Title.
This thread is filled with reactionary thought. Opposing policy changes, and upholding the status quo, based on your own personal anecdotes is reactionary thought. You are not looking at the issue through a leftist framework. “Banning menthol cigarettes just made me switch to non-menthol cigarettes, so the ban of menthol cigarettes is useless” is an identical thought process to “I already get raises and benefits at my job, so unions are useless”. It is a thought process that is premised on ignorance.
Thinking that having a commodity targeted towards you is some kind of advantage or freedom is such a lib-brain thought. Freedom is not the ability to choose between products. You are not the commodities that you consume. You are doing reification. The menthol cigarette ban is not intended to harm specific people. It does not take away their ability to smoke cigarettes. The menthol cigarette ban is intended to reduce the number of ways that exploitative cigarette companies target oppressed groups in society.
Here’s a clip from Adam Curtis’s Century of the self where he describes how cigarette companies in 1929 co-opted feminist movements to manipulate women into smoking cigarettes.
Couldn’t you also argue that banning menthols is reactionary? Instead of attacking the root of the problem, it’s a half assed measure that disproportionately effects POC. The same companies that make menthol cigarettes make full flavor and lite cigarettes too.
It is a half measure, yes, but a half measure in this case is better than no measure. It may disproportionately affect POC, but in a good way. Reducing the number of people that are targeted by cigarette companies is a good thing. The FDA cigarette ban was a response to a lawsuit by a black advocacy group and a few medical associations.
The menthol cigarette ban not only targets black people, it was advocated by black people. You can read the AATCLC’s website.
On full flavor and light cigarettes, full flavor just means regular cigarette, not that it is flavored, and light cigarette means that it has holes in the filter. The only difference between the full flavor cigarette and the light cigarette is the holes in the filter that let in more air. You can put your fingers over the air holes on the light cigarette and you have created a full flavor cigarette. Alternatively you could just poke holes in the full flavor cigarette to make a light cigarette.
More anti-rave legislation from Joe Biden
Canada banned menthol, and it only led to me switching what i smoked. Smoking is smoking. If you have an addiction, a ban is just another roadblock you’ll have to deal with.
this is literal class warfare
why are you surprised that Jim Crow Biden is a racist drug warrior lol
Defending cigarette companies’ ability to target black people is not a woke take. Black people don’t prefer menthol cigarettes because it is inherently part of black identity. Black people mostly smoke menthol cigarettes because cigarette companies spent decades manipulating black people to smoke menthol cigarettes through targeted advertisements, free cigarettes to children, and co-opting social movements.
Thinking that having a commodity targeted towards you is some kind of advantage or freedom is such a lib-brain thought. Freedom is not the ability to choose between products. You are not the commodities that you consume. You are doing reification. The menthol cigarette ban is not intended to harm black people. It does not take away their ability to smoke cigarettes. The menthol cigarette ban is intended to reduce the number of ways that exploitative cigarette companies target oppressed groups in society.
Here’s a clip from Adam Curtis’s Century of the self where he describes how cigarette companies in 1929 co-opted feminist movements to manipulate women into smoking cigarettes.
