Cigarettes are indefensible. But defend them we must. Some politicians are demanding a complete ban on tobacco sales. It sounds like a good idea, until you realise it’s a bad one.
They do this because they know better than us. Remember the £350m on the side of the bus? Only the great and good knew it was lies. But because we’re just simple folk who can’t think for ourselves we were incapable of working it out for ourselves. Our brains were so impressionable and malleable that we fell for it, hook line and sinker. But they didn’t because they know best.
Yes JB. Who would have thought that a one line suggestion of the reallocation of government resources written on the side of a bus would prove to be the single most persuasive piece of advertising ever? True genius! It was like when they moaned about the Brexit Party logo, the arrow pointing right, and thus indicating the tick box on the ballot paper, because it was ‘too good.’ https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2019/05/22/what-the-evil-genius-brexit-party-logo-can-teach-change-uk-about-branding
I've never smoked and used to be quite a stern anti-smoker, but changed my opinion a few years ago when I realised that the joyless prohibitionist bastards will use the anti-tobacco playbook against alcohol and all the other things I enjoy.
Absolutely Chris. I can hardly bear being around tobacco smoke now. But it is sometimes necessary to defend the things we personally hate. They’re clearly already using the anti-smoking playbook against alcohol with Scotland’s minimum pricing laws as the entry point. I no longer drink booze, but think these moves are anti-poor and anti-human. Meat is next. And that will affect me. Five Guys 4 Life! Thanks for your comment.
I'm a lifelong vegetarian but cooked meat for my family for 25 years. I would never dream of imposing my views on anyone else. The whole point of life (from a spiritual point of view) is to have free choice in absolutely everything, other than harming someone else. Everyone should remember that the government couldn't care less about your health - why would they? Do you care about their's? So, anything dressed up as 'for your health/safety' is a red flag - it is ALWAYS about control.
The teenage me used to insist on sitting in the No Smoking carriage of the tube (those were the days) separately from my fag-ash Lil of a mother, who was content to be in what I called the moving ashtray that was the smoking compartment. Today, I would gladly join a demo and sign any petition to allow smoking back on trains, bus top decks, pubs, restaurants, hell - even aeroplanes if they made it a separate compartment, because I cannot stand the authoritarian outrageousness of forbidding people from doing something which only harms themselves (and no, I don't believe passive smoking is a thing).
They do this because they know better than us. Remember the £350m on the side of the bus? Only the great and good knew it was lies. But because we’re just simple folk who can’t think for ourselves we were incapable of working it out for ourselves. Our brains were so impressionable and malleable that we fell for it, hook line and sinker. But they didn’t because they know best.
Yes JB. Who would have thought that a one line suggestion of the reallocation of government resources written on the side of a bus would prove to be the single most persuasive piece of advertising ever? True genius! It was like when they moaned about the Brexit Party logo, the arrow pointing right, and thus indicating the tick box on the ballot paper, because it was ‘too good.’ https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2019/05/22/what-the-evil-genius-brexit-party-logo-can-teach-change-uk-about-branding
I've never smoked and used to be quite a stern anti-smoker, but changed my opinion a few years ago when I realised that the joyless prohibitionist bastards will use the anti-tobacco playbook against alcohol and all the other things I enjoy.
Absolutely Chris. I can hardly bear being around tobacco smoke now. But it is sometimes necessary to defend the things we personally hate. They’re clearly already using the anti-smoking playbook against alcohol with Scotland’s minimum pricing laws as the entry point. I no longer drink booze, but think these moves are anti-poor and anti-human. Meat is next. And that will affect me. Five Guys 4 Life! Thanks for your comment.
I'm a lifelong vegetarian but cooked meat for my family for 25 years. I would never dream of imposing my views on anyone else. The whole point of life (from a spiritual point of view) is to have free choice in absolutely everything, other than harming someone else. Everyone should remember that the government couldn't care less about your health - why would they? Do you care about their's? So, anything dressed up as 'for your health/safety' is a red flag - it is ALWAYS about control.
(Just found this article 10 months late)
The teenage me used to insist on sitting in the No Smoking carriage of the tube (those were the days) separately from my fag-ash Lil of a mother, who was content to be in what I called the moving ashtray that was the smoking compartment. Today, I would gladly join a demo and sign any petition to allow smoking back on trains, bus top decks, pubs, restaurants, hell - even aeroplanes if they made it a separate compartment, because I cannot stand the authoritarian outrageousness of forbidding people from doing something which only harms themselves (and no, I don't believe passive smoking is a thing).