Wednesday 8 February 2017

It's A Good Country If It Agrees With Simple Simon

Simple Simon Chapman has been heroically doing his Canute impression at The Conversation by employing global cherry-picking on steroids to pretend a bunch of vaping truths are actually myths. Comical stuff like this for example.
9. There’s no good evidence for e-cigarettes being a gateway to smoking in young people 
Centers for Disease Control data from 2015 demonstrate a concerning sudden cessation and plateau in the previous decline of US high school students smoking tobacco, while e-cigarette use is skyrocketing.
Yeah OK, oddball.


Yes, the whole thing is as shit as that. Y'see, Simple Simon is one of the old guard of tobacco control who lied for decades about smoking and saw a bovine public actually believe them. So therefore now think all they have to do is lie outrageously about e-cigs and - hey presto! - they will again be lauded for protecting society from imaginary danger ... instead of hilariously destroying their ill-gotten reputations in favour of a place in history as an ignorant object of eternal ridicule.

The most interesting thing about Simon Chapman's article though - apart from his increasingly isolated battle with reality - was this exchange in the comments.
Jenny
Prof Chapman said; “But 18 nations ban e-cigarettes outright,…”
To expand on that using the link provided, the 18 countries who have banned ecigs are: ARGENTINA, AUSTRIA, BRAZIL, BRUNEI, INDONESIA, COLOMBIA, JORDAN, MALAYSIA, MEXICO, OMAN, PANAMA, QATAR, SINGAPORE, TAIWAN, THAILAND, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UAE, including Dubai, URUGUAY, VENEZUELA. 
By contrast the UNITED KINGDOM, UNITED STATES, and the EUROPEAN UNION, along with a few other western democracies are all in the list of countries that permit (and in some cases encourage) the use of ecigs. 
CANADA and NEW ZEALAND are both in the process of liberalising their current restrictions on use. 
I don’t think I need to expand on the meaning evident in this information, but I will say that tobacco harm reduction seems to be favoured by more progressive, western nations.
Fellow commenter Mark haughtily objected to what he saw as disrespectful insinuation.
Mark
From what I can tell from your post you are suggesting that countries in which which legislation reflects your own views on vaping are “more progressive” while those that don’t reflect your views are not.  You should try and explain that.
Yes, what a terrible argument! I mean, who but a fool would dismiss entire nations simply because they disagree, eh?




You don't often see articles where a commenter defends the author while indirectly calling him a bellend, now do you? 



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