Comments on: “Not a cough in a carload:” Images from the Tobacco Industry’s Campaign to Hide the Hazards of Smoking http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/12/not_a_cough_in.html The Law, the Universe, and Everything Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:10:41 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.3 hourly 1 By: A.W. http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/12/not_a_cough_in.html/comment-page-1#comment-45459 A.W. Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:56:38 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2008/12/not-a-cough-in-a-carload-images-from-the-tobacco-industrys-campaign-to-hide-the-hazards-of-smoking.html#comment-45459 Sheesh. Okay, here is the truth. EVERYONE KNEW TOBACCO WAS BAD FOR YOU. We are not infants who needed the government to tell us. We all knew. And this notion that "gee, i had no idea" is just a lawyer's invention. Ditto with addiction. In this context addiction means "gee, i really like doing this." Well, duh, which is why people do something they know is bad for them. Can we stop coddling the plaintiff's bar and tell the truth? This is just a confluence of greedy trial lawyers and nanny state liberalism. And I am sick to death of this manufactured outrage. And I say that as someone who doesn't smoke, who doesn't profit from smoking in any tangential way (unless you count the fact i work for a health care company). But the fact is smokers put a gun to their own heads for years, and i am sick and tired of people pretending otherwise. Sheesh. Okay, here is the truth. EVERYONE KNEW TOBACCO WAS BAD FOR YOU. We are not infants who needed the government to tell us. We all knew. And this notion that “gee, i had no idea” is just a lawyer’s invention.

Ditto with addiction. In this context addiction means “gee, i really like doing this.” Well, duh, which is why people do something they know is bad for them.

Can we stop coddling the plaintiff’s bar and tell the truth? This is just a confluence of greedy trial lawyers and nanny state liberalism. And I am sick to death of this manufactured outrage.

And I say that as someone who doesn’t smoke, who doesn’t profit from smoking in any tangential way (unless you count the fact i work for a health care company). But the fact is smokers put a gun to their own heads for years, and i am sick and tired of people pretending otherwise.

]]> By: MJG http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/12/not_a_cough_in.html/comment-page-1#comment-45458 MJG Tue, 23 Dec 2008 06:16:43 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2008/12/not-a-cough-in-a-carload-images-from-the-tobacco-industrys-campaign-to-hide-the-hazards-of-smoking.html#comment-45458 The pilot episode of the show Mad Men has some enjoyable scenes recounting this. One character even jokingly notes that "I know I slept better knowing that doctors smoke." The pilot episode of the show Mad Men has some enjoyable scenes recounting this. One character even jokingly notes that “I know I slept better knowing that doctors smoke.”

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