This post, as much as I HATE it, is absolutely 100% factual.
I don't think I would change a word of it.
I'm a 20+ year veteran of the firearms industry- actually in the industry, not just an enthusiast. This is not my first rodeo.
If you've never seen it, find a copy of "Thank You for Smoking". You'll probably have to look in the comedy section, but it's actually a documentary.
You, as an activist vaper, are now one of the "Merchants of Death", and it's not an easy or fun team to be on.
The challenge we face, as vapers, is that, because of the timing and our historic inaction, this time is probably our
only time. Guns, booze, and tobacco have had centuries to cement themselves into the public consciousness, and one of them even has a constitutional amendment to protect it.
If you think the 20-something, vape shop crew that hosts cloud competitions on the 2nd Sunday of every month, and can't agree on how to pronounce diacetyl are going to be able to get the job done, and turn all this around...well, go ahead and keep posting your righteous indignation.
You've got two years left. Have fun with it.
...
If, on the other hand, you're mature enough to put aside your self-righteousness long enough to give your present situation a hard, honest look, you MIGHT stand a chance.
Cloud chasing, and the vape "lifestyle" need to have NOTHING to do with the conversation. It may be fun, may be your particular hobby, may even be your right, but it will do a collective ....-all to advance the cause.
You can't even count on the legal system to save this for you. As obvious as the injustice may be, our governmental system has been corrupted, and judges no longer interpret law, they bend it to their own view. There is enough "precedent", now, that the actual laws on the books (i.e. The Constituion) are nothing more than speed bumps that have to be considered when choosing which previous rulings to base your "judgement" on. The courts are driven by populist sentiment, and are not going to step in to save you.
The only things you've got going for you are facts (and I say "only" because "facts" are too readily manipulated to suit an agenda), and that the product you're choosing to support MAY actually have the power to save lives.
Use that, and put any other aspects of it that you may personally enjoy away until you've at least won some noteworthy battles.
The general public likes to compartmentalize others into groups, and the opposition knows how to exploit that. All they need is one inarticulate hipster cloud-chasing ..... to speak out on the evening news about how it's his right to blow vapor rings wherever he damned-well pleases, sprinkling a bunch of "um"s and "know wut I'm sayin"s in his 30 second sound byte, and now ALL OF YOU ARE JUST LIKE HIM to the people who's opinions we need to win.
They do it to us in guns, too. Everyone who is pro-gun, and has a moment in the spotlight, has all of their views and actions attributed to all of us, and there's usually not much we can do to distance ourselves from them.
Come here. I'll tell you a secret....
...come closer...
...closer...
George Zimmerman is a giant douche bag.
Sure, he probably was defending himself against a brutal attack, and, had he not shot that kid, probably would have been killed or seriously injured that night. But, in his self-righteous zealotry, he went out looking for that type of situation. He was "innocent" of the charges the special proscutor brought (a special prosecutor had to be used, because populist opinion trumped the DA's legit view that no charges would stick), but he was ultimately guilty of being an ........
Now, I could push that statement to CNN, on company letterhead, co-signed by reps from all the other companies, and George Zimmerman will still remain one of our industry's "poster-boys".
The vaping industry ended up with the cloud-chasing "umm..know wut I'm sayin" crowd, and they're just a liability you have to account for if you want to continue this fight. You have to fight a little bit harder, with the RIGHT tactics, to compensate for them.
I said it before, and it went over like a lead baloon, but you are going to have to toughen up and not get offended whenever someone points out that every single aspect of what we're doing is anything short of awesome.
If you want a chance at success, you need to put away the personal freedoms argument at least until you've won some ground. From here on out, it needs to be entirely about harm-reduction- a mature, articulate, carefully crafted discussion about vaping to get away from tobacco.
You've got to realize, really accept, that you're not trying to win an argument against yourself. Just because a fact resonates with you does not mean that it will mean a thing to the people you're trying to win over.
You can't just present the facts and smugly walk away thinking that you won the debate. You've got to craft the argument in the same manner as was used to beat us thus far - edgy sound bites and emotional platitudes- and win the harm reduction debate. Then, and only then, can you hope for some sympathy when it comes to the personal-freedoms and lifestyle argument.
If you can't put that self-righteousness away long enough to win your first battle, then you've already lost the war.
Honestly?
I don't think we stand a chance, but I'd love to be proven wrong about what this community is capable of.