You've Got To Be Kidding Me

So I was digging around trying to find the article I read earlier about Anousheh Ansar, the lady that will one day make space flight affordable, when I came across an article about Light cigarettes instead. Apparently, the cigarette companies are getting sued once more for stating that "Light" cigarettes are better for you than regular cigarettes. It would seem that the tobacco companies knew that "Light" cigarette smokers tended to smoke more cigarettes, take longer drags, and, in general, just "smoke them harder" than they would regular cigarettes. In effect, because of how smokers smoked Light cigarettes, they were no less dangerous than smoking regular, hard-core, cigarettes. Popular opinion would probably agree with such a statement and to popular opinion I would say, "get a fucking clue!" I don't like cigarette companies, I think they are a bunch of profit-mongers just like most other large corporations but I don't blame them because they are not to blame. I don't like cigarettes either (although I am a social smoker and probably down about one a day on average...or used to when I had some semblance of a social life) but I don't believe we can just cheat the system in order to abolish cigarettes: which is what this is all about. Light cigarettes have less of the "evil" substances than regular cigarettes. If Light cigarette smokers end up smoking more or "harder" then what fault is it of the company selling the product? Really, how are they even able to actively promote Light cigarettes as being more healthy? Not by advertisement, since that money is spent on trying to get people to stop smoking (as ordered in the decree of the previous lawsuit). Not on their website either or by giving out cool shit since Marlboro Miles are worthless nowadays. Still, even if the lawsuit does end up going against the cigarette manufacturers, how will that change anything? Sure, they will stop selling Lights but they will just come out with Smooth or TT name instead which will be code for the same thing as Light. In the end, cigarettes will still be around and just as accessible as before. Why? Because as much as cigarette smokers are addicted to cigarettes, the government is just as addicted to all that yummy tax revenue from it's "sin" tax on the product, and those people constantly suing cigarette companies: they will get their little piece of the pie so that they can go out and buy a bunch of new shit and still feel like they are changing the world.

As for the thousands of teens who act like fools in cars and end up dying, shoot each other for no reason, take experimental drugs that can kill them instantly (and not years upon years later like cigarettes), and constantly think about taking their own life through suicide: well little is being done about that. But nobody should be blamed for not trying to stop any of that because, honestly, there just isn't any money in it.

Here's the article.