Opposition

Claims about the opposition

The Tobacco Control industry believes in a Go(o)d called "physical health". Serving their God requires accepting the belief that "the end justifies the means". Any other issue that affects physical well-being (social, economic, mental) is subject to their God and subordinate to it.

The basis for coherence within the TC sect is similar to that of dictatorial regimes and totalitarian religions throughout history (e.g. Soviet insistence on Lysenkoism in Stalin's era, or Catholicism in the time of the Inquisition): create an outside enemy, a "Devil" that threatens your group and gives you an excuse to demand unquestioning acceptance of your actions and principles. Once you have declared someone or something as The Devil, you don't have to argue anymore.

Therefore, DO NOT allow any comments on your websites – and don't provide online forums either – as TC is a propaganda based movement that does not allow two-sided communications or discussions with opponents unless forced by the media. The TC Ivory Tower has a wide moat and the bridge is always up.

External Devil

Every religion has its personification of Evil, a devil. It's written in their bible, written in blood: it's the truth, the whole and only truth about any opposition. The Devil appears in many disguises, but true believers recognize the Devil immediately, even if they have never met that disguise before.

In this manner, Tobacco Control shows the same behaviour as a religion: everyone who is against them MUST be a personification of the Devil and is supported by Evil, even if you cannot prove it.

So bar owners are an embodiment of the Devil, smokers are the Devil in disguise and dissenters within the Tobacco Control movement are expelled as being tobacco industry dupes or stooges.

If you "smell" like the Devil, you ARE the Devil.

And for Tobacco Control, the Devil is the tobacco industry, commonly known as Big Tobacco (BT).

Internal Devil

Religions also have their internal Devils, sect members whose faith in essential doctrines of their Bible or Red Booklet have been shaken because they have started thinking for themselves and arrived at their own contrary conclusions about the real world. And these internal Devils always need to be expelled from the coherent core group before others might listen to their voices and doubt the word of the Bible.

Dr. Michael Siegel, a well-known and respected Tobacco Control advocate throughout the 1990s, devoted an entry on his blog site describing how expelling dissenters works in TC. TC tactics are similar in smearing both external and internal "Devils" or dissenters (note hyperlinks below):

1. Accuse the Dissenter of Supporting the Tobacco Industry
2. Accuse the Dissenter of Being Paid Off by the Tobacco Industry
3. Accuse the Dissenter of Helping to Kill People
4. Implore All Anti-Smoking Groups and Advocates to Ignore the Dissenter
5. Censor the Dissenter by Removing Him from All Tobacco Control Internet and Email Listserves and Discussion Forums