"Tell me again how I'm not in control of myself," she/he stated.
"Well, you are a smoker," I replied.
"Yeah, that's right. I'm addicted."
"So....you aren't in control of yourself. The nicotine is."
"I could quit but I choose not to because I'm addicted."
"But doesn't that mean that you are not in control of yourself?"
"No."
"But what about Jeffery Wigand," I asked, "the guy who came forward and said that Brown and Williamson (now merged with RJ Reynolds) manipulated the nicotine and the ingredients in tobacco to make the cigarette more addictive? Isn't that a great example (like the PG&E one I had given earlier) of a private corporation purposefully doing harm to people in order to control them into spending more money? Making more profit?
"But it's my choice. I can quit if I decide," she/he replied.
"But I thought you said you were addicted."
And so it went from there without any resolution.
It may have been his/her choice to continue to smoke but becoming more addicted was the choice of Brown and Willamson. They controlled millions of smokers by manipulating the contents of cigarettes. Having control was made more and more difficult due to the desire for more profit.
Wigand, incidentally, works with governments around the world to regulate tobacco on stricter control policies. I'd guess he's not getting much done here these days with the general sentiment in our country. Know which sentiment I am talking about?
It's the same one that thinks we tell the government to get out of the way and watch the free market take off. A tobacco company's dream!
8 comments:
It's the same one that thinks we tell the government to get out of the way and watch the free market take off. A tobacco company's dream!
I don't smoke, but I sure as hell like smokers better than I do control-freak non-smoking preachers.
So, I can let smokers live (and let die). I don't have to hang out with them. I don't have to hang out with preachy Christians either. But I realize that they are free to make those choices for themselves.
If the govt is so fucking smart all the time, why should it allow anyone to choose a church other than your own? Isn't it the best church there is? The right way to worship God? If it is so right for you, why isn't it right for everyone?
But since you insist on bringing up corporate control over you, let's go right back to where we left off - McDonalds and your inability to restrain yourself from consuming one of their burgers any time you see one of their ads. I don't imagine I will ever get tired of ridiculing that. Even more, I will never tire of pointing out how narcissistic it is for you to assume that everyone else in the world is as weak-minded as you. Go pray on that.
Admitting to an addiction but to be in denial of its control? Does this person even know what the word means? (The word "enslaved" is used to define it.) I'm a smoker and have played that sad game of denial, too. It's become horribly expensive now, and that may well be my tipping point. But states sure love the revenue from each additional tax they apply to tobacco products.
But states sure love the revenue from each additional tax they apply to tobacco products.
Yes they do. So much so in fact that it isn't good for them if you actually quit.
According to this line of argument, it is flatly not possible for me to quit smoking without outside assistance. It cannot be possible for me to quit on my own, because I have no control over my own actions.
I don't smoke, but I sure as hell like smokers better than I do control-freak non-smoking preachers.
As opposed to the non-control-freak anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage, abstinence-only preachers?
Politicians on the right are constantly telling us what to do and not do (even in our bedrooms), and how everything we're doing is destroying the moral fiber of this country.
There are a lot of people who do things out of spite: people who smoke to spite the control freaks, people who drive gas-guzzling SUVs to spite environmentalists, Palinistas who gladly have their fat kids chow down at McD's to spite Michelle Obama.
Often as not these activities profit immensely wealthy corporations who do everything to emphasize your right to exercise the freedom of self destruction.
When people do things to spite others, they're not really in control of their own actions: they're under the thumbs of those they're trying to defy and those who profit from their defiance.
It all just smacks of petty teenage rebellion. And that always works out so well...
As opposed to the non-control-freak anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage, abstinence-only preachers?
Ironic that you should bring them up, as they are rooted in the same "I know what is best for you" ground as you lefties. You have that in common with them, but not me.
Politicians on the right are constantly telling us what to do and not do (even in our bedrooms), and how everything we're doing is destroying the moral fiber of this country.
Politicians on the left are constantly telling us what to and not do (in private or public), and how everything we're doing (eating, smoking, driving) is destroying the social fabric of this country.
Perhaps blk, you can try something a little less trite?
Teenage rebellion? Are you saying that 18 & 19 y.o. shouldn't have the right to vote - that the youth vote is too volatile and immature? Or are you claiming that anyone who doesn't agree with you is childish?
Or were you just unable to control yourself from writing that in response to us?
Still waiting for you to tell us all about how a rich person fucked you over (best if for profit, but maybe you have an example where it was just done for fun). Any time now.
> When people do things to spite others, they're not really in control of their own actions:
So let me see if I have this right.
People are weak minded because they do what they're told to do.
People are weak minded because they do the opposite of what they're told to do.
Is that right?
In fairness, I will admit that that plonky, clonky little jingle the ice cream trucks have all played since I was a kid automatically makes me think of ice cream. So far, you are correct about me "being under the control of marketing experts, rather than under my own control".
But that's where it ends. You see, over the course of a long life, that plonky little tune has prompted me to:
1. Buy ice cream from the truck.
2. Buy ice cream from the store, so I could ignore the truck.
3. Associate ice cream with hot summers and thereby with lemonade.
4. Buy lemonade from the store, because it's both cheaper and better for you than ice cream.
5. Plant a lemon tree, because fresh lemonade is better than bought.
Notice that 80% of my responses over the years have netted the ice cream company zero, zip, nada, swabo.
If the company is paying their marketing experts to control my behavior, they aren't getting their money's worth.
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