Yeah, I can imagine that. Tobacco companies have been selling better smoking (first, electric cigarettes, then vapes) for decades.
Without control, companies will always want to sell more
this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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Vaping is actually very helpful and it's probably helped a lot of people stop smoking.
The only problem was the fact that they got away with doing shit like advertising it to kids and making it cool. Fix that problem and vaping is almost literally only an advantage compared to cigarettes.
And even with more people taking it up, it's still unhealthy but it's like mildly unhealthy instead of cigarettes where it's like oh yeah you're going to double your chance of dying at 50.
Vaping is an advantage compared to cigarettes sure, but it is still signifcantly worse than just breathing air and it still promotes consuming one of the most addictive substances, nicotine. It drains the health and wealth of its consumers and offers little more than a head rush and a habit in return.
For the vast majority of smokers it's not a choice between vaping and air, it's a choice between vaping and cigarettes.
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First the cigarette itself was marketed as better than rolling your own. Next came filters, so called "light" and "ultralight" versions of existing products, electric cigs, then finally vapes.
Imagine if we ran out of war. All those jobs in the military and the military industrial complex!
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I was surprised when I was quitting smoking that my friend (who also smoked) was advocating vaping instead. I asked: Why not just quit completely?
I do think vaping is less dangerous than actually smoking but not doing either one is best for your health. Even getting "hooked" on nicotine gum or similar is better than smoking or vaping. But again, best to just quit nicotine / smoking / vaping completely.
Switching to vaping and slowly cutting back on nicotine was integral to me eventually quiting.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all opposed to vaping as a stepping stone to quitting. I tried it myself for a little while one of the times I was trying to quit.
And, again, I do think that vaping is less dangerous than actually smoking. But best to quit all of it completely.
Yeah you're not wrong. It's about harm reduction though. If the people who wouldn't quit if they tried quitting for good switch to vaping they'll be better off. Vaping only makes sense for current smokers, no one else should be using them. They are more harmful than nothing, but way way less harmful than tobacco.
Quitting cold turkey and failing sometimes prevents people from trying again.
I think people need to PRACTICE quitting and I wish more people had this mentality. Assuming that you'll succeed at something so difficult the first of many times of trying to do it is unrealistic. It took me several attempts and taking a class about it to quit smoking.
"I couldn't climb the mountain the first time I tried with no practice or help, therefore I'm never trying again" is very defeatist. Quitting is a process and practicing quitting is completely acceptable. Learn what didn't work that time and develop strategies to deal with what didn't work.
I have a bunch of tips from the class I took that I still mostly remember. I wonder how much of that info is online.
That's a really good point. No one would expect someone's first painting to turn out to be worth millions.
I feel like the generally accepted wisdom on the issue is that quitting smoking is hard. Whichever one works for you is the best one.
For me, "harm reduction" was just a convenient excuse for not really trying... And, I eventually decided, again, this is my experience, not advice, but, like, eventually, every method of quitting will eventually be cold turkey, so I just went for it.
Personally I found the nicotine addiction is overstated. I never had any trouble making it through 8 hours of sleep without a cigarette, so my claim that I needed one every hour or two kinda seemed like bullshit. Also, if I was so hung up on nicotine addiction - nicotine starts declining in your system almost immediately, so, if I was smoking for 5 minutes of every hour, I was spending 55 minutes of every hour in nicotine withdrawal. That's.. dumb. That's a dumb way to live.
(I was also a heroin addict from when I was a teenager until my late 20s - and - at least heroin lasts a while. Nicotine is a garbage drug.)
In the end, smoking is a habit - and there's not much in the way of shortcuts to changing your habits - and it's especially hard when your enjoy it. There are better techniques and worse techniques, but no cure.
For me, when me and my wife added tiny little people to the world, I realized that they would prefer me to be alive, and I didn't want to make them sad, so I quit.
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I'm very conflicted about vaping. On the one hand I'm happy it exists as I think it can definitely help some people quit smoking.
On the other hand I dislike it as it lowers the entry into smoking and also has the adverse effect. ( My opinion ) It's probably also not great for your lungs to inhale steam on a regular basis.
As a non smoker at least my clothes don't smell like smoke/tobacco, doesn't stink up the room and there's no people holding their cigarette nexto them so it doesn't blow in their face, while it's smoking in mine all the time ( e.g.: at a bar outside ). Super annoying( though not deliberate on their end ). Vaping at least solves that issue for non smokers compared to ciggies.
Good on you for quitting!
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Regardless of how you power it, bringing thousands of pounds of steel with you to get to work or buy grocceries is inefficient. Cities really need to rethink the way they build and zone to promote higher densities and encourage walkability.
It's not even the energy that's really the issue; it's the space. Cars ruin cities by physically forcing origins and destinations to be far apart with wastelands of pavement in between. It destroys the viability of transit, makes it both laborious and downright unpleasant to walk, and even screws cities over financially because worthless pavement doesn't generate tax revenue, but costs a lot to maintain.
I agree but I do think that for the majority of people it would be easier to go from a fuel car to an electric car then it would be to having no car at all. Even if they don't use it daily it still offers them a feeling of freedom and flexibility. I know that you can also achieve that feeling using public transport / walking and cycling everywhere (Dutchie here) but it's quite the transition for people if you didn't grow up in an environment like that.
Its moreso the environment that allows a car free life to feel possible does not exist in the majority of American cities.
By design.
Having a car used to make my life more complicated, not simpler. I had to find a place where to put the damn thing daily, it cost a fortune. Granted, it came in handy once every four or five months. Still, I'm glad to have been car free for the last twenty years or so.
When I need one, I just rent it at one of the shops that are less than a km away. The rest of the time, I use my bike (I can hook a trailer to it if needed), the bus or the metro.
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alternate take: personal freedom of movement, whether bidedal, or automated, is a thing of value, as is electricity, clean running water, and a majority of what modern technology provides. it, like most everything else can be done better, and cleaner. not the same argument as smoking, which was always an "entertainment", as apposed to transportation and perambulation which are a necessity. thank you for coming to my ted talk.
Exactly right. We should celebrate the possibilities and freedom that modern technology gives us. EVs are an amazing invention and nitpicking for tiny issues that they don't solve is a level beyond First World Problems.
The only things EV's solve is emissions. They reduce emissions in cities which is great, and thanks to clean power plants (renewable and nuclear) help reduce overall emissions. But they are still cars, still take up space, they are heavier so cause more wear on the road surfaces and emit tire particles. I wouldn't say these are tiny issues.
If we have to use cars then yes, electric are better, but it's not the solution. The solution should aim at reducing use of the inefficient forms of transport in favor of mass transit or micro mobility.
Better urban planning, as well. We can't do anything about cars as long as we build entire communities to accommodate cars. We've gone from people owning cars to cars owning society.
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"clean" coal
I always imagine guys with little brushes going over all the lumps of coal until they're free of dust. "Does this look clean enough to you Bob?"
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