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Comment by coleifer | Hacker News Reader

What a conceited, naive thing to say. Try developing some compassion by talking to people whose experience directly contradicts this viewpoint.

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I saw an entire country (Norway) quit smoking in a couple of years, family members, friends, and myself. It became culturally unacceptable. Today only people at the bottom of society smoke. Troubled teenagers started using something called "snus" instead because they think it's cool.

An entire country? 11% of adults in Norway still smoke daily, while 12% used snus daily in 2017[0]. In 2015, 22% of adults in Norway smoked, while 14% used smokeless tobacco e.g. snus[1].

Are you classifying ~525,000 people as being from the "bottom of society"? What counts as the "bottom of society"?

I think the anecdotal evidence and opinions you are presenting as fact throughout this thread are earning you downvotes.

[0]: https://www.ssb.no/en/royk [1]: https://tobaccoatlas.org/country/norway/

First, you write 11% of adults smoke, then go on to write that ~525,000 of the population smokes. 11% of the adult population makes a much smaller number than that. The number of people who smoke daily among 16-24y olds is 3% and 15% for the age group 55-64y [1]. Of those who used to smoke, 80% don't use any nicotine products anymore [2]. The reduction the last years in the numbers of smokers was so large everybody knew at least one close family member in the process of quitting. According to the numbers, most smokers have low education and earn less [3]. As this article points out:

> Samtidig er det vist at relativ fattigdom øker kronisk stress, som igjen fører til mer røyking.

Translation: At the same time, it is shown that relative poverty increases chronic stress, which in turn leads to more smoking. (I thought this was a pretty well-known fact).

[1] https://www.ssb.no/statbank/table/05307/chartViewLine/

[2] https://www.ssb.no/helse/artikler-og-publikasjoner/fire-av-f...

[3] https://www.fhi.no/ml/royking/hvorfor-har-roykevanene-endret...

Thank you for finally providing some statistics to back up your ad hominen attacks on the populace who smoke.

It's interesting to see those additional statistics.

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