"A ticket to victory" could have been another title of this piece. Not all sides of our movement are in agreement with FORCES when we state that, in order to defeat smoking bans, we have to make smoking more popular, that is, increase the number of smokers.
SMOKING BANS:
NUMBERS IS THE TICKET
When smoking was practiced by the majority of the population there were no smoking bans, and anyone proposing them would have looked like a wacko version of Cary Nation. That was not only because 40-50 years ago people were less afflicted by mass-insanity and moral inversion, nor was it just because they were free of prejudice: it is sufficient to think of how gays or blacks were treated. The persecution of smokers was not there simply because smokers were more numerous than non smokers. The trick to free the world from Tobacco Control and Healthist ideology is to make smokers the majority again thus – like it or not – it is necessary to promote the smoking culture, even if Big Tobacco kisses the ass of Big Pharma thus Big Health.
Many seem to believe that all it takes to win against prohibition and Tobacco Control is to educate non-smokers that the dangers of passive smoking are a scientific fraud perpetrated by dishonest health authorities, and thus that there is nothing to fear from "secondhand smoke." Also, many feel that people need a good education in democracy and libertarianism to understand the value of freedom. Finally, they feel that if they are seen as “advocating smoking,” their cause would become “unpopular”.
All those argument are valid, of course, but there is a hole in them, and the hole is this.
As for any physical phenomenon, the conditions must be necessary and sufficient for the phenomenon to occur. Education in science and liberty is certainly one necessary condition but it is not sufficient in itself. Tobacco Control understands that well. That is why billions in public money are spent all over the world to:
Control the mass media so that the truth about smoking never surfaces at the mass level.
Lie to children and adults on the health effects of active and passive smoking. Children start getting brainwashed in the first grades of school.
Promote smoking bans everywhere to “socially denormalize” smoking. Explicitly exclude smoking from antidiscrimination laws and human rights, like the European Commission criminals intend to do.
Produce vast amounts of epidemiologic "studies" and other forms of trash science to maintain the sensationalist media thrust.
All that surely does not have the purpose of actually “educating” people, because people do not get educated through fraud; today "education" is an euphemism for brainwashing. The real goal is to convince smokers that they are a vanishing minority (thus, join the majority and fit in!…), and to keep them as a minority.
We already know that arguing with Tobacco Control is a waste of time, and we already know that this is a war and not a debate. Wars are won with force and not with arguments. In this case, one good force is numbers.
It is true: in the past logic, fair play, liberty and debate were far more common along with human dignity and respect. But let’s not idealize those times too much: it is sufficient to think of how gays and blacks were treated, for example, to realize that prejudice is a cancer of the mind that is constant through time.
There was another – and perhaps more basic – reason why 30-40 years ago there were no smoking bans: smokers were the majority and, in the linear mind of most, majority rules – absolutely. It is as simple as that.
If smokers were the majority today, smoking bans simply would not exist as a matter of sheer force, and the antismoking fanatics would not dare pushing the envelope too much because they would be kicked out of places – physically. On the other hand, politicians would kiss the ass of the majority and would not dare passing bans, while they would be far more conservative when financing fraud-based antismoking movements and campaigns.
A demonstration of the correctness of the above is this article about Austria. “Cafe owners and patrons in Austria are still puffing away seven weeks after a partial smoking ban was introduced, and they are not about to stop. … Smoking bans have been distinctly unpopular and hard to enforce in a country where, according to the World Health Organization, no less than 47 percent of the population smokes…”
Please note that, since it’s the WHO crooks say that 47% of the Austrian population smokes, that means that the actual percentage of adults who smoke is probably really well more than half. Big numbers mean big daring because people, like sheep, feel strong in numbers, so they disobey the law and make it ineffective. By the same token, antismoking frauds and prohibition do not stick in Russia because the majority of Russians smokes.
Numbers are the ticket. That is why, to protect himself against prohibition, state power and fraud, every smoker should create new smokers – to make their number grow. It follows that, to win this historical war, every group of our movement should abandon the cultural conditioning, trash the “smoking-is-bad-but…” attitude and promote the habit. And – please! – remember always: not even one death can be scientifically demonstrated to be caused by smoking, so get rid of the stupid guilt, and really stop believing "public health authority" propaganda down deep. Don’t worry about "credibility": anyone who defends the mere choice to smoke is branded as a "tobacco industry stooge" by prohibitionist fanatics, people who do not think or listen, because they don’t care about your rights and opinions … so, why should you care about theirs?
If the number of smokers would pass the 50% of the population mark, something “magic” would happen: smoking bans would be disregarded, and would eventually disappear. After that, everyone would rediscover liberty and become aware of the scientific fraud; then everyone (even many non-smokers, as it would be their turn to "fit in") would demand that those who are responsible for the fraud and the waste of public resources be prosecuted and justly punished. Magically, normality would return along with tolerance and common sense.
Yes, you are right: all that is very cynical, but it is also very true. Power commands, and imposes what is "fair", “just” or even "true". Antitobacco has made an industry of passing off hysteria as "truth" for decades now. The real thing, the honest to God truth, will take root again when driven with sufficient force. So, it’s all a matter of grabbing the power, isn’t it?
To that end, numbers provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the phenomenon to occur; everything else is just tasty gravy. Tobacco Control knows that, and so do we, now. So, what shall it be?…
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