Cigarettes and the End of the World.

As a topic for discussion, lets consider the mindset of a US soldier during WWII in Europe. Certainly they had to go up against some dicey situations. Seeing their mortality and how easily it can leave you, most expected to get at least shot, if not killed. During this, in their food rations they received cigarettes. Many of the soldiers who lived came back to America to become life-long smokers. So imagine that mindset of that soldier. Would it be possible that the real or imaginative, inevitable approach of death would make a person more likely to start smoking or smoke more often? My conclusion would be Yes, but that’s purely speculative since there is no public study that shows this.

So, keep this in mind, and consider if it would be a plausible scenario that cigarette companies would invest in doomsday programs on public television or other forms of media, in an attempt to try and recreate that sense of doom the soldiers experienced, that the companies had found worked well for distributing their product in the 1940’s. Would it be possible that this sense of doom that most experience, comes strictly from the desire to sell their product? After all, people had never focused on 2012 as being the end of the world, at least not until the mainstream media said they should.

Just something to consider. No links, no proof, just a thought.

reply to post by wishful1gnorance


Hey, very interesting topic. A friend of mine told me her Dad told her when he joined the Marines back in the 50's, he was given a carton of cigarettes and a bible! I think there is something to what you are proposing here wishful, and also would like to add the Native use of tobacco was very different, but they also knew something about this plant that ultimately spread across the globe and holds millions captive. I wish I had more time to post, but will keep up with this thread.

Let's all blame it on the cigarettes now.

In fact, I'll light one up because you're talking about it.

Head for the hills, we're all going to die.

Just about anything you do is going to kill you some way or another.

People need to get off the cigarette conspiracy bandwagon.

Years ago, people were told/taught that cigarettes calmed a person, relieved their stress.
These days we know better.

If someone used to be a smoker, I can see them wanting a smoke, the addiction might still be present, but if you're not a cigarette smoker I cannot see why they would want to start.

I know smokings bad for you an all, but it does make for some awesome stress relief, if I was on the battle front, with death likely at any time, I'd want hundreds!!

I don't think the cigerette corps would go as far as creatings wars and such, just a good dose of adverstiring..

reply to post by Manhater


You're right, it's all a complete fabrication, it's just everyone's imagination that 1/5 deaths each year can be directly related to smoking cigarettes.

Just the Facts:
Tobacco Related Mortality

If that's not enough, lets look at the leading causes of death, how many of which could we easily link to smoking?
Mortality Rates

Surely that isn't a conspiracy, people are dieing rapidly? Could it be attributed to the sense of doom they already face, or the metaphorical hydra of the constant problems that arise on a day to day basis on a national and personal level?

I like to listen to the words of James Spader, playing his role as Alan Shore in the TV series Boston Legal, I can't account for the statistics he lists, not specifically anyway, but listen to the what he has to say:

it's funny how you would smoke cigarettes for stress relief and not the other less harmful ILLEGAL substance.

but I would believe that is by design as well since the ILLEGAL substance helps you in questioning things that don't make sense as well

Originally posted by yourmaker
it's funny how you would smoke cigarettes for stress relief and not the other less harmful ILLEGAL substance.

but I would believe that is by design as well since the ILLEGAL substance helps you in questioning things that don't make sense as well

In Canada, cigarettes are the last thing the majority of us would even think of.
Our cigarette smoking rate has gone way down from what it used to be decades ago.
We're just not allowed to mention our cravings for the "organic" stuff here.
Tobacco, full of the chemicals they put in to make people addicted, would be too stressful to think about putting that in our bodies

www.cbc.ca...

In 1965, 49 per cent of Canadians over the age of 15 smoked.

The latest Statistics Canada figures show smoking rates are fairly stable. In 2010, 20.8 per cent of Canadians aged 12 and over — about six million people — were smokers

*Other* smoking rates are about the same for those that have been polled, probably greatly under reported ...

There is truth in this. Honestly I smoke to speed up the process here on earth...

Smoking rates are also reportedly way down in the USA.

www.cdc.gov...

An estimated 45.3 million people, or 19.3% of all adults (aged 18 years or older), in the United States smoke cigarettes. Cigarette smoking is more common among men (21.5%) than women (17.3%).

reply to post by KnawLick


Sorry to hear that buddy, it shouldn't be that way, we weren't meant to live like this.

reply to post by snowspirit


I wonder if that's because a bunch of people just died... (I don't know, just throwing that out there). The younger generation is better about it, but the companies are still recruiting. I wonder why we haven't mandated marking cigarettes packs as lethal poison if Americans are so conscious about it. We creates rules for everything else.

Originally posted by KnawLick
There is truth in this. Honestly I smoke to speed up the process here on earth...

I know right. Like seriously......

Originally posted by wishful1gnorance
reply to post by snowspirit

 

I wonder if that's because a bunch of people just died... (I don't know, just throwing that out there). The younger generation is better about it, but the companies are still recruiting. I wonder why we haven't mandated marking cigarettes packs as lethal poison if Americans are so conscious about it. We creates rules for everything else.

Ours up here, are locked away out of sight, in cabinets (no see through doors), or under the counters, and have some really graphic photos on them. ID is required, you have to prove you're 18 or older.
No smoking in public buildings, bars, restaurants, workplaces, cars if children are present, etc....

My favorite photo, was one of a limp cigarette Not graphic, but it gets the point across.
Maybe more women would also quit if they knew how much cigarettes age the skin.

Targeting virility and looks, almost seem like they work better than other health issues..

If a smoker dies at age 69 it will likely be attributed to his smoking. I'm not sure if that is fair or not, or possibly he would have lived a few years more. Regardless of what is said about it very few heavy smokers die exceptionally young for that reason; they tend to die-off in the median age of a normal lifespan. On the other hand, I have known quite a number of heavy drinkers not make it out of their forties or past their mid-50's.

Little is said to discourage people from partaking in their favorite recreational drug, alcohol, or to discourage the vast nightlife activities that are centered around its consumption. Perhaps because drunk-driving arrests are a cash cow and a quick and easy way to put people into the incarceration/probation supervised justice system it is encouraged. Yes, it is encouraged. Beer and alcoholic refreshments are widely sold and available at most any public family event from sports to county fairs. It is our gateway into accepting recreational drug use as a natural and acceptable part of western life. Small children grow up waiting for the day they too will be able to chug away at that beverage daddy is drinking, made that much more enticing due to its wide availability and its taboo to the youth in our society that are so anxious to grow up and have it all available to them.

Too much attention is given to smoking. There are greater dangers to living that will take your youth and innocence away much sooner.

reply to post by wishful1gnorance


I think too much is being read into this. I think it was just a way to be nice to the troops. If you were away from your main compound you may not have had access to a "store" to purchase your smokes. Remember almost everyone smoked back then, Or, used the cigs as "trading" material. BTW even as late as Vietnam we got cigarettes in our rations, little packs of 3 smokes.
I quit six years ago and I must admit, in times of stress I REALLY want a smoke. So far, I've been good.

Originally posted by bjrichardson
reply to post by wishful1gnorance

 

I think too much is being read into this. I think it was just a way to be nice to the troops. If you were away from your main compound you may not have had access to a "store" to purchase your smokes. Remember almost everyone smoked back then, Or, used the cigs as "trading" material. BTW even as late as Vietnam we got cigarettes in our rations, little packs of 3 smokes.
I quit six years ago and I must admit, in times of stress I REALLY want a smoke. So far, I've been good.

I agree. I'm sure the tobacco companies have their hands in the pot like many others but what you have said is more correct. I can tell you from experience that even with todays logistics smokes can be hard to come by on long field ops and combat situations. In Iraq we mostly smoked what we could get from the locals by bartering with them. We would also trade amongst ourselves for smokes. Whenever we went on a two or three week field op I would always take an extra carton and get up to 25 dollars a pack from the idiots who didn't bring enough.

I feel like poo will hit the proverbial fan, and we'll all die before cigarettes do. Maybe its just me.

Mainstream didnt start the end of the world crap, youtube and sites like this did.... mainstream just caught on... Where cigarettes fit in to this.... IDK?

One of my favorite bumper stickers from the 90s was,
"You know what cures smoking? Cancer."

I find it humorously forthright that some of the people shrugging away this proposed idea are in fact smokers trying to speed up the process. (Big Tobacco 1, Consumers 0)

I don't believe what I'm suggesting is really that far left field, the tobacco industry is known for it's clandestine tactics to create a new basis of smokers. I don't see it as undefinable as some of you conclude. If they can't advertise through the normal means, surely they might turn to subliminal ploys to continue their efforts. Some might see it as a helpful means of providing soldiers with smokes, but I guess I see it differently... and whether they did that at the time intentionally or not, is unknowable. The point is that they found an emotion to play on and they might be using that strategy today. Certainly this is not that far-fetched.