Posted on 07/24/2023 8:01:34 PM PDT by DoodleBob
Today I became nostalgic for a smell. You wake up on top of the covers in your underwear, and through the gloaming of your bedroom, through the smug pint of water, through the angst and exhaustion and joy and regret that comes from five hours in a nightclub and two hours on the wrong bus home, there is some bitter relief in the smell of smoke on your hair. That smell! Like barbecued teenagers and pepper and beer, almost lovely, pleasantly vile, a kind of lovebite memory, bruised on the throat in passion. That smell. It all seems quite mad now, the idea that people smoked, not just inside, but underground, in windowless rooms. Though I suppose so much seems mad to me about young fun still: come out, drink until you’re sick, it’ll be a laugh! …
When I read the news that smoking was coming back, I thought: that smell. Then I thought: of course. The wellness era is truly at its end, celery water pooling under the door, hot yoga cooled down to a single tepid pilate. In a recent exchange with another artist, David Hockney wrote, “I too am BORED with WELLNESS. The concept seems ridiculous and too bossy for me, I’m still smoking, and ENJOYING it ENORMOUSLY.” His cigarette set off a fire alarm at the launch of his latest exhibition…
…
But the problem with our major shift away from smoking was, while they could persuasively prove that it killed people, they were unable to convince anyone that cigarettes were not cool. This fact, I’m afraid, has come back to bite us.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
“The stench of stale cigarette smoke on my clothing and hair was hardly what I would ever have called nostalgic.”
Back in the day when me and my buddy went out chasing tail at the local bars and night clubs smoking was everywhere. Didn’t matter how cold it was or how far we had to walk we would leave our coats in the car so they didn’t get polluted with smoke. Anytime I wore a sweater out I would hang it outside when I got home in the hopes of airing it out. Stale smoke is a hellish smell IMO.
Yep. That was always my position too. Let the market decide. Some restaurants/bars would have no smoking at all. The anti smoking fanatics could go there if they wished. The people who didn’t want to work in an environment with smoke could work there. Others would cater to smokers and the people who didn’t mind would go there.
Freedom of choice. Nobody is forcing anybody to go to a place where there is smoking if they don’t want to.
But of course, the Left is not at all about choice except in one area only. Which is why I continually taunt them with “You ARE pro choice aren’t you?” when it comes to this, the “vax”, school vouchers, and lots of other things.
i don’t smoke but whenever i see someone light up outside i think “good for you”
It’s not a crime (yet)
I tried all the crap they could come up with to stop smoking. None of that crap worked and it was a waste of money. I too finally just quit smoking about seven years ago and have not smoked one cigarette since quitting. Those “ecigs” caused me to quit. I used them for a while and just got sick of sucking in that juice. I finally said, “That’s it. I’m done.” My wife quit cigarettes also but “vapes”. At least that’s better than smoking. I credit those ecigs with getting me off cigarettes. Over seven years smoke free.
that figures
i just quit
They’ve spent years trying to demonize and ultimately ban cigarettes while at the same time trying to legalize marijuana. Go figure
Good God, why?
Because I cherish liberty and freedom. And it signals that a class of Karens and Brandons may be on the descent.
You can draw a very bright line from the successful weaponization of anti-tobacco sentiment, and the destruction of rights, specifically those of commercial property owners such as the owners of cafes, restaurants, bars, stores, environmentalism, and the knock-on effects on civil liberties during COVID-1984.
In 1995, California was the first state to enact a statewide smoking ban for restaurants. I worked in NYC when the idea to ban smoking in bars and clubs gained steam, and ultimately passed in 2002. It sparked a citywide debate, with the pro-ban people gaining the upper hand. I mean, how can you defeat leftist-based emotional argument of "I won't die of secondhand smoke and my clothes won't smell"?
And there was much rejoicing. Except...what really happened was a sort-of violation of the Takings clause. What all the anti-smokers et al achieved was the sanctioning of the state to tell commercial property owners what can and can't happen on their property, without compensation.
NY has moved beyond bars, clubs, offices, and public places to outdoors. Other municipalities have enacted similar takings, erm, bans. Nobody fights for commercial property rights anymore. Marx and Engels are laughing in hell.
Second-hand smoke is what economists call an externality - an indirect cost or benefit to an uninvolved third party that arises as an effect of another party's (or parties') activity. Guess what else is an externality? Air pollution, specifically exhaust from motor vehicles. The same folks who complain about the smell of smoke are likely driving cars with an internal combustion engine. This may be only one example of an externality, but the whole environmental movement rests on "the need for government to regulate industry to make the air clean." You can draw a straight line from the “ban smoking indoors” movement to Greta Thunberg.
The whole concept of negative externalities, which worked so swimmingly in the anti-smoking crusade, got weaponized in Covid. When the shots that were granted EUAs rolled out, many people refused to take them. We then saw the pro-shot talking heads brandish anti-smoking arguments - remember "The bottom line: We’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers." Regarding masks, we got Mandatory masking? What smoking bans can teach us
Despite well-documented health consequences of indoor smoking, efforts to ban the behavior were met with intense political resistance and an all-too-familiar civil liberties debate, just as we see today. But science, combined with social and political initiatives that were responsive to public concerns, eventually spurred a large-scale shift in public opinion around smoking bans. From this experience, three lessons can inform how to improve adherence to universal masking -- a life-saving public health measure: 1. Frame masking as a workers' rights issue, 2. Mandates are necessary because they work, and 3. Don't lose sight of the last mile.
Again, I don’t smoke, and I also don’t like smelling like a chimney (or nowadays, like a pot dispensary) after a night at a club or restaurant. But liberty isn’t always clean and antiseptic; second-hand smoke is a cost of freedom.
The anti-smoking campaign that gave the government an inroad into whittling away rights under the guise of public health has continue unabated.
If smoking is making a comeback, that means love of liberty may also be on the ascent. Smoke up, Johnny.
There’s always chewing tobacco.
The same people who have a mad-on for tobacco are legalizing weed.
Go figure.
Of the 58yrs I’ve been smoking, 33 have been in the condo I’m in now. In 2017, I had the place rehabbed and got all new furniture and floors/oriental rugs: $55,000. I don’t smoke inside anymore. I had an irregular flagstone patio built out back, and also smoke in the garage. Vaping scares me; I tried it 2x and got way too much smoke. Blew out my throat and lungs for a few hours.
Also:
Is the tobacco for those cigs, grown on the reservation?
There are some cheaper brands now
+1
Were that true it would have improved the flavor of scotch. Scotch is whiskey for people with bad taste enough and enough money that they have to flaunt their bad taste by intentionally buying it.
“The demonization of smoking and banning of smoking in bars and restaurants, ostensibly in the name of public health, was an effective government taking without compensation.”
Brought to us by the same unholy politician/media alliance that’s pushing global warming, gun control, transgenderism, statue removal, EV’s and all the other woke crap we loathe. It’s all about total control of people from the top down...nothing more.
“The other scenario is to eat healthy, exercise and think pure thoughts.”
And then croak like everyone else.
The time for people to get hooked on tobacco for a lifetime of addiction is over, there may be fads and enclaves but its day has passed.
The government will never again have the opportunity of decades of issuing taxpayer-paid free daily cigarettes to 30 million or so of its captive employees for decades.
Getting people on pot is very important to the left and it will be very effective for them.
Yup, that's when it all started. That, and seat belts.. And now Uncle thinks anything and every thing belongs to him.......or her......whatever... :(
Under the guise of? It IS a health issue. The health risks of smoking are not made up.
And non-smokers do not want their right to breathe clean air taken from them by inconsiderate smokers.
I find it interesting that libertarians and many smokers demand their right to do whatever they want regardless of the effects it has on others, and then tell off others that if they don't like it they can move, and restrict their rights to accommodate the smokers/libertarians.
It all depends on whose rights are they feel are being violated. If it's theirs, the world is ending. If they are violating others, tough beans for the others. Most libertarians/smokers are all for freedom to do what they want but not for others to do the same.
Libertarians are as a whole seriously lacking in common courtesy at a very basic level.
FWIW, I don't want others peeing in the pool water either.
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