Bad Purchasing Decision

[The Question]

Y'know, it occurs to me that there's a word for guys who put manly things in their mouths...

 

[Volpone]

I used to smoke a pipe with some regularity. But given that everyone in my family gets cancer, this seemed a hobby worth giving up. On occasion I've smoked cigars too. Although in the past I haven't really enjoyed that. Recently, for various reasons, I needed a photo of myself, chomping on a half-smoked cigar. So I broke one out of my Zip-Lok "humidor" and smoked half of it. I was surprised to find I actually enjoyed it. So yeah. A decent cigar and a glass of whisky (scotch or bourbon) on the rocks FTW. Maybe the pipe. That has the advantage that you can smoke flavored tobacco without as much stigma and you can blow the minds of the uninitiated by casually stuffing the pipe in your coat pocket when you tire of it. Pipes are hard enough to keep going if you want them to. They go out pretty easily--and form a nice handwarmer until they do.

 

[The Question]

Whereas you can take a vape out of your pocket, not spend two minutes trying to get the tobacco lit, not have to taste the top layer of charcoal shit on top of the tobacco if you forget to knock that out -- or spend another minute trying to carefully scrape or tap it out, or risk knocking 3/4th or more of the actual tobacco out with it -- it's a whole horse's bowel of bullshit.

Take a vape out of your pocket, take a couple hits, put it back.

That is, if you're doing it for nicotine and flavor, instead of doing it as a little affectation. A few people have come in here flinging the word "girly" around, but in my estimation there's nothing more girly to taking nicotine than doing it just to impress boys.

I don't drink what I drink to impress you. I don't vape, and I don't vape what I vape, to impress you.

It's like I told Donovan: A man does what he likes because he likes it. Not for approval, not to boost his "manly image." If your "manly image" is that fucking fragile that what you drink or how you get your nicotine can damage it, then what you drink or how you get your nicotine isn't gonna fuckin' help you. You're already a fucking sissy if that's how fragile your masculinity is.

 

[jack]

Not sure what any of what you just said actually means, but whatever.

 

[The Question]

^^Seriously? That was too advanced for you?

 

[jack]

Anyone still addicted to nicotine in this day and age is clearly the sissy.

 

[The Question]

Anyone still addicted to nicotine in this day and age is clearly the sissy.

Set out your reason for thinking that.

 

[Charlemagne]

Considering that I work retail, I can tell you what the vast majority of vapers where I live are either hipsters or women.

And that the majority of tobacco-users in general are nothing more than the willing slaves of Nicotiana tabacum.

And yes, that IS tobacco's scientific name.

 

[jack]

Set out your reason for thinking that.

The majority of addicted smokers start when they're 13-17. Those that don't stop by then stay addicted generally and struggle with the addiction until they eaither quit with great difficulty or die from disease. If you haven't gotten over childhood habits by the time you've "grown up" and have switched to vaping just to satisfy your addiction then you're a sissy by definition.

 

[The Question]

If you haven't gotten over childhood habits by the time you've "grown up"

Are you saying that smoking tobacco is supposed to be a "childhood habit"?

 

[The Question]

Considering that I work retail, I can tell you what the vast majority of vapers where I live are either hipsters or women.

What kind of retail do you work? Vape shop or something else?

 

[Charlemagne]

What kind of retail do you work? Vape shop or something else?

Convenience store. Sell a LOT of both cigarettes and e-cigs. As well as e-cig cartridges and chew. You wouldn't believe the number of old people who come in once a week, spending between $50 and $100 on tobacco every time they come in.

'Course, it's not as sad as the lottery players. Seeing people blow $35 on lottery tickets every day of the year (which amounts to roughly $13,000 per year) is both annoying and depressing.

 

[jack]

Are you saying that smoking tobacco is supposed to be a "childhood habit"?

It is a childhood habit. 96% of current smokers started as kids.

 

[The Question]

Convenience store.

That's what I figured. You're selling "e-cigarettes" (as opposed to open systems) to people who mostly know little to nothing about vaping; probably upward of 70% of the customers who buy those from you are buying a vapor product for the first time. I'd hazard a further guess that the biggest seller you have in the category is JUUL; if you don't carry JUUL, then it's probably the RJ Reynolds Vuse.

The point is that while the majority of people you sell those dinky, ineffective little things to may be hipsters looking for an affectation, or women who don't yet know enough about the product category to buy something better than what a C-store sells, they don't constitute "the vast majority of vapers" where you live. Your customers aren't at all a valid cross-section of vapers, any more than it would be valid to say that the vast majority of vapers are twenty-something stoners if you were selling the stuff at a head shop.

Want to meet the vast majority of vapers where you live? Visit an actual vape shop -- not a head shop or a C-store. You'll find that the vast majority of vapers don't have a definable clique. You'll see bikers, grannies, construction workers, Linux nurds, console gamers -- everybody. There's no "one kind of person" who wants to enjoy nicotine while ditching the disease and death that combustion adds to it.

 

[The Question]

It is a childhood habit. 96% of current smokers started as kids.

That's not what I asked you. I asked you if it's supposed to be a childhood habit, in your opinion. Is tobacco smoking intended for children?

 

[jack]

Of course it is. Most of their market depends on targeting children. Without that demographic, they've got nothing.

 

[The Question]

Of course it is. Most of their market depends on targeting children. Without that demographic, they've got nothing.

Well, you're speaking for them there. I'm asking you to stretch your capabilities a little bit and express your own opinion on the matter. Do you think smoking is something children ought to be doing?

Is it really that difficult a thing for you to do, to express an opinion of your own?

 

[Charlemagne]

Considering that I remember several classmates - most of whom were younger than me - going out to smoke back in high school.....

And how calmly kids who just turned 18 ask for cigarettes at work....

 

[The Question]

Considering that I remember several classmates - most of whom were younger than me - going out to smoke back in high school.....

And how calmly kids who just turned 18 ask for cigarettes at work....

Oh, I know all about that. The point I'm trying to help Jack see is that, no, kids aren't supposed to be doing that. Tobacco companies probably want them to do it, and they sure as hell seem to want to do it, but the rest of us at least feel some social obligation to disapprove of it, right?

But the point is that smoking isn't "a childhood habit", and no, you can't just go cold turkey. Maybe 5% of smokers can do that. But it's been shown that 37% of smokers can quit smoking by switching to vaping. After 90 days of vaping, 37% of smokers show zero relapse.

Cold turkey doesn't hit 37%. Gums, patches, and pills don't maintain their quit rate even at 90 days, much less beyond 90 days.

Nicotine isn't the culprit for smoking-related disease -- the smoke is.

And one last fun note: Of the various brands of "e-cigarettes" sold in convenience stores, only one of those brands is actually effective -- JUUL -- and it's the one all the bodies who claim to be about public health but who, in actual fact, want to keep smokers smoking, are screaming bloody murder about.

Why?

Because they want reasons to keep screaming for more funding and more control over smokers' lives. They can't do that if an actual solution to smoking appears.

 

[The Question]

And then of course you have all these fragile "macho" dickheads who harbor the delusion that a habit that gives you shit like COPD, Emphysema, lung cancer, throat cancer, et cetera is "cool" and "manly", while intelligently avoiding that early death -- while still enjoying nicotine -- is "girly." Right.

Well, okay, John Wayne, if you think suicidal behavior is "macho", then why not go take a gun and blow your fucking brains out? According to you, that oughta be the fucking ultimate act of manliness, right?

You're not manly if you think that being a man means being a fucking imbecile.