From a strictly utilitarian perspective, would there be anything to be gained by, say, starting a campaign of assassination against executives of tobacco companies?
Well, it would be unlikely to convince people not to smoke. It would create a kooky outgroup faction, the Violent Anti-Smokers, that people would be afraid to be associated with, so people would become uncomfortable with being too vocally anti-smoking lest they be mistaken for one of Them. No such campaign is likely to be effective enough to make people unwilling to become the executive of a tobacco company to the point that positions aren’t filled, they’d just ramp up security.
Also, deaths-caused isn’t really the best metric for toll on human society. Cigarettes rarely do anyone in at thirty, while car accidents don’t discriminate. Adjusting to life-years-lost would be a step in the right direction.
It would create a kooky outgroup faction, the Violent Anti-Smokers, that people would be afraid to be associated with, so people would become uncomfortable with being too vocally anti-smoking lest they be mistaken for one of Them.
Exactly. It already happened to Germany with precisely this result. (You know who else was against smoking? Hitler, that’s who!)
Also, deaths-caused isn’t really the best metric for toll on human society. Cigarettes rarely do anyone in at thirty, while car accidents don’t discriminate. Adjusting to life-years-lost would be a step in the right direction.
Well, it would be unlikely to convince people not to smoke. It would create a kooky outgroup faction, the Violent Anti-Smokers, that people would be afraid to be associated with, so people would become uncomfortable with being too vocally anti-smoking lest they be mistaken for one of Them. No such campaign is likely to be effective enough to make people unwilling to become the executive of a tobacco company to the point that positions aren’t filled, they’d just ramp up security.
Also, deaths-caused isn’t really the best metric for toll on human society. Cigarettes rarely do anyone in at thirty, while car accidents don’t discriminate. Adjusting to life-years-lost would be a step in the right direction.
Exactly. It already happened to Germany with precisely this result. (You know who else was against smoking? Hitler, that’s who!)
Just to underline: The first anti-smoking campaign was in Nazi Germany.
Yep.