Quote:
Originally Posted by Fastolfe
Patrickt, I hear ya. I too hate political correctness creeping into everyday life, be it about smoking, curse words or anything else. As a libertarian, this self-inflicted societal thought police bothers me no end. You can't speak about many things these days without getting stern criticism from do-gooders at best, or running afoul of the law at worse.
On the other hand, smoking is the kind of personal liberty that often infringes on other people's freedom to breathe fresh air. So there is good cause to ban smoking in public places. Trouble is, as you undoubtedly know, banning tobacco wouldn't have worked anymore than banning alcohol worked in the 30s.
That's why the thought police was invented: there has been for at least 30 years a concerted effort by policymakers to make tobacco uncool instead of trying to legislate it out of existence, so that the next generation (that's today's kids, teens and young folks) not only doesn't pick up smoking, but also annoy the living hell out of smokers. It was a long time coming, but it paid off: now laws aren't necessary anymore, people police themselves, to the point of readers and writers wondering on an internet forum whether depictions of smoking people should be banned or curtailed! George Orwell's corpse must be going over 10,000 RPM by now...
The thought police trick has been successful beyond belief; smoking is going the way of the dodos. But it's at a price: the price of blandness, conformity and general pussification of free-speech. Also, many people with an agenda have taken notice of how successful the tobacco smear campaign has been in the long run, and are applying the same tactic in other areas, further encroaching on our liberties and further turning people into sheeple, and that is even more worrying.
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Some of us young things don't like smoking just because it smells awful and we can't breath properly around it. Plus it's not especially good for anyone. My grandfather who owned the pipes included - he got emphysema from it. My mother probably has it to some degree as well. But as long as I don't have to hang around it? I honestly don't care what people do to themselves.
But I really laughed at the image of George Orwell
Though I wonder if he wouldn't be more concerned about CCTV and the like... Or satellite tracking.