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IPFS News Link • General Opinion

In Defense of Cigarettes

• http://www.weeklystandard.com, By Matt Labash

Dear Matt,

I had this thought that America was more civil when everyone smoked. You learned from an early age that people will do something you don't like but there wasn't much you could do other than walk away. Then smokers became not just people doing something others don't like, but bad people whose second hand smoke (allegedly) kills. Nowadays, anyone who disagrees with you isn't just different or misguided, they are a bad person who must be ostracized/destroyed. Thoughts?

Charles Zambori,

Dallas, TX

At the risk of sounding like some heedless libertine, I've always loved smokers, even though I've never been one. Not habitually. I sometimes tried to smoke cigars during cocktail hours back in the nineties, when twentysomethings felt duty-bound to pretend they liked swing-dancing and pork pie hats and Squirrel Nut Zippers shows while smoking Cohibas as thick as baby legs. ('Twas an unfortunate chapter in our history, which served as a sneak preview of what our culture would become: a wan remix of a more vital, authentic time from decades past. The redux version feels more like kids playing dress-up.)


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