JamesBond

But decades of 500K deaths EVERY YEAR aren't enough to just stop it 'cold turkey' as in make it illegal? mmmmmmkay

Science... I guess.

Buck Rogers

But James, if you outlawed tobacco, think about how many jobs it would cost to save those 500,000 lives per year!

Tobacco is another instance of White systemic racism when you look at percentages of users/abusers by ethnic breakout.

Is this far enough "off the rails" for you guys?

Gunfighter

We did an interesting case study of the tobacco industry in B-School. The government mandated cuts in advertising saved the companies billions of dollars competing with each other. Cutting the Phillip Morris/Altria advertising budget was a gift from the government. Understanding the concept of "the prisoners dilemma" makes this a fairly logical conclusion. There has been a similar cost saving effect WRT hard alcohol.

What's interesting is that with a clear link between sugar and obesity, plus a clear link between obesity and health(COVID severity), the government ignored the science and chose not to reduce the guidelines for daily consumption of sugar or alcohol.

Government regulations aren't for the good of the people, they are for the good of those who own the largest share of congress.

We're already off the rails, might as well put on the tinfoil hats.

Buck Rogers

Darn it Gunfighter. Logical reasoning shant be tolerated when I'm try to go "off the rails"

Iceberg

So you agree voluntary tobacco use and involuntary Covid infection are, in fact, not similar?

Buck Rogers

Dead is dead....or does that not apply in your universe? Unnecessary death from Covid seems analogous to unnecessary death due to lung cancer. Why do we have seat belt laws.....shouldn't they be discretionary too?

Does the government have a mandate to protect it's citizens? How far does that go?


OBTW....how can you mandate seat belt usage but not motorcycle helmet laws?

Nothing to see here ...move along

Iceberg

Sure, dead is dead. I didn’t say it wasn’t. If you were to go back and read, I objected to the fact that VOLUNTARY tobacco use was being equated to INVOLUNTARY COVID infection. I didn’t say anyone was more dead than anyone else. I didn’t say anyone was more or less deserving of being titled dead. I didn’t even say anything about dead at all. I’m not even sure what you are attempting to argue about because none of it has anything to do with what I said.

TED74

I don’t know why anyone pays pollsters to gather data on the populace. The post above (presumably typed by an upstanding, highly successful college graduate) is all anyone needs for any number of helpful litmus tests to sort us all rather efficiently. “If you find the logic of these statements to be sound, convincing or comforting, please step over here. The rest of you, please step over there. We are now perfectly sorted by [insert any metric you like].”

DenverPilot8

You and Buck seem incapable of presenting proper lines of logic. Constantly making mental leaps in unrelated subjects or tying things in random fashion to try to “prove” your points. It’s the type of thing that is used constantly to harden people in a different reality. The line of thinking goes like this

- IF Al Gore flies on a private jet then he is a hypocrite and therefore climate change isn’t real
- IF the government doesn’t outlaw cigarettes then Covid restrictions or actions are invalid
- IF the media is overblowing the pandemic it is fictional or not serious therefore everything should be open.

Take a nugget of reasonable truth (Al Gore is being hypocritical, Media is overblowing things) and use it to make unrelated and factually incorrect leaps.

“Get back to me when this has killed 500,000 for 4 or 5 years and I might be interested in listening then.”

Your burden of proof is 2.5 million deaths.. think about that for a second.

Hank Kingsley

Get a blond comb over, paint your face orange, don't forget your ears and hands, oops. Lie, deny and file a lawsuit. Everything is a hoax or rigged, high school GPA to the Emmys, now fashion magazine covers. People will believe whatever you say. Wish I would have tried this years ago.