Don’t smoke, stupid!

As was forecast here, the campaign to demonize cigarette smoking is underway. A new website at stupid.ca labels cigarette smoking and, presumably, smokers as stupid.

The arrogance is tangible. In a free market, we all make choices and trades, and the concept of value is subjective. What I might like, you might not, and what I think is a fair trade, you might not. Except in the case of smoking, apparently, where some people are right and others, stupid. A person who chooses to smoke and is aware of the health risks is making a simple trade: health for pleasure. People do this all the time in extreme sports, recreational shooting, even in driving cars. If condemnation of these free trades is correct, then in reductio ad absurdum one is “stupid” to leave one’s padded cell, where one should sit quietly for a natural lifespan, wearing a crash helmet and body armour, eating bland and definitely microbiologically safe food. Down with risk! Down with fun! Down with free will and choice!

There’s nothing wrong with telling the truth and presenting fact, of course, but to take a subjective opinion and present it as truth and fact is to be on very dangerous ground.