▲ 17 points
back
8 comments
>the smoke-free world, Milov writes, is ‘a harsh and stigmatising one’, where ‘the death of a smoker can be met with the thought – sometimes tactlessly expressed aloud – “What did he expect?”’ It would be hard to find a question more revealing of the neoliberal worldview, which makes responsible self-maintenance a near sacred duty, as well as the fullest expression of citizenship.
Tobacco use and age are the only reasons you can charge someone more for health insurance in the United States, not binge drinking, not obesity, not extreme sports, reckless driving, nor getting arrested for violent crimes. That society believes "self-maintenance" a duty is completely contradicted by the obesity epidemic (which now causes more death than smoking) and the response to it. No, to me it seems there is something very particular about anti-tobacco sentiment that is not applied to other types of self-destructive behavior.
I can eat in peace at a restaurant with an obese person sitting at the next table. I can't say the same for a smoker. They are infinitely more aggravating to have nearby and I think that's the reason for the extra ire.
Probably, but it seems to me the effects of the stigma are for the most part positive, and not entirely undeserved. Does tobacco use deserve to be singled out among the examples you mentioned? Maybe not. But I feel that whatever is being implicated by your final sentence should probably be spelled out if there is any further point (outside that of those illustrated in the review) to be made.
Well, the point illustrated in the review makes a sweeping and inaccurate critique of a strawman. Overall, I thought that this was a kind of flaky review of an interesting sounding book. I can't tell if the book is making the same critique or if the reviewer is just trying to shoehorn things against the so-called neoliberal worldview.
It is possible that the millenials have not experienced the level of tobacco smoke that the boomers grew up around. Neither my brother nor I was ever tempted to smoke, and for my part that was largely because I remember riding in a car with anywhere from one to three smokers. It was not pleasant.
As late as the early 1980s, the only social gatherings I could expect to be smoke-free were for a running group I belonged to. Another guy in the group said, Runners' parties are great--an hour after they start you can still see across the room. I can recall another gathering in those days where I was one of two non-smokers, and we stood as close as we could to a cracked window.
As for "What did he expect?", I suppose that happens. But I know how addictive cigarettes can be, having watched my father try to kick the habit for a dozen years or so before he succeeded, and having seen an aunt relapse. I have never seen hassling smokers ever do any good.
Not mentioned in this article, but I learned recently that cigarette use increased in the 1930s as the Great Depression drove Americans away from more expensive cigars. This caused a big depression in Tampa, the home of the US cigar making industry.
In modern British use, a pinhooker is someone who buys yearling thoroughbred horses, hoping to sell them for a profit when they're two year olds.[1] Until this article I did not know the origin of the term.
Cigarettes are probably the worst exported products/trend from USA (starting from WWII), more than fast-foods in my opinion (not sure which has the worst impact on population health)