend as much of it as possible.
If they don't want you to have things, they just attack those things directly, like hard drugs or weapons. No need to restrict your ability to purchase.
Let's ignore the fact that that was done by private companies and not directly by a government.
The mechanism is to make it so undesirable objects are not available for sale. The above comment is implying these things would remain legitimately for sale as normal, but you would be unable to spend money on them.
Where do people get these ideas? How do they sincerely hold them?
No non-religious government wants to restrict what you can spend your money on. They want to get a cut of your money, but otherwise it's strictly better for them if you spend as much of it as possible.
If they don't want you to have things, they just attack those things directly, like hard drugs or weapons. No need to restrict your ability to purchase.