Alternatively: we could assume that people are capable of making their own financial decisions and don't need anyone to police what they do with their own money. Treating people like children for taking risks and assuming they are too incompetent to judge the consequences is condescending as hell.

The simple truth is Game Stop was a good trade, and I think comparing stocks to lottery tickets is very inaccurate. Stocks give you all kinds of numbers and information about the company which is just a little more transparent than staring into a random number generator. They have been called risky. But there are far more volatile positions to be holding.