I’m not sure if this is new, but when I clicked on the /r/pics protest post link from the frontpage here, I was redirected to this: https://old.reddit.com/premium
I’m not sure if this is well-known or not that they’re pushing it now, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it, especially on old.reddit.
I doubt you discuss your political opinions in the supermarket.
Paying for social media would allow companies and governments to associate every opinion on the internet with a credit card.
And even if you did discuss those opinions, the only person who would see that discussion are security guards monitoring the camera.