Anticonsumption

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UK Prime Minister to create ‘smokefree generation’ by ending cigarette sales to those born on or after 1 January 2009 (www.gov.uk)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by activistPnk@slrpnk.net to c/anticonsumption@slrpnk.net

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I think it was the prime minister (or spokesperson) who made this very clever argument: (paraphrasing) “we are not taking away choice… cigarettes are designed to inherently take away your choice by trapping you in an addiction.”

I’m not picking sides here, just pointing out a great piece of rhetoric to spin the policy as taking away something that takes away your choice. Effectively putting forward the idea that you don’t have choice to begin with.

(sorry to say this rhetoric was not mentioned in the linked article; I just heard it on BBC World Service)

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[+] gimpchrist@lemmy.world -6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

How about you just ban additives and allow native people to grow roll and sell tobacco as they used to back before colonization? The natives, as far as I know, weren't putting formaldehyde in their tobacco, so removing all the additives and allowing natural cigarettes to be sold by a group who were completely oppressed wouldn't be a bad fucking idea

[–] guy@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

This article is about the UK. People of the UK are the natives; didn't colonize themselves

[–] hakase@lemm.ee 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Britain has been colonized at least five times: by the Celts, then by the Romans, then the Saxons, then the Norse, and finally by the Norman French, and those are only the ones we know about.

The only lands that haven't been colonized at some point in their history are Antarctica and recently settled islands like Iceland and some of the Pacific Islands.

[–] guy@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Well yeah. I just meant in the modern wave of colonisation, where there is still a distinct and clear divide between native and new population left over

[–] gimpchrist@lemmy.world 0 points 6 months ago

Fair enough I guess