Anger,Civil Discourse,Social Change

Hate mail, tobacco control and social change -- Malone 20 (2): 87 -- Tobacco Control

I think most of this article is hidden behind a pay wall unfortunately.

I know I can't do justice to this but I am going to try.

The author of this gem seemingly wonders why people in the blog-sphere might have problems with tobacco control.

The author seems to be drawing a comparison between people who write letters and comments on blogs and those who go into a crowd and kill people.

And the author seems surprised at the vitriol that one letter writer has displayed to them.

When people are tired of something they usually have somewhere to express that feeling and emotion but tobacco control is so successful that no one is given equal time anywhere but the blog-sphere.

Blogs are the last place any of these people have left to share thoughts,feelings and emotions.
One particularly true thought I see expressed all the time is the feelings of loneliness and separation smokers feel from the rest of society.
They have tobacco control and their alphabet soup partners to thank for feeling like social lepers,outcasts,hated,feared,maligned,marginalized,despised.

They are called killers,they see threats of death aimed at them by non-smokers.
Since many have been forced into the outdoors to smoke some have been stabbed,shot,beaten and raped.
Some have had their children forcibly removed from their homes,have lost custody in divorce cases to a non-smoking partner.
Some sit at home devoid of all social contact,denied friendship and social structure that almost all others in society receive on a daily basis.
Is it really hard to gleam why these people would be upset?

You talk about endgame strategies,about making the hatred these people are exposed to on a daily basis worse only you call it social pressure.

I see articles talking about the best way to make smokers quit by using shame,telling them they stink,reek and smell bad.
Is it really all that hard to imagine why after a good twenty to thirty years of this people would want to lash out?
Is it so hard to put yourself in the shoes of people who make no mistake pay for the tobacco control forces they are facing with their own money?

Let's never forget that we are constantly being told by tobacco control that they love smokers but hate smoking.

I guess I don't expect love to look like this.