Vapers win in epic hashtag hijack

[WendyM]

Our governments actually have the same agenda/mindset when it comes to vaping, both want draconian taxes imposed on it. The difference is, in the U.S., our government will first "demonize" vaping in order to gain the general public's support before imposing heavy handed regulations and massive taxes on the industry. That's why we currently see so much negative propaganda being spread in the guise of news stories/articles, the "push" is on and it's working.

A great example of why they do this was given to us in Massachusetts a decade or so ago. Someone proposed a sin/luxury tax on yarn and *everyone* freaked out about it, not just the knitters. Maybe it's because you say the word knitter and it conjures up a vision of a nice little old lady that bakes cookies and gives full sized snickers bars out on Halloween and nobody wants to tax her.

ETA: Anyone that has a twitter account that's been long neglected, you might want to use the #curbit tag to make and find some new vaping friends, my name on twitter is @spinnergrrrl and you'll probably want to check out (and tweet your own comments) on #vape #ecigssavelives #vaping #improof and #vaping2015 -- the conversations are smokin' hot (pun intended)

 

[glowplug]

Thanks, I'm 53 and didn't know that either. I'm not computer illiterate, been using them since DOS. Just thought of twitter as a modern day CB radio craze. Then again what do I know, I thought mice were a passing fad too.

I am 60 and I do not tweet. I should ask the grandkids to edumacate me but I am already spending too much time on forums. I will continue to depend on you wonderful people to keep me informed.

 

[Claudia P]

I was going to behave myself and not comment but alas I've lost my self control. lol
Yes they want to kill us, but they also want to keep us alive until they have squeezed every last penny we have out of us.

Freedom in the US is and always has been simply an illusion of freedom, now they aren't even pretending that we have that freedom anymore, the only ones who truly are free to do whatever they please are the ones with the controlling money.

I have a twitter account and have tried a couple of times to figure it out, but decided it was far more trouble than it is worth. While I can respond to a tweet I never could figure out how to initiate one.

It's because the control-freak Smoke Nazis have gotten control of EVERYTHING... including our media and politicians. When Obama was first elected and someone snapped a pic of him with a cigarette, the press carried on like he was Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, and Bin Laden rolled into one.

And of course, to the Smoke Nazis, anything that LOOKS like smoke, actually IS smoke, and catching one whiff, one MOLECULE of it, would mean The End of the World As They Know It. Hell with science, they care NOTHING for science; to them, "ANTZ" is their religion, philosophy, lifestyle, and hammer with which to beat the brains out of anyone who dares to exhale anything visible. They don't care that smoking was killing us and vaping won't, because to them, killing us would be a good thing, and the more painfully we died, the better they liked it.

Andria

 

[CampbellMC]

Twitter is just another trend, I wouldn't waste your time getting familiar with it. I use facebook (barely) for talking with some friends, and I stay away from the 200 other social media sites, with new ones popping up every day. I find it all silly, no one cares what you are eating, or what song you are loving that day, they just pretend to so that you will follow them back. Its all an ego game in my mind.

 

[DC2]

I agree, I wouldn't consider San Diego all that liberal especially Oceanside(Not SD I know) where I live now. The campaign is in San Francisco though which is about as liberal as it gets. I was just sayin don't go blaming liberals for this, I'm sure most don't want to ban vaping or anything like that and any who do clearly don't understand vaping.

Yeah, I live in Vista and we aren't even close to being blue yet.
(see also Darrell Issa and Rocky Chavez)

 

[DrMA]

Even if you don't tweet, you can respond to the #curbit atrocity by putting the hurt on the SF economy:

• Don't travel to SF
• boycott all SF products everywhere

I'll stop buying my favorite coffee Home - San Francisco Bay Coffee

 

[zoiDman]

Even if you don't tweet, you can respond to the #curbit atrocity by putting the hurt on the SF economy:

• Don't travel to SF
• boycott all SF products everywhere

I'll stop buying my favorite coffee Home - San Francisco Bay Coffee

Does San Francisco Bay Coffee support this current Affront to e-Cigarettes?

 

[usefulball]

While I get yall's gist and am glad too see how this turned out, I kinda feel like I interject a bit of non-anti-government perspective.
I happen to have been born in SF but live in NC (trivia yay) - I can share a lil of this state's Big Tobacco influence: I would venture (not as a conspiracy theory but as a corporate strategy) that the general concepts of "government", "regulation", "nanny state" are not the primary reasons that there are anti-ecig campaigns; but behind most political dealings (even CA's voter referendums) are the huge pocket books of corporate America.

These companies don't care about one party or another, they just sponsor whoever will help them maximize profits, and at this current time (contrary to the past) Big Tobacco companies may find certain Democrats make the best anti-ecig allies. How these companies operate is always a bit of a challenge to determine, but it is safe to assume they plan for years and decades.

For example, even if Big Tobacco is planning on becoming Big Vapor, they may have huge inventories and billions of dollars worth of commodity/farming contracts, etc, so it is best for their shareholders to try to delay the ecig revolution as long as possible so they can control the transition in the way they deem most 'profitable'. That is not to say tobacco companies wont also lobby to keep ecigs banned for good, but that's not the future...

Moral: don't blame government, blame the people who may be devoting massive resources to distorting the function of the government, in this case, as it has been before, most likely Big Tobacco *and the shareholders...

PS. I only speculate, but it's folly to think big business doesn't pull the strings with all their lobbying and marketing.

 

[choochoogranny]

Usefullball, also check out the falling revenues of the NRT's produced by the pharmaceuticals. Then check out the falling tobacco tax revenues to the state coffers as well as the federal money bags. Then check out where the CDC gets the money to hand out grants and where do the ALA, AHA, AMA, ACA, etc., etc., get a lot of donations?

There are deeper pockets than the tobacco companies. Unfortunately we are fighting most all of them.

 

[rob m]

While I get yall's gist and am glad too see how this turned out, I kinda feel like I interject a bit of non-anti-government perspective.
I happen to have been born in SF but live in NC (trivia yay) - I can share a lil of this state's Big Tobacco influence: I would venture (not as a conspiracy theory but as a corporate strategy) that the general concepts of "government", "regulation", "nanny state" are not the primary reasons that there are anti-ecig campaigns; but behind most political dealings (even CA's voter referendums) are the huge pocket books of corporate America.

These companies don't care about one party or another, they just sponsor whoever will help them maximize profits, and at this current time (contrary to the past) Big Tobacco companies may find certain Democrats make the best anti-ecig allies. How these companies operate is always a bit of a challenge to determine, but it is safe to assume they plan for years and decades.

For example, even if Big Tobacco is planning on becoming Big Vapor, they may have huge inventories and billions of dollars worth of commodity/farming contracts, etc, so it is best for their shareholders to try to delay the ecig revolution as long as possible so they can control the transition in the way they deem most 'profitable'. That is not to say tobacco companies wont also lobby to keep ecigs banned for good, but that's not the future...

Moral: don't blame government, blame the people who may be devoting massive resources to distorting the function of the government, in this case, as it has been before, most likely Big Tobacco *and the shareholders...

PS. I only speculate, but it's folly to think big business doesn't pull the strings with all their lobbying and marketing.

Well with your reasoning then is that Government is bought and paid for by big business. I happen to agree with you but I put the blame where I have some control, even though it is not much, which is on the government.

 

[gph61]

It's the nasty end of capitalism. Not nearly as bad as the good end everything else humans have tried but it is what it is. There's noone to blame because noone has figured out a better system.

 

[pamdis]

It's the nasty end of capitalism. Not nearly as bad as the good end everything else humans have tried but it is what it is. There's noone to blame because noone has figured out a better system.

What we need is to keep the capitalism and dump the government.

Law Without Government

 

[Str8vision]

While I get yall's gist and am glad too see how this turned out, I kinda feel like I interject a bit of non-anti-government perspective.
I happen to have been born in SF but live in NC (trivia yay) - I can share a lil of this state's Big Tobacco influence: I would venture (not as a conspiracy theory but as a corporate strategy) that the general concepts of "government", "regulation", "nanny state" are not the primary reasons that there are anti-ecig campaigns; but behind most political dealings (even CA's voter referendums) are the huge pocket books of corporate America.

These companies don't care about one party or another, they just sponsor whoever will help them maximize profits, and at this current time (contrary to the past) Big Tobacco companies may find certain Democrats make the best anti-ecig allies. How these companies operate is always a bit of a challenge to determine, but it is safe to assume they plan for years and decades.

For example, even if Big Tobacco is planning on becoming Big Vapor, they may have huge inventories and billions of dollars worth of commodity/farming contracts, etc, so it is best for their shareholders to try to delay the ecig revolution as long as possible so they can control the transition in the way they deem most 'profitable'. That is not to say tobacco companies wont also lobby to keep ecigs banned for good, but that's not the future...

Moral: don't blame government, blame the people who may be devoting massive resources to distorting the function of the government, in this case, as it has been before, most likely Big Tobacco *and the shareholders...

PS. I only speculate, but it's folly to think big business doesn't pull the strings with all their lobbying and marketing.

The fact that major corporations can, and do, buy political influence by throwing billions of dollars into the political arena each year is not only on the corporations that buy such influence, but the government and politicians that allow/encourage the practice in the first place. So yes, I DO blame our government for allowing its legislative authority to be auctioned off to the highest bidder(s).

 

[gph61]

What we need is to keep the capitalism and dump the government.

Law Without Government

It's a pipe dream. How many years is your guess before jihad joes or whoever will be able to make a backyard device that kills everything? Things that go boom might take a while but I don't see biological taking very long. My guess is 200 years at the outside.

Love to hear a better answer but more intrusive government is the only thing I can think of that'll save us from or ever advancing technology combined with our dumb ideas.

 

[AndriaD]

I was going to behave myself and not comment but alas I've lost my self control. lol
Yes they want to kill us, but they also want to keep us alive until they have squeezed every last penny we have out of us.

Freedom in the US is and always has been simply an illusion of freedom, now they aren't even pretending that we have that freedom anymore, the only ones who truly are free to do whatever they please are the ones with the controlling money.

I have a twitter account and have tried a couple of times to figure it out, but decided it was far more trouble than it is worth. While I can respond to a tweet I never could figure out how to initiate one.

I had that problem for a LONG time... and still have a few issues, sometimes. Mainly it's just in getting a feel for how Twitter works, the various @ and # dealies it uses. Also getting some "plug-ins" for whatever browser you use; I use an extension called "Tweet Deck" in Chrome browser, and it simplifies using a Twitter a great deal.

Andria

 

[pamdis]

It's a pipe dream. How many years is your guess before jihad joes or whoever will be able to make a backyard device that kills everything? Things that go boom might take a while but I don't see biological taking very long. My guess is 200 years at the outside.

Love to hear a better answer but more intrusive government is the only thing I can think of that'll save us from or ever advancing technology combined with our dumb ideas.

My guess? I think they could probably do it now or in the near future. Don't see how government will be able to stop them.

 

[AndriaD]

Well, here's the thing: even if everyone quits smoking because they start vaping, most vapers use some strength of nicotine. The best source of nicotine is tobacco, so no way do we want tobacco to go away, we just want tobacco SMOKING to go away -- what we need is exactly what someone said, a transition -- they (the gov't) has to find some way to transfer the tax burden from finished tobacco products to the actual tobacco crop -- bet your bottom dollar that's exactly what the suits in DC are trying to figure out and set up.

Andria

 

[Withdrewandi]

We have a thing called the NHS Here in the uk which is something you Americans don't have a free to every uk citizen health service that is payed for obviously by taxes.. Now I don't know the exact numbers but smoking related disease and deaths cost said nhs millions and millions every year the govt here wants to stop spending that money and spend it on something else so bans of ecigs won't happen here... Stupid ridiculous laws are being put in place like no tank over 2ml no nicotine above 24mg is to be sold taxing devices and eliquid making people have pharmaceutical licenses etc etc but that's so they can save money while still making it.... As I said before they allow advertisements of ecigs on tv to carry the advice you can use it indoors lol

We don't have states that can make their own laws either (not yet anyway) so things are slightly different here not better just different

 

[gph61]

My guess? I think they could probably do it now or in the near future. Don't see how government will be able to stop them.

Implants in the brain that shut you off pre-crime? I think we're staggering into a race between brain and weapon science. It ain't pretty but that's all I've got.

 

[sonicdsl]

So, uh, anyway...

I've written up what happened more fully here: http://vaping.com/news/Vapers-Demolish-Anti-vaping-Lies-with-Hashtag-Hijack

A huge social media backlash has erupted in the wake of an anti-ecigarette campaign by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. The #curbit campaign, which equates the risks of smoking with vaping, consists of billboard posters around SF bay area with a strong focus on the BART and MUNI public transport systems, and social media postings cautioning against the use of vapor products.

And check out the thread on the campaign itself which is in the News forum: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...rrorists-launch-attack-against-vaping-sf.html