UK Politics
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!ukpolitics@lemm.ee appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(
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Absolutely stupid.
Absolutely authoritarian.
Education campaigns are far more effective with far less pushback than draconian bans. Let people choose for themselves.
I remember constant campaigns in the past trying to convince the public of the ills of smoking, and it (slowly) appeared to be working. Then vaping came along, and instead of continuing the education campaigns, the health departments tactics seemed to change to "take up vaping, it's better than smoking".
And now, it may just be anecdotal, but smoking appears to me at least, to be on the rise again. I wonder why?
Health departments are recommending vaping, are they? Are you just making things up?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-around-95-less-harmful-than-tobacco-estimates-landmark-review
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-could-be-prescribed-on-the-nhs-in-world-first
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/quit-smoking/using-e-cigarettes-to-stop-smoking/
https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/vaping-to-quit-smoking/vaping-myths-and-the-facts/
That took about 3 seconds of Googling
They are recommending vaping in exchange for smoking. Come on you're not even trying to good faith argument at this point, you're just putting forward nonsense that isn't true and then backing it up by deliberately misunderstanding basic facts.
As in, not quitting ingesting nicotine. Still inhaling foreign substances into the lungs. Vaping is still shit for you.
In the early 2000s the message was "smoking is bad, here is why, this is what it will do to you, please don't do it". That message was sinking in to the general public. Smoking was plummeting.
Then austerity came along around the same time as vaping and it became far more convenient to just ask smokers to vape instead of mass education campaigns.
Now the simple answer is just banning it.
It's not a solution. It normalises government overreach into day to day life, it others people and makes them targets for discrimination, and doesn't convince people of the ills of smoking.
It's a dumb idea that polarises people and doesn't fix the root issue.
Who's not arguing in good faith now?
Fair dos. Better off just banning it. Would do me a world of good not to have the temptation.