tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23077414.post6929417408806609723..comments2023-10-12T09:29:51.035-05:00Comments on The Podium: Smoking Ban ThoughtsRev. Christopher J. Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15020185341644873695noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23077414.post-84265415382424043792008-11-26T13:17:00.000-06:002008-11-26T13:17:00.000-06:00They're not pushing enforcement on campuses right ...They're not pushing enforcement on campuses right now because the goal at this point is to simply rack up the numbers of "successful" bans. This has several effects:<BR/><BR/>1) It prevents in-depth questioning of the need for the bans. The university community is dangerous because students are educated enough to actually look behind the sound bites and discover the lies at the base of the bans. That's something antismoking organizations definitely do NOT want to see.<BR/><BR/>2) With every ban passed it becomes easier to get another. A few months ago they pushed bans by saying "Over 140 campuses have banned smoking!" Now they're saying "Over 160 campuses have banned smoking!" They'll continue like this until they hit a point where they can stake a claim to campus bans being "the norm" and then they'll be able to go back and say, "Hey, there's no longer any DEBATE about the ban - we've ALL accepted it - so now it's just a question of how best to enforce it."<BR/><BR/>3)Once they get a significant number of schools with campus bans they can rack up the blackmail level on colleges that resist, threatening to publicize the schools as "encouraging addiction" among their students and threatening to notify parents of prospective students of a school's "dangerous policy."<BR/><BR/>There's no sound medical reason for outdoor bans and actually no sound medical reason for forbidding smoking areas indoors either. Even most extremists will admit, when pressed, that as long as a room is separately ventilated with an exhaust fan there is no significant amount of smoke that would escape and attack innocent lungs in other parts of a building. The true purpose of the bans has nothing to do with the health of nonsmokers and everything to do with the social engineering technique of "denormalization," a term that Antismokers avoieded using publicly until the last two years or so but which has been behind many of their efforts for a decade or more. That's why you'll always see stout resistance to any plan that offers comfortable indoor accomodations where smokers and their friends can gather and relax: it doesn't fit the desired model of making them huddle out by a dumpster.<BR/><BR/>Michael J. McFadden<BR/>Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"Michael J. McFaddenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12181949578184965482noreply@blogger.com