I can assure you that you are giving the general public far too much credit unfortunately.

Remember, the #1 search on google on Election Day was “did Joe Biden drop out”

Just use stainless steel and carbon steel if you are worried about that, I honestly use my stainless pans 70% of the time, carbon steel like 20% and my cast iron is that last 10% when cast iron is actually beneficial

My girlfriends cost with insurance was $560 for a 30 day supply. Yeah…

I suppose the other option is that he isn’t being sneaky at all and is just emboldened by the current regime in the US. With everything going on this seems like the kind of thing that will get a finger wag and a promise to get to it later once some fires are put out and we deal with the arsonist burning everything down.