NYT: New Calculus on Smoking, It’s Health Gained vs. Pleasure Lost

[dragonpuff]

Let me get this straight:
The lady is a smoker, i.e. she inhales tobacco smoke. Which contains nicotine plus a lot of harmful substances.
People smoke for nicotine but they die from the tar. (Professor Michael Russell, 1976)
Now, she considers consuming nicotine harmful - even if it is consumed without the tar and the other harmful substances in tobacco smoke.
Thus, she prefers to smoke on and off, and to consume the nicotine with the tar and the other harmful substances in tobacco smoke when she does consume it.
Which she frequently does. And now does full time again.

Now, I am not going to say what I think of this. After all, the lady is your sister
But I do agree: "thank you for that, popular opinion..." This is precisely what the ANTZ are trying to achieve: continued smoking. After all, according to those who make their money off the smoking gravy train: "nicotine is oh-so-harmful if consumed by itself. So you might as well smoke"

Uhm....

Say, would using an e-cig "once in a while" be an option?

/edit:
Quote from the a.m. source:


And this source is not an e-cig publication.
Instead, it is ASH UK, the Action on Smoking and Health.
Is is one of the few public health organizations who managed to get their heads out of their backsides and now embrace harm reduction.

I believe, as far as she is concerned, it is a combination of feeling that nicotine addiction is harmful (insofar as addiction to anything is considered harmful) and fear that the e-cig is not really safer than smoking. Tbh I don't believe her husband is being too helpful on that last point...

I agree, the logic for switching to e-cig use is solid, but it is quite difficult to change age-old beliefs. I was taught throughout elementary school that nicotine is deadly. For me it's not too difficult for me to overturn lifelong beliefs because I have always been naturally skeptical and distrusting of authority, and I tend toward always questioning others and myself to seek the truth. For others, however, it's not so simple to "unbelieve" what they were taught.

Fwiw, my mother went out of her way to buy her a full ego kit, and continues to try to talk her into using it. I bring it up now and then, but I am the baby in the family so my words are a bit less convincing here at the end of the day though, I believe it will require a shift in popular opinion to get people like her to fully switch to vaping. She, along with many others, would have to see it as less of a "fringe" phenomenon to really take it seriously.

I never said my sister and I agree on everything, that's for sure

 

[AndriaD]

These stories remind me of my sister... two full-time vapers in the immediate family and she still insists there's no point in switching if she can just quit. It seems to me she's still suspicious that addiction to nicotine is harmful in and of itself (thank you for that, popular opinion...). So she quits over and over, and starts up again over and over. The last time she "quit" she only smoked when she drank, and then only when she was stressed out, and now she smokes full time again... my mom keeps pushing her to use her vaporizer instead of smoking but it hasn't caught on yet

She sounds like the sort of neurotic person who insists that perfection is possible, and then beats up on herself when she discovers she's all too human and therefore not perfect. Or like the teenage girls who insist that only bad girls use birth control... and then get pregnant because it was just ONCE, and they didn't really like it anyway...

Andria

 

[AndriaD]

I have always been naturally skeptical and distrusting of authority, and I tend toward always questioning others and myself to seek the truth.

I *knew* there was something I liked about you! Seriously though... my mom thinks that this sort of attitude means I am "psychotic".

For others, however, it's not so simple to "unbelieve" what they were taught.

It constantly amazes me that people will believe anything, no matter how absurd or patently impossible, if it comes from an Old Big Book... and turn completely away from what is right before their eyes. Or worse, close their eyes, stick their fingers in their ears while hollering LA LA LA and run as far and as fast away from truth as they can possibly manage. They would FARRRRRRRRR rather have comfort than truth, but they'll put up with a ton of discomfort, just to avoid truth!

Andria

 

[dragonpuff]

She sounds like the sort of neurotic person who insists that perfection is possible, and then beats up on herself when she discovers she's all too human and therefore not perfect. Or like the teenage girls who insist that only bad girls use birth control... and then get pregnant because it was just ONCE, and they didn't really like it anyway...

Andria

I wouldn't consider her that way at all... more of a person who persists in holding onto her beliefs even when the raw evidence slaps her in the face... I have had many arguments with her about many things, and I can say with confidence that she relies on her intuition a lot more than I do - I believe what I think is right, whereas she believes what she feels is right. I believe in facts and she believes in what she thinks ought to be. This is why, as I said earlier, it is more difficult for her to let go of deeply-held beliefs. Her belief that addiction is innately harmful is difficult for her to let go of.

Nonetheless, I am starting to feel a bit uncomfortable talking this much about my sister I will just say that she is a really, genuinely good person who's perceptions are skewed, and I hope for her sake they straighten out soon enough to save her health. Judging by the number of her friends that are beginning to take up vaping it could be sooner than I think.

 

[Anjaffm]

oh goodness gracious, long held beliefs... remember Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny?

Nonetheless, I am starting to feel a bit uncomfortable talking this much about my sister I will just say that she is a really, genuinely good person who's perceptions are skewed, and I hope for her sake they straighten out soon enough to save her health. Judging by the number of her friends that are beginning to take up vaping it could be sooner than I think.

I hope that too
Until then: you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.

/edit:

and I can say with confidence that she relies on her intuition a lot more than I do - I believe what I think is right, whereas she believes what she feels is right. I believe in facts and she believes in what she thinks ought to be.

That is not intuition, dear
Let's leave it at that.

 

[dragonpuff]

Ah yes... the age old art of indoctrination. It is not difficult to get someone to hold a lifelong belief as long as you teach them in the proper setting.

I'll never forget how I was taught American history in elementary school... Christopher Columbus "discovered" America (ha!), and from that point on our country was built on a never ending string of progress. It is awfully disgusting the way it feels when you learn the truth... who Columbus actually was, how the natives were only conquered because most of them died of disease, and how long and difficult the fight for civil rights really was, and still is... it's mind-boggling. But there are still people who believe as adults that Columbus really discovered America, and that the natives lost because we had guns and they didn't, because they learned it from an official history book, and never questioned it. And there are even more people who believe that no matter what the truth is, we have to continue to teach our children these lies or it'll be the end of patriotism as we know it.

That's what I think of when I think about our fight for the right to vape, and all the obstacles we face - I think of the conspiracy of American history.

 

[Kent C]

The corruption of American history is being done in public schools ... and NBC's 'History Channel' The defeat of patriotism is near complete because of it.