Generations

I've just read this opinion piece over at The Student Journals web site titled "Plain packaging on cigarettes won't help."  Written by Michael Allen, who is studying politics and international studies at Warwick, the article attempts to make the case against plain packs by asking whether we should allow a paternalistic government to intrude on our lifestyle choices and by drawing comparisons to fast food and alcohol ads.

While I am delighted that Mr Allen believes plain packaging "won't help" reduce smoking rates, and I am very pleased to see honest, factual statements such as "No one starts smoking because they like the look of a cigarette packet," some of the opinion piece irks me for regurgitating some of the Public Health religion's propaganda as though these were facts. They are not facts, although I understand the point Allen is making with the comparisons. I have no desire to make an issue out of the inaccuracies nor blame Allen for possibly believing in some of it. Nevertheless, I decided to blog about this when I read these lines near the end of the opinion:

Young people are becoming more and more savvy when it comes to advertising. They can see through the obvious marketing ploys that were effective on the generation before them. 

I know what he means to say: Kids aren't stupid, and we don't need to patronise them and assume they're easily swayed by marketing practices. We don't need to overprotect them. I just don't think he said it right.

Here's why: Young people of all generations have been able to see through obvious marketing ploys. My generation (which is Generation X) was equally savvy in our youth -- we were not fooled nor tricked by advertising and marketing techniques any more or less than Allen's generation is now. Perhaps some kids were deceived, just like some young kids today may be. My parents were Baby Boomers and they were no more susceptible than I or you.  Any assumption that a particular generation is somehow better able to see through advertising techniques is incorrect and misguided. 

Thank you, Bill. Well said. :)

Many teenagers and some young adults believe that older adults do not understand what it is like to be young. I may have believed this too, I suppose. It is the one of the great follies of youth to believe that you are somehow different than those who came before you and that nobody outside of your generation can possibly understand what it's like for you. Yet adults do understand exactly what it's like. They may not know (or care to know) what the latest popular teeny trends are, or who the coolest teeny bands are these days, but adults know what it's like to be a kid because they were once kids. I know, unbelievable.

When we were young, a lot of us thought we knew everything about everything. Our heads were filled with ideals about saving the world, fixing this national crisis or that international crisis, or becoming rich and famous actors or musicians. We went to schools, colleges or universities and we believed what our educators told us about the state of the world, only to find out later through hard-earned life experience that some of those educators deceived us. Truth be told, we didn't know squat about how the world really works, of course. We probably still don't know much more if we were being honest with ourselves. 

I suppose our only advantage is that the older we get, the more perspective we gain and the better able we are to make informed decisions. Well, some of us perhaps, and obviously not enough of us do. And yes there are some adults who think that kids today are somehow totally different than how we were like. They aren't. Not really. Kids will be kids. It is the great folly of adulthood to believe that each new generation is somehow less prepared for life.

Times change, attitudes change, marketing techniques change to suit current interests and demographic profiles, and technology certainly changes.  But the growing up part hasn't changed at all. We all went through it, and with luck some of us possibly learned a little along the way. 

We always knew that companies were trying to sell us their crappy products with their bullshit advertising. In reality, we ignored the ads (but we liked the funny ones because they made us laugh), for many of the kids of my day just wanted the same stuff that other kids had, particularly the popular kids. We rebelled and often disregarded the advice adults gave us, just like previous generations had done. We knew that smoking had risks. We knew that drinking had risks. We knew that drugs had risks. We certainly knew that fast food and fizzy drinks were not the healthiest food choices we could make. We did not care.

David Bowie explained it well enough in his song Changes way back in 1971, the year I was born:

And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're going through

Today's kids, they are products of the environment that adults create for them, for better or worse, and these kids are just as smart or dumb as we ever were.  I think it's a mistake to believe otherwise.

Non-Smokers Die Every Day

The tobacco control dickheads would like you to think that you're going to live forever.  You will hear them cry about premature deaths, preventable deaths, smoking-related deaths, and more deaths attributed to tobacco use so often that you would think that only smokers are capable of dying.  It's not true.  I know that.  You know that. Hell, even ASH knows it, but they'll still try to convince you otherwise. 

Let's consider the case of the late David Taylor MP, former chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health.  If you missed the word "late" in the previous sentence, let me tell you now that David Taylor is dead.  He died in 2009 of a heart attack at only age 63, which is a far cry from living forever, but to be fair 63 isn't all that young either, in the sense that it's not really an "early death."  It's almost the average life-expectancy figure for men in the entire world, which is 65.  I can't find any evidence that Taylor was a former smoker, an ex-smoker, or a reformed smoker.  By all the accounts I've read, he led an active life, even exercised and stuff.  Maybe it was anti-smoking stuff that killed him...?  Is it possible?  I don't know.

So Taylor died suddenly while out for a walk.  He had a heart attack.  Tragic.  He was only 63!  How could this happen?  Better yet, how could the BHF let this happen? 

It happened because shit happens to non-smokers like shit happens to smokers.  Bill Hicks once said, "Non-smokers die every day."   Non-smokers die every day of the same diseases that smokers get. More non-smokers die each day than smokers. 

Naturally, people are always looking to blame someone or something for unexpected and expected deaths.  You've heard the mantra of the anti-smokers: "You're killing me with your smoking."   You could be trapped inside a burning building, with no chance to escape at all and only a few minutes before the flames and smoke will overcome you, and if you then decided to light up one last fag as your parting salute to this fucked-up planet, you can bet that the anti-smoker trapped with you is going to complain about it.  "You're killing me!"

And now, after years and years of anti-smoker hysteria provided by the likes of ASH and Simon Chapman, people actually believe that if they don't live to be 100, it's because at some point in their life, they were around a smoker.  Never mind ovens, grills, cars, factories, your work environment, your genetic predisposition to certain diseases, household cleaners, insect bites (yes, they can lead to immune deficiencies, which will open the door to a host of "preventable" diseases), STIs... I mean, the list goes on and on.  But no, it's smokers that are causing millions of deaths of non-smokers.

It's not true, no matter what you've been told or read. 

So, what's really happening here?  It's social-engineering and brainwashing by activist hate groups.  If you say something often enough, if you hear something often enough, it becomes true for you.  Because, hey, you're smart and intelligent. You read the papers, watch the news.  You don't need actual scientific proof to know when something is true.  You just know it, because someone told it to you.  Someone you trust to be reliable. Like the media!   Yeah, OK.  I know...

Pay attention:  They are playing on your natural fear of death to convince you to live a lifestyle that won't guarantee you any more time on this planet.  They are playing you, just like the global warming alarmists, and just like all of the politicians who enact stupid laws that restrict our liberties under the guises of protecting children or protecting us from terrorists.  And just an aside here, who is going to protect me from your children?  That's what I thought.

Did you know that the Dreadful used be a smoker?  She smoked Silk Cut.  She quit in 2003.  I don't know why.  But I can guess as to why she's an evil cow:  Self-loathing.  She probably hates herself more than she hates other smokers.  I wouldn't be surprised if she still sneaks a crafty one now and then.  And then she hates herself even more, and the cycle repeats and to atone for her sins of self-loathing, she attacks the tobacco industry, smokers, and anyone who would dare to speak out against her.  She should hate herself, not because she's a reformed smoker, but because she's a cunt.

I guess since we're talking about her and we're on the business of plain packs, we may as well extract this quote from that Guardian article I found when researching this post; an article where Dreadful explains why young kids start smoking.  Ready?  OK, here it is (emphasis mine):

"That's because [smoking is] still something that's attractive to young people, because it's still cool. If you talk to 8-, 9- or 10- year-olds, they'll be very anti-smoking. Puberty is when it happens: you're independent, you want to be cool, and you're not sure what do with your hands when you're talking to people of the opposite sex."

That's her words, in February 2010.  Nothing to do with pack designs there, it's all about what do with your hands. I'm pretty sure that pack designs didn't magically change into marketing monstrosities since then.  Let's repeat what she said:  "You're independent, you want to be cool.  You're independent and you want to be cool.  You're independent and you want to be cool.  You're--"

Wow. I feel independent and cool.  Time for a smoke, I guess.