Description
This article is from the Smokers FAQ,
by jdawson@netcom.com (Joe Dawson) with numerous contributions by
others.
08 Goals And Tactics Of Antismokers
"If you smoke you are either a moron or a murderer or more than likely
both. And soon you will either be dead or be caged. And maybe in some
states you will be executed. Hopefully it will be televised although
furiously sucking on that last cigarette may fuzz up the video somewhat.
Hurry up and do it. Stop talking about it. There is nothing more to say
that hasn't been said. It's like kicking a dead smoker."
(From: rlm@intercom.com )
What we see above is typical extremist Antismoker rhetoric. Antismokers
are a small percentage of non-smokers. They try to make up in volume
what they lack in number (not to mention reason) to give the illusion
they have enough support to warrant a social contract banning public
smoking.
Most smokers and non-smokers are happy to make reasonable compromises
to coexist with each other. The problem is that the voice of the
extremists is loud and often the only one being heard. As a result of
endless repetition and use of emotional and fallacious arguments, people
are coming to believe their statements, a few of which are outright lies
and many of which are such distortions that they amount to little more
than lies. These extremists plan to impose unreasonable demands on
society despite the fact that most people do not support them.
For many of them the motivation is not necessarily an evil one: they
believe smoking impairs the health of active smokers, and that distorting
the truth is justified if it results in fewer people smoking. Their goal
is to ban smoking every place other than one's home, car and outdoors
(although with limitations and exceptions even in these areas!) When
science does not support their goals, they will trot out emotional
arguments based upon "saving the children" or "protecting the disabled",
even if such arguments have little basis in fact. For true Antismokers,
compromise is not part of the agenda, it is merely a temporary step on
the road to complete Prohibition.
To meet that goal Antismokers have attacked on many fronts of which
the fear campaign around secondhand smoke is only one. Increased taxes,
taxpayer funded Antismoking media spots, ever wider limitations on public
smoking, extreme restrictions on advertising and free speech,
redefinition of language, federal funding blackmail, pressure campaigns
aimed at political candidates, and even control of the content of TV,
movies, and books are all facets of an overall campaign of social and
psychological engineering that would have made George Orwell blush.
~~From: mbl@lelnet.com (Matthew B Landry)~~
The whole argument IS about control much more than it's about smoking.
All such arguments, about any number of topics, are really about control,
and the stated issues are usually secondary at best. The point is that
these people are trying to take away a privilege we have had for
centuries for no good reason....
Yes, this is about control. If the Antis ever win the battle over
smoking, they'll surely start another battle over something else. Hell,
maybe it will be something that many of us smokers don't like anyway.
The point is that the subject matter of the battle is relatively
unimportant in comparison to the importance of a victory for liberty....
It wouldn't matter to me one iota if I smoked my last cigarette tonight
and never lit up again. I'd still be against the Anti's agenda because
it is at heart an agenda of domination. THEY want to control US. I for
one say we should stop them.
~~From: betsywoo@leland.Stanford.EDU (Elizabeth Lee Woudenberg)~~
A non-smoker is an individual who does not smoke him-or herself, but
who sees no reason to cause others to stop. True non-smokers may have
feelings against smoking, but the critical element here is that they
don't try to alter anyone else's behavior.
An Antismoker is someone who is against smoking as an institution,
and who does not regard smokers as individuals... merely as the
wrongful masses. Antismokers are crusaders, who can't seem to allow
others to commit "mistakes" that are so obvious to them.
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