this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
31 points (100.0% liked)
Politics
10179 readers
285 users here now
In-depth political discussion from around the world; if it's a political happening, you can post it here.
Guidelines for submissions:
- Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
- Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
- Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
- Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
- Social media should be a source of last resort.
These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
For real? Using a police brutality tragedy of a POC that is tangentially related to cigarettes to push something you don’t actually give a fuck either way about just to make Biden look bad? I hope voters see right through this as the same disingenuous, cultural war bullshit that republicans always pull because they can’t win on real issues.
Also, I’m no Biden fan, but I hate Big Tobacco even more, so I hope this goes through, and I hope they go after vapes directly marketing to children next. Menthol is all about making it easier to avoid noticing the direct effects of smoking on their body. A company making something dangerous should not be allowed to do that. You want to do it on your own, go ahead! But for a manufacturer, who has a history of shady dealings regarding downplaying the health risks of their products, this should be seen as another example of that. Speaking of shady dealings, I would be shocked if Big Tobacco did not have a direct hand in this ad campaign.
Cigarettes themselves began as a "less harmful" way of consuming tobacco, with all the included filters, cough medicine, the messaging about how "smooth" they are, and then menthol as a last twist, all to get people as addicted as possible ("got a sore throat? try a cigarette!"... it will calm your throat while you smoke it, then leave it even more irritated... so maybe you smoke another one).
BTW, menthol cigarettes have been banned in the EU since 2020 (should have been 2016, but whatever). TIL they aren't yet in the US... but then again, guess not much of a surprise there.
Back in 2009, we banned all flavored cigarettes, but there was a specific exception for menthol.
Source, no paywall
Americans are the only ones who overwhelmingly defend possession of guns - a device meant only for violence and killing - as a fundamental right. I have seen so many of them claim that gun prohibition is ineffective, while the rest of the world has put it into practice and proved it works. The American solution to every mass shooting is very predictable - more guns! Big tobacco is mild compared to that (I'm not a fan of tobacco and have never consumed it).
American companies are a different breed - even among the private institutions in the world that pursue profit at any cost. Forget the really harmful ones like gun dealers, big tobacco or the oil industry. Even completely essential ones like the aircraft industry give little value to the lives of ordinary individuals. They would rather see people dead if the cost of litigation isn't as high as putting safety features in. To put it mildly, US is a nightmarish dystopia from those apocalyptic novels.