These companies are selling an addictive poison and continuing to get away with it -- never forget that.
Remember that tobacco contains many other compounds that influence how the body metabolizes things (MAOI's and such). Here's a link with some citations: http://www.healthnz.co.nz/Addiction_TobNic.htm
EDIT: My personal anecdote is that I tried vaping when the first 901 ecigs started to hit the US market: the idea was twofold. I wanted to assess whether there was any cognitive benefit in using nicotine through a cleaner delivery system and I also wanted to get my dad to quit smoking cigarettes. Both goals were failures, I found it too difficult to dose reliably using this method and the side effects weren't worth it to me. I did not find myself addicted after around a month of use.
Doesn't addictiveness vary from person to person?
Also: there are some computer games, which have the potential for addiction. Some others (especially "free to play") shamelessly monetarize on addiction.
Similar things goes from other businesses: e.g. loans, dating websites, social media, etc.
I have 14 beers (or its equivalent hard alcohol) over the course of a month or two, and that still seemed like a lot.
Indeed, death in the US due to alcoholism is about 88,000 a year it is the #3 leading preventable cause of death. [1] Tobacco related deaths is #1 (preventable) by 480,000. [2] Obesity is #2 for completeness. I have loved ones that have died or are dying from one or a combination of these vices.
[1] https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sh... [2] https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/heal...
"Using brain-scanning technology, scientists at the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse were among the first to show that sugar causes changes in peoples' brains similar to those in people addicted to drugs such as cocaine and alcohol.6,7 These changes are linked to a heightened craving for more sugar.8 This important evidence has set off a flood of research on the potentially addictive properties of sugar.9" https://sugarscience.ucsf.edu/the-growing-concern-of-overcon...
Obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, etc. all cause society a massive loss in lost length and quality of life, lost productivity and increased health costs.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” --C.S. Lewis
It’s a great quote from 70 years ago that speaks well to modern politics, but its application to Phillip Morris here seems to be a bit of a stretch to me.
How does this apply to the misinformation campaign waged by tobacco companies? Their customers were deceived, and therefore could not give informed consent.
[0] "There is certainly widespread agreement about the paradigm threats to personal autonomy: brainwashing and addiction are the favorite examples in the philosophical literature. But philosophers seem unable to reach a consensus about the precise nature of these threats. They cannot agree about how it is that certain influences on our behavior prevent us from governing ourselves." From: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/personal-autonomy/
Not all addictions are the same, and the fact that some people are able to stop their addictions attests to that. But they are definitely in a "meta" category of desire which childhood experiences and genetics are not.
>Consider first the unwilling addict, who is someone that has both a first-order desire to take the drug, and a first-order desire not to take the drug. Crucially, however, the unwilling addict also has a second-order volition that her first-order desire to take the drug not be her will. This is the basis for her unwillingness. Regrettably, her irresistible addictive desire to take the drug constitutes her will. Next, consider the case of the willing addict. The willing addict, like the unwilling addict, has conflicting first-order desires as regards taking the drug to which she is addicted. But the willing addict, by way of a second-order volition, embraces her addictive first-order desire to take the drug. She wants to be as she is and act as she does.
>It is now easy to illustrate Frankfurt’s hierarchical theory of free will. The unwilling addict does not take the drug of her own free will since her will conflicts at a higher level with what she wishes it to be. The willing addict, however, takes the drug of her own free will since her will meshes with what she wishes it to be.
That's hyperbolic to the point of seeming like farce.
The traditionally spiritual mindsets are necessary to be a positive fit. Wisdom, mindfulness, humility, acceptance etc. I think they are correlated to intelligence but they are not as immediately accessible as cleverness, they must be intentionally cultivated.
Everybody has to seek these for themselves and try to be a good model for those they interact with. Nobody is good enough to be good for everybody else, plan the whole system, and cure everybody by rule of force. The inability to tolerate some amount of imperfection and dirtiness is the root of a greater evil. Don't invite dragons to take care of your wolf problem.
Me neither. However, the construction trucks driving around in front of my apartment with exhaust so thick it covered my patio with a thin layer of soot don't give a fuck about my consent.
Second-hand tobacco smoke is a non-issue, as smoking is already banned in places where people don't have a choice to be in (bus stations, building entrances, etc..).
But if we go with the 'battery' hyperbole, I would 'batter' back people who sneeze/cough and don't cover their mouths. I don't consent to have poisonous bodily fluids near me.
I abhor secondhand smoke too, and applaud legal constraints on where you can emit poisonous fumes, like smoking bans in enclosed spaces. But cigarette smoking is easily separable from the worst of its local air pollution effects, and unless you're willing to condemn even more harshly people who choose to live in the suburbs, this is a dishonest argument.
> How does this apply to the misinformation campaign waged by tobacco companies?
No argument here; this is the reason I'm no fan of tobacco companies. Though this is again a theoretically-separable evil from selling cigarettes per se.
Seeing how battery is kind of a stretch, do you see obese people as homeless (because of ruining their bodies/sanctuary)?
I still laugh when I think of how much nicotine and coffee were consumed by NASA to get the space program going back in the day. I'm pretty sure intelligent people are/were aware of the dangers of their indulgences.
Smoking in confined spaces may not be recommended, but smelling smoke (from tobacco) in an outside setting should not warrant such an irrational response.
I guess unless you've never smoked before, you may not be aware of the pleasures of a good cup of coffee and nicotine session.
https://m.youtube.com/watch/llOvhzKr0_A
I was in a good mood this morning and thought battery was an over-reaction. Karma says otherwise, if thats to be taken into account.
I'm also an avid golfer and cigarette use among some of the greats is/was no secret, so depending on your role models, smoking is just another vice adults can enjoy (in moderation, of course).
Except people aren't informed until laws force companies to tell the truth. Until then the advertising swindle will continue to kill millions. I wish you didn't feel blessed about any of this and rather felt sympathy towards countries that don't enforce the same laws as yours.
It's funny how sometimes following the downvotes takes you better places than following the upvotes.
Of course, things are also often unpopular for being stupid and wrong. But if you always err on the side of leaving people alone, saying something stupid doesn't hurt anybody. So I don't worry about it too much, and I just say what I think.