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I think that the anti smoking hysteria is still the same old moral saw, but now health and morality are seen as the same thing. I'm not saying that smoking is good for you--it's pretty clearly not. I'm saying that health is used as a bludgeon against groups that are not socially approved of--typically lower class non-whites. You see the same thing with obesity and marijuana, of which there is very little actual evidence of harmfulness. Our puritan culture just has a real problem with folks doing anything for pure enjoyment. After all, there *must* be some moral superiority to never having any fun and working all the time--otherwise *why do it?*
AK
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