So I'm quitting nicotine for the 11th time, and got to thinking damn this stuff is awesome. If it weren't for the cost and health effects I'd still be smokin'. So why does everyone have to be hating?
Health Nazis
The first national anti smoking crusade was from everyone's favorite overused hyperbole of evil Uncle Adolph (Link). I can't separate modern activists from their prestigious pedigree as their goals and ideology are extremely similar. The idea is simple, it's not only in your interest to quit smoking it's in the nations interest. The state or your local do-gooder is better able to make decisions about your consumption and ultimately your body is the property of the state.
The Nazi State not only discouraged smoking but also enacted the broadest anti-smoking legislation on the planet including banning smoking in workplaces, banning the military from smoking in uniform, and banning smoking of everyone under 18 in public. Like what the Autoban did for personal transport this legislation would become blueprint to the world flowering with the idea of community health.
Not to be left out, other dictators including Mussolini and Franco jumped on the band wagon. And like most things any Italian government has attempted; the program backfired terribly. Leaving Italy slightly ahead of European averages.
Butt Out Science
Cigarettes smoking cause the smoker cancer. Second hand smoke causes cancer. The first is undeniable true the second has never been proven. What? How can the American Lung Association claim it does? Both the EPA and the UN fudged statistics within their own studies to arrive at conclusions that where desirable for the issing agency. (Link) (Link) This persecution is clearly of trying to shore up belief by any means necessary to promote an agency agenda; It's not enough that smoking kills smokers, but it must kill everyone around them as well in order to justify funding a public health effort.
The sad thing is, no one but smokers really care. Other environmental pollutants like perfume, Corn Nuts, and children go unregulated and largely unstudied but as smokers are an undesirable minority and must be held to the closest scrutiny.
The Smell of Ass
People stink. Places where people congregate for lengths of time smell worse. Clubs and Pubs in the UK found that out the hard way when a law was passed outlawing cigarettes. Overnight the awful smells of cigarette smoke dissipated and patrons where bombarded with the smell of people and pub i.e. ass, beer, and puke. (Link) Some pubs even purchased fake cigarette smell to spray to try and hide the stench and bring back the old happy feeling of quite desperation. (Link)
I can't say I enjoy the smell of cigarettes nor do I enjoy the smell of people, but something strikes me that smoking bans in drinking establishments are targeted against the working class. The busybodies who enact such legislation probably have never broken a sweat, much less sat down with a bunch of sweaty men looking to tie one off after a day's work of heavy manual labor. In order to equalize things, I purpose banning do-gooders from coffee shops and spraying liquefied smug around to keep the
'atmosphere'.
The Man
The Man hates smoking (see Health Nazis) but loves taxes on tobacco. When talking about tobacco anti-smoking crusaders love to call tobacco merchants 'Merchants of Death,' what would the call the single largest recipient of Death Money? The Man receives more revenue than any single tobacco company, more than the tobacco wings of R.J. Reynolds or Philip Morris. Does this make The Man the King of Death? For this reason alone, I am convinced the man won't kill tobacco outright, or at least until he has taxed most sales into the black market.
Though still legal, The Man in his wisdom, has sought fit to fuel a black market through insane levels of taxation. Creating smuggling, adding another level to the underground economy, and making tobacco trucks a more common target than armored trucks in places like New York. (Link) Spurring criminal enterprise and raking in the dough, the Man should be ashamed. But no, he gets more brazen every year.
My Say
It is my opinion that smokers are marginally above pedophiles in the rungs of modern social acceptance among non-smokers. It's for this reason the majority has time and time again put us down. In a shocking turn around the general public has grown health conscious has quit smoking in droves, only to compensate by stuffing themselves to levels of obesity unheard of in human history.
When Obama was outed as a smoker, there was a cacophony of screams of health Nazism until the Obama campaign issued a statement that he was trying to quit. The guy is going to be president, let him enjoy his smokes. Not only that, he should be allowed to enjoy his smokes in public without wailing and gnashing of teeth.
After there are far worse things in this world than tobacco, shouldn't you anti-smoking types be working on getting them fixed first? (49,053)
It is my opinion that smokers are marginally above pedophiles in the rungs of modern social acceptance among non-smokers. It's for this reason the majority has time and time again put us down. In a shocking turn around the general public has grown health conscious has quit smoking in droves, only to compensate by stuffing themselves to levels of obesity unheard of in human history.
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