Introduction
Each month this blog will choose one person or an organisation to be our Super Twat of the Month. Our STOTM will normally be a public figure who is an anti-smoker activist and/or someone who is trashing (or attempting to trash) our civil liberties in support of a Nanny or Surveillance State. If this blog had to have only one motto, it would be "Educate, Don't Legislate." STOTMs want to legislate your lifestyles away. The people we choose to be STOTMs often claim to be in support of civil liberties, but in reality they only want liberties to be applied to the causes or groups of people they identify with. Here we call them out for their hypocrisy. We are not so naive that we believe this blog will have any impact on their decisions, but we can hope.Super Twat of the Month - April 2012
April's STOTM is Stephen Williams MP, representing Bristol West in Parliament.
The Good
- Parliamentary Reform - check!
- Pro-Immigration - check!
- Anti-violence (against women, particularly, but I'm anti-violence against anyone... unless they are attacking me of course) - check!
- Same-sex Marriage - check! Because honestly, who you love and want to marry is your business and no one else's.
- The Right to Protest - check!
- Against Capital Punishment - check!
- Libel Reform - check!
- Abolition of Council Tax - check!
- Against ID cards - check!
And there are a few others, but the point is that I can find some common ground with this man. I don't agree with all of his views, and I doubt anyone does. But I can imagine a spirited, friendly, robust debate on our disagreements over the course of an evening with a few glasses of wine or beer, and maybe a nice brandy for a nightcap. If it were to happen at my home, he would be quite safe from our smoking habits, since we do not smoke in most of the house -- we have a designated smoking conservatory. (Back in the Georgian and Victorian eras, people had "smoking rooms" sometimes called drawing rooms, or what have you.) It's our "sin bin" if you will.
The Bad
- Anti-Smoker and Anti-Tobacco, supports Plain Packaging
- Wants Government to Protect Your Children
- Believes in Anthropogenic Global Warming / Climate Change
- Wants Government to Interfere in Private Business and Schools
Of course there is more, but I'm worried I'm going to lose your attention, so I'll just keep the bad to the list above. So if we did have Williams over for dinner, I would like to challenge him on the above. I don't know if I would win or even persuade him to change his views. I think it unlikely. If I could do one thing, however, it would be to help him see a different perspective.
Hypocrisy
I didn't know that Stephen Williams is gay until a couple of days ago when I read it on Wikipedia. His sexuality is his business, and like racism I don't truck with homophobic viewpoints -- neither will be tolerated on this blog. Bigotry is hate, plain and simple, regardless of whether it is against race, gender, sexuality, and nationality. It's good to know that the Williams is championing equality for the GLBT crowd. Even in central London, that bastion of acceptance and tolerance (ahem), I have witnessed some truly vile people attacking my gay, lesbian and transgendered friends simply for being gay. I agree with Williams in that we need to better educate people that hating gay people is uncivilised and moronic. So, Williams is gay. Big deal.And yet, here's the thing, Stephen. Gay people have been an oppressed group of people for a really long time. I'm quite certain you've experienced it. It's awful. It should never happen, but people are stupid and ignorant and they always will be. Progress is indeed being made, as even you have said, but there's a long way to go still. So why am I going to make an issue of your sexuality here and call you out as a hypocrite? Because -- and I know you're going to think it's a stretch given your views -- but smokers are the new oppressed people, we are the new gay and lesbian targets. That's right. Smokers (as well as fat people and drinkers) are being demonised by those who think their viewpoints are more important than ours. And you, sir, are one of those people. I know what you're thinking, but please bear with me, I'm still making my point.
Here, I'll put it another way for you. Whenever an oppressed people rise up and gain power of their oppressors, the formerly-oppressed exact their own oppression against those who had oppressed them. It's retaliatory, sure. Iraq - Sunnis vs Shiites, etc. An endless list of revenge I could write. This happens all the time. It doesn't make it right. So, you, Stephen, you know exactly what it feels like to be hated by people for doing nothing more than living your life the way you believe you should, for being who you are. Why then, knowing this as intimately as you do, would you do the very same thing to people who smoke?
Hate is Hate is Hate is Hate, Regardless
Do you not see it for what it is, this thing you're doing? It's hate. It's oppression. You are using your hatred of smoking, of tobacco, of smokers to oppress smokers, by making it more difficult for adults to consume a legal product. It is no different than hating people simply because they are gay.Ah, I wrote that I knew what you were thinking, so I'll address that here. You're thinking that smokers can choose whether to smoke, but gay people cannot choose to be gay. Indeed, some people are born gay. Maybe we all are, because just about every "straight guy" I know has been with another guy at some point in their life, or if they haven't then they have definitely thought about it. A quick visit to the M4M personal ads on Craigslist can confirm that. You and I know both know that people can choose their sexuality, if they want to. Sexuality can be very fluid, given the right circumstances. Everyone has a choice. It's called free will. We can all choose who our sexual partners will be.
What we cannot choose is who we will fall in love with (well, we can choose that, too, I suppose, but I consider myself a romantic, you see). Let me tell you something, I fell in love with smoking. I love watching people smoke, seeing the smoke tendrils curl in the air. It's not even about nicotine most of the time. I just love smoking. It's how I was born, I guess. I love smoking a cigarette, having the occasional expensive cigar with a brandy, and I love the smell of pipe tobacco, although I don't smoke a pipe. Nobody convinced me to start smoking, it was a decision I made. Nobody forced me to do it. I wasn't gullible. I knew the risks of smoking before I ever smoked one cigarette. The pack design didn't matter. It was the act of smoking. I have quit a few times in the past, and I missed it so much that it made me miserable and hateful. My friends, who didn't smoke, asked me to start smoking again. Can you believe that? They said, please start smoking again or we will kill you. I wasn't happy. Smoking makes me happy. Seriously, it does.
And who the fuck are you to deny anyone of being happy? Would you like it if someone kept you from being happy? You don't like smoking? Great. Good for you. Don't smoke. You don't like being around smokers? Fine, done be around them. You want to protect the children? Fine, go have some kids and protect them, but stop having the government do the job of parents. And stop bullshitting us with this "plain packs protect children" crap when you know it's complete bollocks. It's petty revenge against tobacco companies and smokers, because you hate them. Just like homophobes hate you. You wouldn't tolerate racism or homophobia, would you?
Oh, but smoking kills, you say. "It's the only product--" No it isn't. Not even by a long shot, but if you want to justify your position with that then fine, I'll come up with list of products that kill. Whatever. Lots of things will kill us. But here it is, Stephen. You ready? Hey, hey... wake up! Stephen, life kills. All of us. We are all going to die. All of us. No exceptions. All of us will die. (They're all dead, Dave. Kochanski? Yes, Dave.) It will be tragic for each and every one of us when we do depart, no matter how we die. That's the point of life. This entire planet will die in the future. The entire universe will die. Why fear it? Why pretend it won't happen? It's going to happen. It's unavoidable. No one and nothing will life forever.
What? Do you think that dying of liver disease, or viral pneumonia because your body is too old to fight it off, is somehow more acceptable than lung cancer? It's still death. The really sad thing is that we as a society in the UK refuse to let people choose the manner of their deaths when they do get ill. No one has to "die from cancer." We could let those people end their lives with a little dignity if we were truly humane beings. Dignity.
In Closing
So, you think about that. Dignity. Hypocrisy. I would propose that you consider that smokers are people; that parents are capable of protecting and teaching their own children; that any laws on tobacco are just as illiberal as ID cards, and everything else you believe in -- we will deal with AGW some other day. Because until you realise that to be a true civil libertarian means that you don't get to pick and choose who gets liberties and who doesn't, then you're a twat.You are our Super Twat of the Month. Congratulations.
