Since when is smoking a liberal thing to do?

[Telly Savalas]

I know this will probably get locked because it's a copycat thread, but I think I have a valid debatable point.

If I were to spend $1,000 on a plasma screen TV, a lot of posters in GD would call me a "sheeple" and accuse me of engaging in "mindless consumerism".

If on the other hand I spent that $1,000 on a years worth of cigarettes...

[bbinacan]

1. I smoke.What's your point? n/t

[Telly Savalas]

3. People get up in arms about boycotting Wal Mart...

Are the business practices of most major tobacco manufacturers any better?

[Warpy]

People aren't physically and psychologically addicted to

WalMart.

Kids start smoking when they're young and dumb as a way to look cool, fit in, and rebel against their parents. They don't find out they can't stop until later.

There's a difference between voluntary and compulsive behavior.

Yeah, they really ought to quit, emphysema is a nasty way to spend 20 years slowly drowning in their own fluids. However, some can't quit until after multiple tries.

So back off. People wouldn't keep throwing money at corrupt tobacco compnaies unless they were compelled to by addiction.

[Telly Savalas]

21. But just because an activitiy is hard to quit, does that validate it

as being acceptable?

Rather than asking more of my dumb cryptic semi-rhetorical questions, let me clarify my position:

At DU one frequently encounters two criticism of people's consumption patterns:

1. People are obsessively materialistic and engage in "mindless consumerism"
2. People consume products made by businesses that engage in unethical practices (including donating money to the GOP)

I don't necessarily buy into either of these arguments. (On point 1, the definition of what constitutes "mindless consumerism" is extremely subjective and arbitrary, and on point 2, it's pretty damn hard to find ethical suppliers of a lot of necessary products.)

My point is that tobacco could easily be the target of either of these arguments, but rarely is around these parts. Fingers get pointed at people who go to big box stores on Black Friday, but smokers get a free pass. Does the fact that smoking is extremely addictive justify this double-standard?

[Warpy]

28. It just makes it understandable

and sometimes that's what is expected of us.

[donheld]

32. Good point Kojak

:think:

[waiting for hope]

5. So do I...

Doesn't your DR tell you all the time to STOP? I know there is a 'magic pill' out there to stop the addiction but damn if the makers of Nicorette are going to let that happen.

[globalvillage]

2. Wow.

Who has plasma TVs for $1K?

[Telly Savalas]

4. Shit. I dunno. I'm not in the market for one.

Substitute another luxury item.

[AntiCoup2K4]

31. Give 'em another couple years.

New technology always starts off with ridiculous prices, so those who absolutely MUST have the newest things can have the "priveledge" of paying off the research and development costs for the product. Then within 4 or 5 years, the price usually drops to a very affordable range.

I'm sure you can remember when few people owned DVD players due to the cost. Now you can get one for $35 at Wal-Fart on Black Friday (if you're crazy enough to go there).

The new generation of TV's have just about reached that point where it's time for the price to drop. And once they stop broadcasting analog TV signals, and it's digital or nothing, the price will probably drop even sooner, because they know they'll make it up in volume.

Oops.... did I hijack a smoking thread to talk about something useful?

Sorry about that.

No, actually I'm not :evilgrin:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

6. Marlboro Ultra Lights. $1.40 a Pack Delivered To My Door. Quit Your

Preaching.

[waiting for hope]

7. Who delivers?

[Telly Savalas]

9. I've seen numerous cultural critiques posted here in the last month

which criticize the consumption patterns of others as being non-liberal. (In particular Christams shoppers.) Why are tobacco products immune from such criticisms?

It's not preaching.

It's a valid question.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

18. I think it's an absurd question, not a valid one. Please point me to a

thread where someone said something along the lines of "Hey, stop buying soda, you are supposed to be liberal but you are indulging".

[Telly Savalas]

23. Oh for fucks sake.

The entire Thanksgiving weekend, it seemed like a third of the damn posts in GD were about the "mindless consumerism" of holiday shopping.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

24. I didn't agree with them either. But regardless, using them to attack

smokers is not only a huge stretch but also completely misguided.

Were they all smokers that posted those threads? If not, than your response above would just seem immature, misplaced, and silly.

[Telly Savalas]

26. You're being remarkably defensive.

I don't agree with such posts either. I think I pretty much lay out my whole stance on this up in post #21.

My suspicion is that quite a number of people who made such posts were smokers, otherwise more of them would be taking their arguments to their logical conclusions and start directing them at tobacco. I'm a bit baffled as to how my questioning of why they don't is immature, misplaced, and silly.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

13. shoot ! $3.80 on sale here!

got a link to that deal?

[madeline_con]

14. $1.40 from overseas, right? n/t

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

17. That's Correct. They Are Great Though!

[MercutioATC]

19. Be careful where you do that, though....

In Ohio, they're sending people who buy cigarettes online bills for the Ohio tobacco tax they would have paid if they had bought them in Ohio. Some people are getting some pretty big bills.

[WhiteTara]

8. I always ask smokekrs if they realize

that they are slaves to the corporations. Some get angry almost all get uncomfortable.

[waiting for hope]

11. Addiction sucks....

and I always ask drinkers the same thing....haven't had a drop in twelve years and damn proud of it. Now if I can keep my four year old from watching any and all beer commercials for the next fifteen years then I'll be happy....

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

20. Hello There Hypocrite. You are a slave to corporations too. We all are.

Get a grip.

:hi:

[XemaSab]

39. Defensive much?

n/t

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

45. Ummm. Nope. Just 100% Accurate. Thanks for asking though!

:hi:

[WhiteTara]

42. sounds like you need

another cigarette
:hi:
P.S. what's with the all caps in your name?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

44. Nope. I'm Fine Thank You. Doesn't change the fact that YOU are in fact

a slave to corporations, as is everybody, which in essence makes your point moot and insignificant.

:hi:

P.S. What's with the 3 caps in yours?

[rinsd]

47. Probably because that's rude as hell....(nt)

[G_j]

10. gotta be be the strangest post I've seen today

I doubt if an addiction, which is a disease, has political leanings.
:shrug:

[AntiCoup2K4]

35. The addiction doesn't but those who profit from the addiction do....

Tobacco companies love the Republican party. And vice versa.

[G_j]

38. driving a car supports big oil

paying taxes supports war crimes and torture.

I do however think we should do what we can, the best we can.

[PaganPreacher]

12. Freedom, baby!

Jack Kerouac smoked...



So did James Dean....



And we can't forget Edward R. Murrow...



...and that's good enough for me.


Sometimes a cigar really is a cigar.

The Pagan Preacher
I don't turn the other cheek.

[AntiCoup2K4]

41. I have a feeling Murrow would say otherwise if he were here to do so.....

...kinda like Peter Jennings did :(

[AndyTiedye]

15. Compassion for the Addicted is a Liberal Thing to Do

According to the experts, tobacco is more addictive than heroin or crack.
It also gets much more (and more deceptive) advertising.

Liberals have a long tradition of compassion for those who suffer from drug addiction.

[Telly Savalas]

25. Which is why any decent universal health care policy...

would underwrite medical assistance in helping people quit.

[Endangered Specie]

36. If you say so...

My level of 'compassion' depends on other variables.

[Canuckistanian]

16. I'm addicted to Skoal

I don't know how it started, and I know it's dangerous, but there you go. It's extremely hard to get off
the stuff. I've tried about 4 times over the last 6 years. Even used the gum with a doctor's help.

Gave up on smoking about 4 years ago. That wasn't so hard.

But, damn, I believe it when people say that nicotine is just as addictive as heroine. I've gotta know
where my next hit is, all the time. I'll drive thru a snowstorm at 3:00a.m. for an hour to get some.

[no_hypocrisy]

22. I'd say more libertarian than liberal.

[jbnow]

27. Peace pipes

Pretty liberal.

So is appreciating cognitive functioning. Perhaps liberals are innately drawn to the neuro-protective functions of nicotine.

I'm sure I could come up with more but those are so good I will leave it there.

[JVS]

29. This really begs another question.

The fact that you know that buying an expensive TV would get people hurling accusations at you gives me pause.

Since when is it liberal to act like one is the judge of all behavior in which an individual engages? (unless it has to do with sex, abortion, or how panhandlers spend the money they beg for which are all stictly off limits for judgementalism)

[donheld]

30. Isn't tabacco grown in red states?

I think so.:smoke: :hurts: :smoke: :hurts:

[Endangered Specie]

34. you better believe it

:smoke:

[Zynx]

37. And tobacco sales support very Republican companies.

[obxhead]

33. Just a $1,000?

I hear ya.

[readmoreoften]

40. And let's not forget to rag on the alcoholics, the heroin addicts,

and people who eat so much sugar that they always tempt people on diets. People's obsession with smokers is bizarre. Hope that the person will quit for their own health, wish them luck, and get a fuckin' hobby.

[rman]

43. I don't care what you spend your money on

The liberal thing to do is not to mount the high horse and interfere with other people's lives.

[rinsd]

46. " a lot of posters in GD "

And those people are self righteous sanctimonious jerks.

[troubleinwinter]

48. "Since when is smoking a liberal thing to do?"

Someone said it is a liberal thing to do?

Can you please post a list of all the rest of the particular details of how I should live my life as a liberal? Should I shower or take a bath? Should I eat noodles or beans? I need to know EXACTLY what activities are the proper liberal ways of living my day to day life.

Since you say that smoking is a liberal thing to do, I'd like to see the link to that information. Or perhaps you meant that it isn't liberal to tell someone else how to live their life?

I don't know what to do anymore. Peas or corn tonite? Which is the liberal way of life?