June 29, 2025
France Banning Smoking in Parks, around Schools, etc.
Timothy Birdnow
In FRANCE! The French smoke like chimneys!
France to Ban Public Smoking in Parks, Beaches and Near Schools
31% of Frenchmen smoke, compared to just 16% of Americans. And over 40% of French teenagers smoke.
Amd uet the French have significantly lower health problems from smoking than do Americans.
France has some 75,000 deaths from smoking per year, while the U.S. has 490,000 deaths per year. France has 68.29 million people compared to the U.S. population of 340.1 million, so adjusted for population and rounding France has about 1/5th the U.S. population, so it's clear they have a much lower death rate from smoking than do we. (Sadly my calculator kicked the bucket just now and I'm too tired to work out the exact number).
Another point to ponder; France claims to be a demcoracy and is all about the will of the People and all that, yet here we have the rationale for this ban.
From an article in Breitbart:
So a democratic republic thinks it's government's job to "promote denormalization" in the minds of people. During the Cold War when the Soviets did stuff like this we called it brainwashing.
This is what is meant by the "Overton Window"; push things that have always been accepted into the shadows and make things that have been in the shadows acceptable. We saw this in America where smoking used to be accepted in public - particularly in bars and restaurants - and smoking pot was something only jazz musicians did. Now you have to hang out in the back alley with jazz musicians to smoke a cigarette, and cigars? Fuggetaboutit! But you can puff away on your bong all day long in the park or whatnot.
For the Left the goal is to change times and laws. Like the witches in McBeth "fair is foul and foul is fair' they seek to roil and disrupt society so they can make radical changes to it. Smoking is bad for you, and everyone always knew it (they called cigaretttes "coffin nails" long before the Surgeon General report) but it was part of our culture (thank you Native Americans!). The Left went after it because it was vulnerable and they wanted to test their approach. It worked and now few smoke, and nobody publicly.
We've seen this with alcohol too; the young hardly touch the stuff. Beeer and whiskey and whatnot were sytematically pushed into the shadows (especially whiskey and other hard liquor, which couldn't be advertised on television by law). Now fewer than 4 out of ten young adults (under 30) consume aclohol, way down from prior generations.
I remember when I was in college in the '80's; liberals on campus wanted America to stop growing tobacco and plant food to "feed the poor" as if that would accomplish anything (most of that food would wind up rotting long before it reached the poor, and who was going to pay for it? It costs money to grow stuff, and time and labor.) They also hated meat, particularly beef. One liberal said to me once "who are we to eat beef while people are starving". I wrote an essay about it.
By changing our culture, our food, or drink, our clothes, our music and sports and houses, they hope to change how we think and what we believe and in the end come to embrace Big Brother.
So here we have them busily doing that in France. They've already accomplished much in that country.
Does it strike anyone as odd that the same program is a hot topic in every nation in the Western World simultaneously? Everyone seems to be following the same script, be it in America, Europe, Australia, etc. These campaigns appear out of nowhere and suddenly a huge, and they are always aiming at the same policies. It's like someone actually got together and discussed it.
Well, they did - at the WEF and other international organizations. And Academia and the media give their full backing to all this.
We are slowly losing our individual cultures, melding into a uberculture that will eventually morph into a world government. They are creating the Brave New World one cigarette and one shotglass at a time.
I know; smoking is bad for you. My own father has COPD and my brother emphysema. I won't miss smoking overmuch. But it's OUR decision to make, not some bureaucrats, not Congres, not some health nazis with access to the media. A free society demands that.
But to the Left freedom is doing things their way.
In FRANCE! The French smoke like chimneys!
France to Ban Public Smoking in Parks, Beaches and Near Schools
31% of Frenchmen smoke, compared to just 16% of Americans. And over 40% of French teenagers smoke.
Amd uet the French have significantly lower health problems from smoking than do Americans.
France has some 75,000 deaths from smoking per year, while the U.S. has 490,000 deaths per year. France has 68.29 million people compared to the U.S. population of 340.1 million, so adjusted for population and rounding France has about 1/5th the U.S. population, so it's clear they have a much lower death rate from smoking than do we. (Sadly my calculator kicked the bucket just now and I'm too tired to work out the exact number).
Another point to ponder; France claims to be a demcoracy and is all about the will of the People and all that, yet here we have the rationale for this ban.
From an article in Breitbart:
"In France, we still have this mindset of saying, this is a law that restricts freedom,” Philippe Bergerot, president of the French League Against Cancer, told the Associated Press.
The ban aims "to promote what we call denormalization. In people’s minds, smoking is normal,” he said. "We aren’t banning smoking; we are banning smoking in certain places where it could potentially affect people’s health and … young people.”
fin
The ban aims "to promote what we call denormalization. In people’s minds, smoking is normal,” he said. "We aren’t banning smoking; we are banning smoking in certain places where it could potentially affect people’s health and … young people.”
fin
So a democratic republic thinks it's government's job to "promote denormalization" in the minds of people. During the Cold War when the Soviets did stuff like this we called it brainwashing.
This is what is meant by the "Overton Window"; push things that have always been accepted into the shadows and make things that have been in the shadows acceptable. We saw this in America where smoking used to be accepted in public - particularly in bars and restaurants - and smoking pot was something only jazz musicians did. Now you have to hang out in the back alley with jazz musicians to smoke a cigarette, and cigars? Fuggetaboutit! But you can puff away on your bong all day long in the park or whatnot.
For the Left the goal is to change times and laws. Like the witches in McBeth "fair is foul and foul is fair' they seek to roil and disrupt society so they can make radical changes to it. Smoking is bad for you, and everyone always knew it (they called cigaretttes "coffin nails" long before the Surgeon General report) but it was part of our culture (thank you Native Americans!). The Left went after it because it was vulnerable and they wanted to test their approach. It worked and now few smoke, and nobody publicly.
We've seen this with alcohol too; the young hardly touch the stuff. Beeer and whiskey and whatnot were sytematically pushed into the shadows (especially whiskey and other hard liquor, which couldn't be advertised on television by law). Now fewer than 4 out of ten young adults (under 30) consume aclohol, way down from prior generations.
I remember when I was in college in the '80's; liberals on campus wanted America to stop growing tobacco and plant food to "feed the poor" as if that would accomplish anything (most of that food would wind up rotting long before it reached the poor, and who was going to pay for it? It costs money to grow stuff, and time and labor.) They also hated meat, particularly beef. One liberal said to me once "who are we to eat beef while people are starving". I wrote an essay about it.
By changing our culture, our food, or drink, our clothes, our music and sports and houses, they hope to change how we think and what we believe and in the end come to embrace Big Brother.
So here we have them busily doing that in France. They've already accomplished much in that country.
Does it strike anyone as odd that the same program is a hot topic in every nation in the Western World simultaneously? Everyone seems to be following the same script, be it in America, Europe, Australia, etc. These campaigns appear out of nowhere and suddenly a huge, and they are always aiming at the same policies. It's like someone actually got together and discussed it.
Well, they did - at the WEF and other international organizations. And Academia and the media give their full backing to all this.
We are slowly losing our individual cultures, melding into a uberculture that will eventually morph into a world government. They are creating the Brave New World one cigarette and one shotglass at a time.
I know; smoking is bad for you. My own father has COPD and my brother emphysema. I won't miss smoking overmuch. But it's OUR decision to make, not some bureaucrats, not Congres, not some health nazis with access to the media. A free society demands that.
But to the Left freedom is doing things their way.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
11:45 AM
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1
My parents both smoked -- it was what people did back in those days -- and it killed both of them. I won't go into details here.
I sometimes regale Tim about flirting with this French woman at church; she's the wife of the guy who plays oboe occasionally. I flirt with her because I can still remember a bit of my high school French and she gets a kick out of it. And she doesn't smoke.
I sometimes regale Tim about flirting with this French woman at church; she's the wife of the guy who plays oboe occasionally. I flirt with her because I can still remember a bit of my high school French and she gets a kick out of it. And she doesn't smoke.
Posted by: Dana Mathewson at June 29, 2025 11:50 PM (HDwJ2)
2
Smoking IS a bad habit and it is something to be discouraged, no question, but I hate the way they are doing that. It's legal, it's heavily ttaxed, but it's in the shadows.
Both my parents smoked and my mother ultimately died from it. My father developed COPD and he quit cold-turkey and has been off the weeds for years now. I'm thankful.
But I don't think it's government's business to "denormalize" anything; they are at most referees, not players.
Both my parents smoked and my mother ultimately died from it. My father developed COPD and he quit cold-turkey and has been off the weeds for years now. I'm thankful.
But I don't think it's government's business to "denormalize" anything; they are at most referees, not players.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at June 30, 2025 07:27 AM (h5iQR)
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