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This, if correctly publicized, would be the best motivation in getting huge amounts of people to stop. Think of a slogan like "Only the poor still smoke" or "i
by gruturo 9y ago
This, if correctly publicized, would be the best motivation in getting huge amounts of people to stop.
Think of a slogan like "Only the poor still smoke" or "it's what losers do" and how it would impact people. Suddenly you'd be embarrassed of being seen smoking.
- Neliquat 9y agoExcept there is prid3 in being poor in this country.
- kemiller2002 9y agoI don't think so. You are correct that there are a large number of people who don't want the social stigma of being poor etc., but for many they see it as one of the few pleasures they can still have. To these people, they smoke, most of their friends and family smoke, and life is a struggle on a day to day basis. To them calling them a loser doesn't shame them, it just makes them more angry towards you.
- anovikov 9y agoBut it will help a lot for the remaining ~10% or so of middle class people who smoke, to quit.
- bryanrasmussen 9y agoso when the poor eat the rich and middle classes at least the meat will be of higher quality?
- kemiller2002 9y agoSadly enough, the poor never eat the middle and upper classes. The upper and the middle may switch and inconvenience the other for a time, but the poor will always be the poor. They never get to go anywhere.
- thinkfurther 9y agoI once spent a night in the home of an elderly very poor couple on Tenerife, because they offered some sort of service where the husband would fetch people from the ferry, and bring them to the airport the next day. They were so kind. He was near mentally challenged, a super sweet guy working as a garbage man there, so they could just barely afford it. They lived there because she had horrible arthritis and the climate there was the only thing that had ever helped. They had basically no friends there, lived in a poor village in some outskirts, the broken down look over your shoulder kind. And I still remember how she offered, just to be hospitable, some watered down fruit juice with like just a whiff of alcohol, and how she pointed to her super cheap cigarettes and said with a voice that was so full of cynicism and despair at the same time, that this was her only pleasure. I still remember that voice, the look her face had at that second, some kind of snarl -- not against me, they were so kind to me.. but against her fate I guess, and/or herself. It's impossible for me to describe, but indelible. Like all that misery, that is mostly pent up and that will follow her into the grave, escaping a bit in a short hiss. There is a German saying, to make a good face in a bad situation, and for just a split second, her face stopped doing that altogether, and I will never forget. God forbid that I do. None of what I'm writing makes sense to anyone I'm sure, but I so wish I could describe the pang I felt then -- and the pang I felt just now, reading the suggestion that, basically, "they" are beyond help anyway, so let's make advertisements shaming people for smoking, so that those who still have something to lose might fear to be associated with those who don't. Would you also say this in the presence of "the" poor? If I could make one invention, it would be something that swaps the brains of humans around every 5 years, completely randomly. People would sober up rather quickly I'm sure.
- jacquesm 9y ago> If I could make one invention, it would be something that swaps the brains of humans around every 5 years, completely randomly. People would sober up rather quickly I'm sure. A variation on that is that the world where you have no control over who you will be in it is the world that you should strive to create.
- ss248 9y agoThis is called "Veil of ignorance". [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_of_ignorance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_of_ignorance
- gruturo 9y ago(Mis-)Quoting John Steinbeck, "the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires". This can be a powerful driver. And if it gets people to stop smoking, which is a devastatingly unhealthy habit, well, I'm ok with that.
- whatok 9y agoReally can't tell if this is sarcasm or someone who just missed the entire US presidential cycle.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- BOBOTWINSTON 9y agoThere might be something there with economics, but a government (or any authority) calling people losers I doubt would have any effect. The "drugs aren't cool" campaign's have never really worked.
- flipp3r 9y agoHahaha, this reminded me of a The Onion video. I'm sure it would eliminate smoking among kids almost entirely; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjsSVCLxcZ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjsSVCLxcZ4
- TausAmmer 9y agoFat shaming works too.
- cafard 9y agoOutstanding! And maybe we can call them "deplorables", because that worked so well last fall.
- josefresco 9y agoSome of those anti-tobacco (I'm blanking on the name) commercials targeted at teens/kids use this approach. I forget the actual line, but they mention something about how smokers make less money .. anyone have a link?
- fjdlwlv 9y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_(anti-tobacco_campaign) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_(anti-tobacco_campaign...
- almonj 9y agoProhibition makes things edgier and cooler, it only makes people want to do it more. Pretty sure there are places that legalized drugs and usage rates went down.
- tertius 9y agoAlso, prohibition does not remove addiction. But I'm sure there's something they can add to our drinking water to change that...
- tertius 9y agoI'm not kidding, advances in anti-addiction medication is going pretty well...
- gruturo 9y agoBut this isn't prohibition - tobacco products are still for sale (except to minors, where the mechanism you mention definitely is at play). It's just building a social stigma about the use of the product - which happens to be based on facts.
- jayess 9y agoWhat a completely tone-deaf, condescending position.
- psyc 9y agoUh, what? I know I'm a poor loser, and all the poor losers I know, know we're poor losers. We don't exist in an arena where that's embarrassing. That's just you lot.
- throwanem 9y agoThat's already more or less the attitude that prevails among those of moderate to high socioeconomic standing. Making it official doesn't seem likely to change anything, especially in light of the fact that you don't really find a lot of cases in which people from different situations mix like that - it's pretty difficult for social opprobrium to exert much pressure upon people who never actually experience firsthand because they're never around those who would express it, or vice versa. Quite aside from which, as I mentioned before, this is already pretty much the attitude, and the natural response to contempt is resentment. I've gotten any number of sidelong looks and smartassed comments from people who seem to find it a trespass upon their persons that I happen to be smoking within their eyeshot, and I can't say it has made me any more inclined to quit than the perceptible effects of maintaining the habit already do.
- amelius 9y agoOr how about a mandatory message like "drinking may decrease libido" on every alcohol-related commercial?
- coldtea 9y ago>Suddenly you'd be embarrassed of being seen smoking. Or, you know, even more determined than ever to smoke. Psychology is not that simple. (Some english guy, don't remember who, described the same reaction when someone like Princess Diana was on TV telling people to "Say no to drugs").
- Overtonwindow 9y agoI don't think so. You're talking about a class of people who have been beaten up so much by society for being poor, that I think most will look at that sign and go "yeah no shit" and light up again. Followed by a few more choice words at you and the sign.
- ErikVandeWater 9y agoWho do you think would think fund the "Only the poor still smoke" campaign? It looks really bad from a PR perspective.
- dsjhfiuerheru 9y agoThat is like body shaming someone for eating junk food. They know they are poor, everyone can see that they are poor, no need to point it out.