Light up a Torch of Freedom | Cigarettes

Cigarettes are bad for you - you know they're bad for you. But how did they convince us to ignore that fact and do it anyway?
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How Did We Discover Smoking Causes Cancer? | Patrick Kelly
• How Did We Discover Sm...
Thanks to Patrick Kelly
/ @patkellyteaches
/ corporis
/ patkellyteaches
---
Books
The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America (2009)
Allan M. Brandt - amzn.to/399QkAd
Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette (2021)
Keith Wailoo - amzn.to/3P6mYmU
Documentaries
Butt Out: The Life and Death of Cigarette Advertising on TV (1992) - • Butt Out: The Life and...
Bright Leaves (1992) - www.kanopy.com/video/110134
Modern Marvels: How Tobacco is Made (2006) - • Modern Marvels: How To...
Addiction Incorporated (2011) - amzn.to/3MNTpES
Merchants of Doubt (2014) - amzn.to/3FCXA3T
Broken S1E2 "Big Vape" (2019) - www.netflix.com/title/81002391
KZbin Videos
Jeffrey Wigand: The Big Tobacco Whistleblower - • Jeffrey Wigand: The bi...
Penn & Teller on Broadway | Talks at Google - • Penn & Teller on Broad...
Tobacco: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) - • Tobacco: Last Week Ton...
Astroturfing: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) - • Astroturfing: Last Wee...
The Twenty One Conspiracy - • The Twenty One Conspiracy
Websites
www.mass.gov/doc/juul-complai...
www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_inf...
jamanetwork.com/journals/jama...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
www.bbc.com/news/world-us-can...
www.npr.org/2013/10/13/233449...
www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/he...
thehill.com/news/administrati...
Movies and TV
Bright Leaf (1950) - amzn.to/37C3pCc
Cold Turkey (1971) - amzn.to/3L3a0Dm
The Insider (1999) - amzn.to/39l1F0u
Bill Maher: Be More Cynical - www.imdb.com/title/tt0250256/
Thank You For Smoking (2005) - amzn.to/38ICq7P
Penn & Teller: Bullsh!t! S1E5 "Second Hand Smoke" (2003) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0672536/
South Park S7E13 "Butt Out" (2003) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0705898/
Chappelle's Show - I Know Black People Pt. 1 (2004) - • Chappelle's Show - I K...
Mad Men S1E1 "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (2007) - amzn.to/3OY1CYF
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Video Credits -
Jaws (1975) - You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat Scene (4/10) | Movieclips - • Jaws (1975) - You're G...
AHA Vintage Anti-Smoking PSAs - • AHA Vintage Anti-Smoki...
Video 184939808 © Pavel Nadelyayev | Dreamstime.com
HErbHELP - • HOW TO SMOKE RESIN FRO...
www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/...
/ 1198266186250833920
www.c-span.org/video/?56038-1...
www.c-span.org/video/?56061-1...
www.c-span.org/video/?56436-1...
Photo Credits -
docs.google.com/document/d/1E...
---
Production Assistant - Rozarah
/ amandallara
Research Assistant - Jesspsettle
/ jesspsettle
Music - Michael Cotten
www.mwcotten.com
Spotify ► open.spotify.com/album/0zCYP8...
Amazon ► amzn.to/2zbsfHd
Channel Art - PoetheWonderCat
/ thatcatnamedpoe
---
Hashtags: #history #smoking #cigarettes #cigarette #smoke #cancer #quitsmoking #nosmoking #vaping #vape
0:00 Introduction
2:47 Invention and Popularization
20:26 Health Concerns
42:57 Targeted Advertising
55:57 Litigation
1:18:32 Vaping
1:24:21 Conclusion
---
This video was sponsored by CuriosityStream and Nebula.

[@KnowingBetter]

Make sure to check out Patrick Kelly's companion video on the science of the cancer link! kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJ6WhGpnfNBkp6c Director's Commentary stream will be on Sunday, 2pm Pacific. twitch.tv/knowingbetteryt Corrections - In 1900, pipes were 19% of total consumption, not 27%. - It's spelled Elixir Sulfanilamide.

[@daarmonet]

hi dood

[@Baddawg_313]

So why DO you hate America? Haha jk. Thank you for your service. Happy 4th Idc if your phone says it's the 5th, when you love America everyday is the 4th of July 🇺🇲🎉🎆

[@MrGameFly]

I really like observing the increase in video production quality in your videos over the years! You can really tell you got a lot better at filming/lighting/framing etc

[@insertcolorfulmetaphor8520]

"Smoke Spuds, or I will murder this bag of kittens that are off camera... Are you smoking Spuds yet? It's new. I want you you start smoking...NOW, or those kittens die by being drowned in a gross mix of tobacco produced spit and cigarette butts... They're SPUD butts, so they're NEW!" Serial Killer spokesperson

[@grimtea1715]

You made my day with this video!

[@kjorlaug1]

The most inaccurate thing about Stranger Things is the lack of smoking 😂

[@the_rose_garden01]

Right? People smoked everywhere in the 80's, didn't matter where you were

[@kjorlaug1]

@@the_rose_garden01 I remember sitting in a car on a trip with my grandparents, who smoked the whole way, windows rolled up

[@evee8462]

Hahahahaha!

[@willb5658]

The most inaccurate thing about Strangers Things is that Max getting medical treatment.

[@KAOSTISTIC-Fortnite]

@@kjorlaug1 that's not true. I was there. Don't forget that. I'm always there. I'm always watching you......

[@AlternateHistoryHub]

Knowing Better making feature length films now. Quite impressive

[@sarahgruner7711]

Oh it’s my fav thing- I can get so much done while watching his content !

[@MonkeyDefenceForce]

You could also make one about "Kyogre", just saying.

[@Roxanneredpanda]

maybe you could learn a thing or two

[@johnnybensonitis7853]

This guy actually makes learning feel like fun, which is most likely some sort of sorcery. I enjoy learning things about as much as I'd enjoy hopping into an oven and roasting for a handful of hours, but here he lets you feel as though were all just having a good time here only to pull out the M. Night twist: we've been learning this whole time...

[@Grushdeva48]

Holy crap! I was gonna watch it at 3am before I sleep. Thanks for the heads up on the length of the video.

[@RedRose-id4sd]

I figured out Penn and Teller were using sneaky tactics when their Stress episode argued that there was no such thing as stress and that your health couldn't be affected by stress.

[@Praisethesunson]

I knew they were lying the second a couple of magicians were claiming to be a legitimate source of information.

[@erraticonteuse]

I figured to be wary of their sources and claims when they outright admitted to being "biased as fuck". They only said it in reference to wondering why people from the other side of the issue came on their show when they knew P&T were just going to make fun of them, but it did make me wonder about their sources as well.

[@camillaquelladegliaggettiv4303]

Rationalwiki have a summary of which P&T episodes are crap and which ones are right

[@vonriel1822]

All you need to do is just watch the framing of the episodes. While it's true that they spend time mocking the people who advocate for snake oil, they spend just as much - if not more - time mocking the people who fall for the scams. It's not about exposing grifts, they actually don't care _that_ much about exposing grifts. The show is about proving how stupid people are, and I couldn't help but feel like there was even a modicum of respect for the grifters. After all, they had succeeded in taking stupid peoples' money.

[@holden_7597]

My grandpa started smoking when he was around 17, he managed to quit a few years after my father was born. Instead of smoking he’d suck on lollipops. He’d put on some weight, but he managed to walk it off. He managed to quit so thoroughly, that a few years ago, he passed away from a type of lung cancer that is most common in non-smokers.

[@augustusaurelius2628]

Man that sucks. Imagine making your damned best to quit smoking for your health anf you still get lung cancer anyways.

[@phoenixfritzinger9185]

Your grandpa got localized by 4Kids Entertainment 😂

[@earningzekrom4173]

RIP, I'm so sorry for your loss, sending support to you and your family!

[@Polavianus]

​@@phoenixfritzinger9185 💀

[@recalrhet]

"Having a smoking section in an airplane makes about as much sense as having a peeing section in a swimming pool"...I'm dying. Good stuff.

[@crazierthan-u7571]

I got a seat in the smoking section of an airplane once. It took all the fun out of smoking.

[@markprater1]

I remember the last time I smoked on a plane: 1989 from Philly to Brazil....

[@PlayerJay425]

Or a convertible airplane

[@mysticwizard1943]

@@crazierthan-u7571 Man I can relate. I was in the Atlanta airport a few years ago and was amazed to see an indoor smoking section. It was essentially a little 20x20 glass box between the gates and the food court. Being that I was alone, and hadn't seen a smoking section anywhere indoors in like 20 years, I had to go in. I immediately found a stand that sold cigarettes, because of course this post-911 airport sold them (with lighters to match), and went in. Terrible decision. It reeked (despite the fact that I generally enjoy the smell of smoke), I reeked, the cloth upholstered seats were sticky and brown with tar, everyone's eyes were watering. Just awful. I have to imagine some big-wig Georgian tobacco magnate who had invested in the airport insisted on there being a smoking section, but damn it would have been much better if they put like a thunderdome cage on the roof.

[@Praisethesunson]

All pools have peeing sections. They just call it the kiddy pool.

[@peccantis]

My dad has a story about a lumberjack his parents knew, who had a 10-mile trip to the nearest general store. One winter he did his usual bi-weekly supply run, skiing the total of 20 miles in a bitter cold, and when he unloaded the goods back at the cabin he noticed he had forgotten to buy his cigarettes. So he quit smoking.

[@doughboywhine]

I guess he wasn’t willing to walk 10 miles for a camel

[@hyhena-gaming9986]

Lol that’ll do it I guess

[@chrismanaloe3507]

@@doughboywhine i smoke camels and i wouldnt cross a room for one

[@MrChopstsicks]

@@chrismanaloe3507 I stopped smoking because I was too lazy to drive. Stay home and play games kids

[@classyorange3362]

Man really went "nah I ain't heading out"

[@caiterday6676]

I smoked for 7 years, and then vaped for another 6, thinking I could have my cake and eat it to. Then when I turned 37, I started feeling like I was slowing down, that I constantly had a heavy chest and I could barely go without the vape. It felt pretty impossible to quit, until I decided I had enough. I told my husband I was going to quit and started on the patch. It was very hard, I bargained with myself everyday for 4 months but I can say now I have gone one while year nicotine free.

[@Natalie-101]

IM SO PROUD OF YOU congratulations I know that must have been really hard. You made the best decision for your current and future self and I'm so happy for you. Keep going!!

[@isaacandersen1]

Based

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

Dammit. This is my story, only I'm not as far in yet. Still vaping and trying to convince myself to quit that. I have 4 years left until 37, though.

[@alexcarter8807]

And if you're a Real American(tm) you won't find out you've got lung cancer until it's terminal because preventative screening is *communism*

[@oligultonn]

One of your proudest moment. As a vaper who wants to quit but feels unable to it lifts my spirits to hear this. Well done madam 🎉

[@rickdoogie749]

I'm 69 and only smoked one cigarette in my lifetime. When I was 16 I tried smoking an entire cigarette so I could see what it was all about. I've smoked plenty of pot over the years, but never another cigarette. My wife smoked cigarettes in her early teens. When she was 16, she jumped in her car to drive to school one morning. After lighting up a cigarette, a hot ash fell and burned a little hole in her brand new blouse. She threw the remainder of the cigarette pack out the window and never smoked again. I love that story, because I would not have been attracted to her if her kisses tasted like an old ashtray.

[@billy6044]

Nice, also at time of writing this, There are also 69 likes. So double nice.

[@brahimdiop5506]

She lost one outfit and got rid of an addictive substance for the rest of her life. Glad you're still kicking

[@foxybohv7732]

To think a single ash caused the marriage of two people

[@vinnyandlin8510]

Even when smoking cannabis, I can't even tell how many clothes have a hole in them from hot ashes

[@terrydavis8451]

Ever do coke or MDMA? You would have smoked a whole pack that night lolol

[@RiverdudeCovers]

The fact that cigarette commercials were banned because Big Tabacco wanted it absolutely shocked me, I never knew that and it's honestly incredible how much we don't know

[@rayakoth]

The funny thing is, they don't need marketing department anymore, which actually saved them money. Marketing departments are like the military. You have them because other organizations have them, not because they actually bring value to your business.

[@christophertstone]

In the US, Alcohol commercials never show the actual consumption of the product (only people holding it, or being around it). This is not a law enacted by congress, but a Trade Association rule, heavily enforced by the industry.

[@ethanlenning]

@@chad4858 just curious, what counts as advertisement to you? Are PSAs advertisements? Would it be advertising if KB shouted out another video of his in the middle of this one? What about a kid’s lemonade stand on the side of the street with a sign out front? There are a lot of types of advertising I’m just curious where you draw the line

[@Dong_Harvey]

@@ethanlenning I draw the line when some marketing student schills his way into a conversation about the tobacco industry and it's history regarding advertising

[@corneliuscorcoran9900]

Then, this might be best read lying down.... 'Carbon Footprint', an invention of the oil industry, to make us feel responsible and guilty for using their products. Individual choices, in a world powered by oil, gas and coal, are not going to make any significant difference, but we are encouraged to imagine that if onky we were better people, the world could be saved. Ready? ... Plastic recycling, was an identically motivated invention of the plastics industry. They sell products, that they know are practically impossible to recycle, (only 9% of plastic is recycled,) but hey! If we only made a little more effort, we could save those turtles, YOU are currently responsible for choking on plastic. There are no depths to which these people won't stoop. The oil industry knew about global warming in the fifties.

[@Patchouliprince]

I started smoking socially at 14, but I was genuinely never addicted to cigarettes until two years later when my friend gave me their marb smooths which is a type of menthol. That stuff had me so hooked. I managed to quit by using vapes, but then I was addicted to vaping for a few years! Finally managed to quit everything just last year. Been four years since I’ve smoked as of this month!

[@azr15]

Thumbnail checks out

[@steveharvey2102]

Congrats to you, it's one of the toughest things to quit. It took me 3 separate attempts. Cheers from Canada

[@scottthewaterwarrior]

Great job, it's a hard thing. Very glad I never even tried them, already have an addiction problem with video games, though the issue there is more of a time sync thing, at least since I stay away from modern games so don't have to worry about falling into gambling/spending traps.

[@univon4892]

Kudos!

[@kingthe13]

My dad after decades of smoking decided to stop with my mom and what he did was buy one last pack and said once this is gone no more and he did which not easy but if there's one thing my dad's good at is being spiteful stubborn

[@Heating56]

“Micronite filters were made out of asbestos.” The cold cut caught me so off guard I burst out laughing. I’m going to hell

[@TimDavis77]

My mother was a smoker since her teenage years and we lost her to lung cancer a few years ago. I miss her terribly, so this hits close to home.

[@aliciasnavely5109]

Same. I lost my mom 13 years ago when i was just 17. Lung cancer.

[@teajay8769]

Everyone dies. She would have died without smoking too. So will I and so will you.

[@TimDavis77]

@@aliciasnavely5109 sorry for your loss

[@aaronmarks9366]

Right there with you brother. I lost my dad at age 5 - he had a heart attack at work and died at the hospital. All signs point to his decades of smoking, starting as a teenager in the 1950s, as the cause. The tobacco industry has the blood of millions on its hands. My condolences to you and your family.

[@victorguevara9227]

My grandfather drank and smoked cigars frequently, according to my mother. He died at home in 1992, shortly after the Salvadoran Civil War ended, of dementia. My grandmother outlived her husband by over 28 years. She died in July 2020.

[@scootinand]

"diethylene glycol" Oh no "The filters contained asbestos" OH NO.

[@eldonad]

Well at least that would reduce the number of deaths related to lung cancers I would assume...

[@AzureSiniy]

​@@eldonaddiethylene glycol just killed people outright by destroying their kidneys, asbestos just causes a different kind of cancer lol

[@thedebatehitman]

I remember “smoking” candy cigarettes as a kid. Also, when I was younger, I used to pretend to smoke McDonald’s French fries. I’d just barely dip the fry in ketchup, and that was the glow of a lit cigarette.

[@Dave0G]

Pencil with a red eraser for me, still catch myself "smoking" the odd writing implement. There were chocolate cigarettes, complete with paper wrapping, but the chocolate was really poor so weren't that popular.

[@generalludwig1637]

lmao that's so cute.

[@nbewarwe]

Kids at my elementary school would "smoke" smarties, which was just crumbling them in their wrappers and breathing in and out the dust.

[@_GLXC]

my mom would make taquitos and as kids we would blow through it and it would look like smoke was coming out the other end. also the times when it was cold we would pretend that the condensation was actually smoke and that we were smoking. the adults around me really nailed on how dangerous smoking was, so as a kid whenever i walked by someone smoking I would hold my breath as long as possible to avoid the cancer.

[@kaynines5996]

@@nbewarwe While it’s not smoking…that can’t possibly be good for the lungs.

[@tnk4me4]

19:00 Had a doctor tell me "The only time cigarettes can make you lose weight is when you have cancer" before I got into college and it stuck with me ever since. But now all these things I've seen so far are blowing my mind.

[@dominicguye8058]

That is brilliant

[@tincanmaniac1931]

They can make you lose weight. It isn't healthy but it literally suppresses hunger. If a smoker doesn't smoke, they can get very bad pains in their stomach because their appetite was suppressed for so long and they haven't eaten for the whole day and now it's been 16 hours since dinner the night before and they're eating for the first time of the day. The nicotine just blocks it. A lot of smokers also associate hunger with nicotine cravings, so they go for a smoke instead and lose their appetite. It isn't healthy at all, not even talking about the heart and lung damage, just specifically the appetite they can cause, but it does often make people lose weight in the short term.

[@theeccentric7263]

@@tincanmaniac1931 I can attest to this, but I also have a past history of an ED, so my hunger signals are already messed up.

[@lionllew6601]

I've put on a lot of weight since I quit smoking a few years ago, but it's easier to loose weight than loose cancer.

[@terenceflynn4555]

My father got my grandfather to quit smoking by holding me up as a baby, and saying in a faux child voice, “Please stop smoking, Grandpa! I want you to be there for my graduation!” I’m now going to be graduating from college next year, and he’s still kicking (right now), and survived a bout of COVID as a 70 year old. If he had continued smoking (like my other grandfather had into his 60s) he’d likely be dead by now.

[@gripen777]

Somewhat similar story with my dad. When I was around 4 or so, he was smoking as he always did. My mom had been trying to get him off of the cancer sticks ever since they got married, but this was the day that convinced him to stop. I believe I grabbed one of his cigarettes, put it up to my mouth and pretended to smoke, and said, "Daddy, one day I wanna grow up to be just like you!" He wasn't happy. Wife wasn't happy. He quit right then and there and has no regrets to this day. Grandpa still chews tobacco, though.

[@giovannicervantes2053]

Boy a tank

[@mads_in_zero]

My grandma on my father's side apparently used to be an _incredible_ smoker, literally the pack a day type. But she managed to quit when she found out I was going to be born. I'm really proud of her for doing it, because I know how hard it must be - nicotine is addictive after all! She's in her 80s now, she rocks.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@mads_in_zero same except maternal grandmother. And it might’ve been an older sibling? But she quit abruptly too. She’s still going into her 90s

[@amehak1922]

I was sick a lot when I was very young. My dad asked the pastor for advice, he said to quit cigarettes (among other things). My dad quit cold turkey and never smoked again. My dad lived probably 30 years longer than he would have if he hadn't quit smoking.

[@ajbowers44]

I smoked from ages 12-24 and its been 4 years since I quit smoking cigarettes and I could start back up in a HEARTBEAT. To be honest, the heath aspect isn’t why I quit. It was almost entirely due to societal pressure. My ex wife and I quit at the same time and she went right back to it during our divorce so the only thing keeping me from relapsing is knowing that I’m better than her 🥰

[@clownfromclowntown]

Who lets a 12 year old get a hold a cigarettes??

[@G_FRE]

@@clownfromclowntown That's when my dad started smoking. 1975. Started smoking weed at 10!

[@wendyleeconnelly2939]

@@clownfromclowntown kids younger than 12have always gotten their hands on cigarettes

[@rickandhews2690]

divorced? but you sound like such a great guy lmao

[@noahcarlton4625]

Mmm spite, the greatest motivator

[@ehrenloudermilk1053]

I had asthma as a child. The day I moved out, I never had an issue with it. My parents were smokers. Also, it's super rad that you do what has to be countless hours of research and not taking for an hour or so of content. Thanks. Huge missed opportunity to shout out my man Stick Stickley

[@dustinjames1268]

Glad you're not like me I have chronic bronchitis because as a child I was addicted to the 2nd hand smoke I didn't know it at the time, but for some reason, my parents lighting up a cigarette was always a cue for me to go in and talk to them It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized

[@markwilliams2620]

Same. The first month at college I found myself cranky and irritable. Then I walked through a cloud of Marlboro smoke and man there went the Jones. Asthma from Dad's 2 pack-a-day fix.

[@jpmnky]

My brother used to get ear infections from my grandmother smoking in the car with the windows up. This was the late 1980s. She was told and continued on like nothing was wrong.

[@dustinjames1268]

@Joshua Bailey Moderate consumption of weed actually cleans out some of the tar that built up Obviously smoking anything is bad for your health but it's definitely better than tobacco

[@dustinjames1268]

@Joshua Bailey I forget the scientific terminology but it makes the cilia(tiny hairlike structures) in your lungs move and it physically cleans

[@caoilfhionndunbar]

12:12 one correction: this was the POPULARIZATION of trading cards; the concept of a collectible card with an image as an advertising method or product existed since atleast the early 1700s, with Christopher Gibson's usage of them to advertise his furniture store, and were used across Britain and in the USA decades before the Cigarette cards. but his were the ones that really made it catch on as a fad

[@EmiStar070]

So once again the best marketer gets the credit?

[@ethanstiles948]

As a high schooler from 2012-2016. I can tell you that vaping was already a thing amongst high schoolers in 2013 before anyone ever heard of JUUL. First time I saw anyone vaping was in my math final exam freshman year lol. Thought this kid was smoking a cig mid test while the teachers back was turned and was so confused. It definitely wasn’t common until my junior year, and it certainly exploded into the mainstream with JUUL and all the college kids looking to party. Thought I’d share my perspective as a teenager in that era lol.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Lol yeah, I’m a bit older than you but I remember seeing someone in a train station at night circa 2013/14 vaping and was so confused. I thought it was a strange disembodied hookah pipe at first (it was really long by even wand vape standards) 😅 but he kept going at it for like 30 minutes so I knew smth else must be up.

[@dominicspier6917]

First time I saw a vape was the back of a middle school bus, the kid was a relatively normal kid and he was telling everyone about how it's great and there's no health risks, that was 2012 and I finally quit vaping in 2021

[@radiobob1908]

@@dominicspier6917 Hey, congratulations!

[@themightymcb7310]

I remember early vape mods being mostly party tricks back then. I knew a few kids who had nicotine juice but just as many got 0% nic juices and just wanted to learn how to blow Os. Same age as you, 2012-16

[@haruhirogrimgar6047]

Idk what school you went to but I was in highschool 2013-2017 and I had never seen a vape pen in my life.

[@leandervr]

Nicotine isn't just addictive, it's easily one of the most addictive substances there are. I've gone through some serious substance abuse, and I'm clean now. I can confidently say that nicotine was the hardest thing to quit.

[@zeb_reynolds]

My cocaine addict, alcoholic grandfather said that cigarettes were by far the hardest substance for him to quit.

[@darksu6947]

@@zeb_reynolds Grandpa knew how to party!

[@zeb_reynolds]

@@darksu6947 Thats very true!

[@PopeBarley]

Is that due to the pharmaceutical effect of nicotine, or the comparative inescapabulity of nicotine products in mainstream society?

[@darksu6947]

@@PopeBarley Both, I would imagine.

[@VerrouSuo]

I lost two grandparents to lung cancer when I was a small child, and it’s nice to know the history behind the loss. Thanks, KB.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

F

[@AmberAmber]

I'm so sorry for your losses. I lost my grandpa to emphysema, my nana to heart disease (from smoking & dry cleaning ‐ my grandpa ‐ but affecting my nana by proxy obvs); my mother‐in‐law to lung cancer (smoking); my cousin & his wife - lung cancer (smoking). I feel you. I've survived cervical cancer 2x now & hence, I quit smoking (by vaping) going on 11yrs now. I don't use juuls though ‐ I don't even know if they have them here in Canada tbh... Vaping Is FAR less harmful • though juuls flavors had semi carcinogenic aspects apparently? Cos big tobacco loves to murder its consumers i guess... I dunno ‐ just something I saw. Anyhow ‐ peace, love, & best of health to you & yours.🫂♥️

[@spookygloberotter05]

I lost my grandma to lung cancer and my grandpa's voice was radically altered due to throat cancer before I was born (this made him really sad because it mean I'd never hear his true voice). They were both smokers when they were young. I get you. So sorry for your loss

[@Tornado1994]

Lost my Eldest Aunt to Pancreatic Cancer. She was a 2 pack a Day smoker, REFUSED to Quit.

[@_cody_withac7504]

High schooler here, the grip that vapes have on high school (at least in my area) is pretty severe. It's unspoken knowledge that if the bathroom suddenly smells weird, you get out of there because someone is vaping. I watched someone drop their vap pen in the lunch line. I hate it, and I hate thinking about how they will be hooked probably the rest of their lives because people are starting at 14 or younger

[@univon4892]

Oh wow!

[@alexcarter8807]

I was a 1970s high schooler - the bathrooms were always full of smoke and we kids just got our ciggies out of the cig machine or well, any little corner store happily sold them to us. I'm still amazed I never got hooked on cigs.

[@tshred666]

Especially since vaping is easier to conceal and juul and other salt nic vapes hit harder than smoking

[@soffren]

It's important to remember that zoomers operate on an accelerated timeline. They got hooked on vapes 10x faster than their recent ancestors got hooked on cigarettes. I believe they will cut them out of culture just as abruptly and completely by the mid to late 2020s.

[@Speedojesus]

Are you one of the sheltered kids not working a service job, or have parents that aren't a missed bill or two away from being destitute? If yes, then I don't want to hear your opinion on drug addiction. You're a child.

[@alexcarter8807]

Candy cigarettes came in two types. One had real cigarette paper around them and were made of gum. Between the paper and the gum was flour, so you could put it in your mouth and blow out, and get a puff of "smoke". The other kind were made of candy kind of like Necco wafers. They were bright white with a fluorescent pink tip, that was designed to look like a lit cig. Both kinds came in neat packages with joke names like "Cool" designed after the Kool package, with a little picture of a penguin carrying some suitcases like he's working as a bellhop. And the penguin smoking a cigarette of course. There were also candy and bubblegum cigars.

[@abz_414]

Personally I favored the brontosaurus ”pack" 🦕

[@OscarGomez-hg8cb]

Here in Mexico there where chocolate cigarettes. You can still find them in some places in fact. Though I never liked smoking, even as a kid, I loved those things XD they where the dryest, chalkiest stuff ever, but weirdly tasty!

[@matthewmagda4971]

You can still buy them, they're just hard to find.

[@tux_duh]

I was obsessed with the ones that blew smoke 😭😭

[@ammebee16]

I loved those as a kid, I thought I was so cool lol

[@darricshhh]

I have been smoking for 34 years. This video has come along at a time when I am about to quit again for probably the 10th time. This time it needs to be permanent for health reasons. I have been addicted to other things in the distant past. A few of those things were not physically addictive. Some were. Valium for instance was a nasty recovery. Very tough. The hardest drug to quit in my experience so far has been nicotine. I was successful for almost 6 years at one point and it still pulled me back in. Thank you for the video. I was aware of most of the information presented, but not all. I smoked throughout the whole thing. In two days, my will and fortitude are going to be tested. I think this video is gonna help that.

[@lShishkaBerryl]

Heroin users say it's easier to quit heroin than cigs lol. You got this, you already did some practice runs now it's time for the real deal 👍

[@Osric24]

Bless you, man. You've a hard but worthy fight ahead!

[@rick-potts]

I started at 11 and quit 2 years ago - after smoking for 39 years. Everyone is different, but I can honestly say the nicotine is the least of your problems. Its the "hug" you get from your cig when you are stressed. The "mistress" who will listen to you when you have a Barny with the wife. The "diversion" you get when you are bored. The "tick-tock" cigs provide that become a regulator of time/events. Find a substitute - glass of water, fidget spinner, 2 pages of a book, playing with your lighter - and do that for as long as it takes you to normally smoke a cigarette - the urge WILL pass. I put a post it note up every day on my wall - with the "days since last smoked" count on it. Every time I felt the compulsion - I sat and stared at that wall. I stopped needing that after the 46th post it note. I carried this around in my wallet "You are NOT giving anything up. You ARE gaining control." Its liberating. I miss the weight and click of my zippo - but that's it. Good luck.

[@JamesDecker7]

@@rick-potts I replaced the insert in my zippo with a flashlight cartridge. Used that for a whole year as a smoking “binky” after I quit.

[@tacokoneko]

i smoked tobacco 4 times ever and each time was more than 1 year apart, i'm glad it doesn't tase good to me because i thought "what if it makes me addicted just from one"

[@motherofthetans]

Hoo boy, there's a lot I could talk about here. I smoked my first cigarette at fifteen an it was a match made in heaven. Whatever this was, my brain *needed* it from the first one. That started a twenty seven year love affair; at one point I was up to two packs a day. I finally quit two years ago and it's been amazing to actually feel my body heal from it. I can breathe deeply, climb stairs without getting winded, my voice quality is clearer - I had no idea the damage I was actually doing to myself, I just figured I'd get cancer one day and that was it. I never gave much thought to what was going on between here and there. I will mention this, though--for the last ten years my cigarette of choice were Parliaments, and when that commercial came on, despite never having seen it before (come on, I'm not THAT old), it made me want one. Advertising works, y'all, and addiction is real.

[@PrimericanIdol]

I love how you fully spell out all your numbers.

[@madcat789]

My first was Marlboro, and I remember precisely what happened. I threw up. Never touched another since.

[@Spielername]

Prohibition is the dumbest way for everything. We saw it at war on drugs and alcohol and we'll see it if we starting a war on nicotine. Nicotine is a highly addictive drug and we should handle it as such. Make it extremely uncool to smoke and give the people (youth) the feeling you look like extremely like an idiot with these electric pipe in your mouth. We need a change of culture. You've said it, the cat is out the bag and we all know that cats are very hard to catch. If you have to go to special shops to get tobacco and you need a receipt from a doctor you'll probably think twice before you start with these extremely uncool and inconvenient habit. And vaping is a very good solution for those who are already hooked and need to quit or even to survive long enough to see how their grandchildren grow up. Vaping ain't healthy, but it's a lot better for your lungs then cigarettes are... Make it an medical machine for extreme sick people... nothing is more uncool and less sexy then that.

[@eamonia]

Good for you, hun. I'm happy for you that you took that step. I'm sure your wallet's pretty psyched, too.

[@neglectfulsausage7689]

you're probably genetically predisposed to dementia, schizophrenia, or alzheimer, since nicotine have nootropic brain growth effects and stabilizes people who have the threee aforementioned diseases in their family. Thjats why you enjoyed it. It made you normal.

[@Bonesinbloom]

90s kid here. You unlocked some memories for me. My dad wasn't a smoker, but his best friend was, and my dad would take coupons from his Marlboro packs and save them up for free stuff. I remember him getting a branded red flannel overshirt. Anyway, smoking is gross.

[@lotharbeck71]

I was a casual smoker, but collected tons of "miles" from coworkers and would peel them off of discarded packs at bars. They had really nice stuff.

[@StAngerNo1]

Yeah, it also revived a lot of memories from my childhood (also 90s kid). My mother was a smoker since she was 16. She quit 3 times, first when she was pregnant with me, then when she was pregnant with my sister and then for good. But the fact that she returned to smoking twice says a lot about its addictiveness. Even today she says that, when she smells cigarette smoke she still has a yearning for a cigarette. Also I remember that (here in germany) every restaurant and inn was filled with cigarette smoke when I was a child. The air smelt like cigarettes and so did your clothes after you returned home. 15 Years ago smoking in bars and restaurants was banned in germany and I remember how controversial it was, but nowadays it is pretty much universally agreed upon, that this was one of the best changes. I luckily never started smoking, I only smoked on parties in my late teens and I too prefered menthol cigarettes as well as vanilla flavoured ones we had in germany at that time, so it is probably good that they got banned here and should probably also be banned in the US (I mean the menthol ones, because the flavoured are apparently already banned).

[@peifferunsx]

Another fun fact: Smoking is a huge contributor to sleep apnea. My sleep issues have been destroying my professional life for the past few years. I quit two weeks ago when I learned that fact and I'm sleeping dang near normally again! Another amazingly thorough video from Knowing Better. Keep it up!

[@caseyjones5145]

Heck yea dude 🎉

[@garethbaus5471]

"death is not the worst thing that can happen to you" I generally agree with that statement, decades of suffering and pain like most people who have COPD and lung cancer is much worse than death.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

Was my first thought too, but then the unsympathetic anoyingly loud man went the other direction.

[@garethbaus5471]

@@jannikheidemann3805 yeah.

[@dragonsword7370]

"Sure Bill I UndErSTand 'labored breathing' your point. However let me 'labored breathing' belittle your point. 'breathes laboriously and digs into their large bag' Since it's not a 'Breath' problem see if my excised lu-'BREATHES'-ng is an issue 'BREATHESSss' 'chucks tar and cancerous lung at his calf's from the stage seats'." I find it sad I found him funny for several years in the last 12 or so... I mean that time before several years ago when he became an asshole republican outright again.

[@transkryption]

Lung cancer won't take decades

[@heavenshound6775]

what about bodily autonomy does it not apply ? You can bunjee jump which is extremely dangerous, you can sky dive, you can swim with sharks, but we need to ban cigarettes ?

[@baileyayyy5085]

I was just about to enroll for my masters program when this knowing better video inspired me to drop out of school, take up smoking, and become a libertarian. Thanks knowing better!

[@everythingisscience658]

If there is one benifit of smoking, it's that it creates evolutionary pressure against libertarians. Sure let everyone do whatever horrible thing to thier body that they want and we will see how many of them pass on thier genes and ideology.

[@darksu6947]

That was a good call.

[@brianfederico5854]

What's wrong with being a libertarian

[@baileyayyy5085]

@@brianfederico5854 yes

[@univon4892]

@@baileyayyy5085 Is that it?

[@tylerkeller7120]

This was single handedly one of the best anti smoking things I have seen and has made me want to quit more than anything you should make a class length version of this so it can get shown in classes

[@Redralphred]

I’d argue you could break down the segments to a week of classes, and frame it as a history advertising and smoking.

[@revan7383]

Good luck if you do try to quit!

[@Techn9cian123]

You wouldn’t believe the amount of cool items my parents and grandparents had gotten from Marlboro Miles rewards program and they were still going as late as the year 2000. When you started talking about women and cigarettes, I immediately knew where it was going. My mom smoked Virginia Slims for many decades.

[@turtleanton6539]

Oooh😮

[@williamdixon-gk2sk]

My uncle had a legit nice leather motorcycle jacket with Joe Camel embroidered on the back shooting pool and smoking, it was purchased with camel cash.

[@imacanoli897]

This video was one of the straws that broke the Camel's back; I quit nicotine cold turkey 4 days ago. Keep up the great content!

[@oliviabees]

Hope you’re still doing well now!

[@samuelfraley8737]

How’s it going? If you failed and relapsed just try again!

[@jamesrosewell9081]

@@samuelfraley8737 holy fuck I thought you said you hoped he failed and relapsed again. Holy fuck

[@samuelfraley8737]

@@jamesrosewell9081 noooo lol. Relapses happen though and I want this person to know even if that happens it’s ok and to keep trying!

[@Trainer_Ruffles]

@imacanoli897 hope you have continued on your quiting journey. Keep on trucking.

[@PatKellyTeaches]

It was great working with you KB! Your video turned out to be a whole ass documentary!

[@tomatochemist]

You did an amazing job!

[@PatKellyTeaches]

@@tomatochemist Appreciated -- thank you!

[@ScrumbynPlumbo]

Wow your comment definitely needs to be bumped up more.

[@grimtea1715]

You deserve WAY MORE subs (gained one from me bro). This whole video is a 🔥🔥

[@melissahollowell7255]

I remember an anti-smoking lesson from my childhood. They used the soiled filter to show us what was filtered out---now just imagine what actually got in!!

[@edithhuelskamp1649]

His suggestion for sucking on a mint at the same time as smoking is legit. I smoked a few cigarettes a day for about 15 years. Out of all that time there were probably fewer than 10 cigarettes that I smoked straight. I started out chewing gum each time I smoked, but I quickly switched to Starbursts. One Starburst per cigarette. All my friends thought it was very peculiar. I lucked out in quitting a few years ago too. As my workplace was about to ban smoking on the property, I got a prescription for Chantix. I think I took it two days and then I got very sick for several days - felt weak, no appetite, dizzy, tired. I had two cigarettes left, smoked one, couldn't finish it, threw the other one away. And that was it. Don't understand it at all.

[@waynejohnson1786]

First time I ever smoked a cigarette is when I found a pack someone lost at a ballpark. My friend and I hide them in a rock pile near my house then went back everyday to take a couple puffs and cough our lungs out. That pack lasted us like 4 months.

[@lewismcdermott3024]

How many packs do you smoke now (out of curiosity)?

[@Ttegegg]

I’m getting 10

[@lljw7151]

lucky

[@waynejohnson1786]

@@lewismcdermott3024 Like 2 packs a day lol

[@jrmcdonald7510]

My mom picked up her smoking habit in - you guessed it - Nursing School from fellow doctors and nurses (late 60's). It wasn't until I was born under weight and had to stay in the ICU for a while that she toned it down - to only one pack a day. On humid days, brown nicotine would run down our walls. She would get bronchitis all the time and died of heart disease in her 50's. Thank you, KB, for educating people about the history of this.

[@steveharvey2102]

Congrats. The extra strength has to come from somewhere. For me it's friends and family. For others it's religion. I say. As long as it helps you get to a better place, it's okay with me. As long as it's not crack or something worse ;)

[@AdrianMartinez-gq7ne]

I currently live in South Korea, and I've seen those gruesome warning labels on all their cigarette boxes. However, this very much doesn't stop Koreans from smoking quite a lot. I'm pretty sure I've seen far more Korean smokers than American smokers.

[@Praisethesunson]

South Korea smokes cigarettes in a way that is literally impossible to see anywhere in the U.S these days. It's honestly shocking.

[@matei-gabrielshelby3480]

​@@Praisethesunson I don't think it's that surprising, given the East Asian work culture. Those people work so hard, they put the rest of the world to shame. I imagine it's the same in Japan and China

[@Praisethesunson]

@@matei-gabrielshelby3480 In China they do something called 9-9-6. They work 9am-9pm 6 days per week. That is 72 hours per week. Thankfully I live in America. Where I only have to work 70 hours per week :(

[@lmao2302]

As a Zoomer it was so surprising seeing Korean kids and shit smoking in manwah. Not because it's a bad thing to do but because out of all bad habits kids could illegally do smoking cigarettes is the most outdated. In the US and espcially in my school almost nobody smokes compared to the high amount of people who vape. I remember a friend of mine making fun of the only young person in our entire school who smoked like she wasn't a frequent vaper. Shit was a core memory cause the irony of it.

[@izza_19]

As an indonesian. Yep, here too is the same

[@MW3boy12345]

I was a freshman in high school when JUUL became a thing. I eventually got myself a JUUL in 2018. At the end of 2019 the age was raised to 21 and I wasn’t grandfathered in. I used nicotine pouches to thankfully quit 5 months before I turned 21. Thank god they raised the age because I never formed a habit of going to the store and buying nicotine for myself. My friends that weren’t as fortunate as I are now struggling to quit vaping, or they’ve moved on to tobacco products. So your conclusion is very accurate. Those late teenage years really are the deciding age for nicotine addiction. And that doesn’t mean only young people can quit. I also have older friends that have eventually quit - it’s just a lot harder when you get older.

[@veryde_3356]

This is a great breakdown not only of the history of smoking in the states (it's more prevalent in Europe) but also about corporate logic and how companies manipulate not only the individual client but entire demographics.

[@Praisethesunson]

Capitalism will murder every last living organism on the planet if means the ownership class(even if it's just their corpses) gets one extra penny of profit that would have otherwise gone unextracted.

[@Nobody-Nowhere]

You want to watch "The Century of Self" byt Adam Curtis to understand how this was done. And who was the man behind "torches of freedom".

[@joekoch7428]

In the US you are told where to smoke in Europe your told where not to smoke. It's a whole different culture.

[@stephenmymomtoldmenottoput1459]

I'd highly recommend the book: "Thank You for Smoking" by Christopher Buckley. It's very different from the film and is more so about corporate corruption than libertarian messaging. It actually covers a lot of the things that you mentioned in this video. Great job, Mr. Better.

[@pax6833]

Thank You for Smoking is a very entertaining film, unfortunately I now cringe at a lot of the movie's messaging and themes looking back at it (corporations need defenders, social ills are good because freedumb, social activists are murderous or stupid, women get ahead in life by sleeping with people)

[@chumimintv9052]

My Sociology teacher actually showed us the film. I know the book is different but the whole thing is great to understand how the industry works. A detail that my teacher also pointed was how there was 0 cigarettes lit throughout the whole thing.

[@arrgghh1555]

@@pax6833 You know the movie is satire, and is making fun of all those things?

[@addammadd]

I’d also like to recommend Boomsday by the same author. It’s hilarious and frankly ahead of it’s time in terms of modest, yet useful solutions to our current political situation.

[@Mitsuraga]

That's good to know, because I didn't like the movie.

[@wildbill7267]

The micronite filter is nuts! Directly expose your lungs to tobacco and asbestos simultaneously!

[@cookies23z]

the downside of being a fallout fan is these commercials for deathsticks make me feel nostalgic and joyful... I wasnt even alive for those early ones...

[@star_seraph]

Love Penn's little suppressed cough as he tries to say "breathing secondhand smoke [doesn't cause] cancer" at 1:14:30. Feels like he should be looking at his own show on his show. Kinda like that scene in Spaceballs.

[@Praisethesunson]

I like to think they did like 30 takes and that one was the best one they had.

[@WTFG78]

If I’m not mistaken, P&T were going to do a series finale about how “Penn & Teller: Bullshit” is Bullshit, but the show was cancelled by Showtime before they could do so.

[@PresAlexWhit]

1:40:30 doesn't exist Edit: I found it at 1:14:30

[@star_seraph]

@@PresAlexWhit thanks! edited.

[@teddyfurstman1997]

Love Penn and Teller, but their opinions on Second Hand Smoke are kinda dated. Love their BS series due to their entertaining content, even if there are some things I disagree with.

[@nickw5682]

I’m 21 and started smoking/vaping when I started working at a coffee shop half a year ago. Hardly touched it before then but being surrounded by my coworkers who both heavily smoke/vape I started because it sorta came with the territory. Something about the caffeine and nicotine is a popular combo for baristas. That paired with people stuck in poor, working class jobs makes people love their mild stimulants; however, I realized that giving myself a nic addiction was incredibly stupid. Having been using nicotine for the better part of a year I decided to quit. I’m 2 weeks clean off of it and I wanna stick with not doing it anymore. I worry that if I keep it up especially while I’m still relatively young I won’t be able to quit in the future.

[@alexsm3882]

Mate I'm 24 and I've quit like 4 different times

[@ZiddersRooFurry]

My mom died of smoking-related COPD. Her father died of a mix of heavy smoking and years as a firefighter during a period where safety procedures were 'wear a heavy jacket and don't step on the line'. Trust me-it's not how you wanna go.

[@Tornado1994]

Vaping and Smoking are two different things.

[@atl6s]

@@Tornado1994 nicotine is the same thing regardless of how it enters your bloodstream. the consequences of each consumption method vary, but the nicotine is still making you feel like shit whether it's realized or not

[@nickw5682]

@@archaic1026 it’d probably be about 500 bucks over the course of 6 months, which is very little. I’m only 21 and already have more put aside in my 401k

[@spartan4613]

The "I liked South Park before it was political" crowd proved to me how little media awareness most Americans had. They would literally be criticizing topics all the time and people that agree with them would somehow laugh along without realizing

[@JamesRichardsPlays]

I love this video! Entertaining, yet informative and not over-bearing. I started smoking when I was 13. I was born in 1982. I think I picked it up as a rebellion thing. I didn't think it was too bad. I was still able to run a mile, I watched people who smoked since they were kids grow up to be old men. It wasn't until 2013 when I noticed... I couldn't run a mile anymore. I had a hard time breathing, especially if I went into a sneezing fit. I quit smoking in 2013 and started vaping. Immediately, I had more oxygen in my blood and my lungs were much healthier. I could run a mile again. I had slowly dropped the nicotine content in my vape juice until it was none. Now, I vape recreationally, usually when I drink (another habit I am curtailing, haven't had a drink in a few months. Usually only special occasions now) I tried gums, patches and lozenges. Maybe it was a combination of not wanting to quit yet or they really weren't that effective, they just didn't help me quit. I am always encouraging to not start smoking in anyone I meet, young or old. It was a nasty habit and robbed me of a few years of productive life.

[@Alex-xd9gw]

I went to Istanbul recently and was shocked at the cigarette box coverings. Images like blackened lungs and disfigured throats. I was pretty surprised, but the more I though about the more it made sense. Despite these horrible images, cigs still littered the sidewalks in the hundreds. Thank you for this video.

[@lShishkaBerryl]

Canadian law has the packs be 2/3 of a warning image and the rest of the pack is the same gross brown for every brand with just their name being customized.

[@llamennfarce4104]

Yeh, in Europe the images on cigarette packs are a stuff of nightmares - blackened lungs, dying people, hands and legs affected by necrosis, holes in the body (really). It’s gruesome but probably pretty effective at not making smoking cool

[@TheChrzan1]

@@llamennfarce4104 Not really, I live in EU and I picked up smoking around the time when they introduced these images on the pack. Some of my friends picked up smoking around that time as well. It may be shocking to the outsiders, but here we didin't really pay attention to it. Some even started collecting various labes like cards. What really made me quit smoking was the tax associated with it. When it started to get expansive I just quit.

[@Crick1952]

@@llamennfarce4104 I live in Europe and the pictures don't do anything. Everyone, including kids, smoke and vape WAY more than back in the US

[@k.umquat8604]

The pictures don't do anything for those used to smoking,they think they'll get cancer and die anyway so they don't give a damn

[@Agaettis]

The candy cigarettes still exist but they call them "candy sticks" and they taste awful. My dad was a smoker and always told us to never smoke, but of course never stopped once he was diagnosed with cancer. His years of struggle trying to quit made me never want to even try. Most of my family smoked and died young because of it

[@DustinRodriguez1_0]

They ALWAYS tasted awful. Well, boring anyway. They were just sticks of sugar, like those sticks in Lik'M'Ade that you dip in the sour sugar mix.

[@ccggenius]

@@DustinRodriguez1_0 There's a slight difference. I could've sworn I remembered them having a slight marshmallowy taste, something close to a wintergreen lozenge but without the cooling effect. Personally, I liked them... though I also like Necco wafers, and therefore fully accept that that means my taste buds are a cruel prank of nature.

[@peepperson444]

I had an amazing high school history teacher that was unsettlingly similar in size, shape, and overall demeanor to you. It’s definitely just coincidence but I’m happy to know that the subsection of highly enthusiastic short men with facial hair teaching people about fascinating history is still going strong.

[@lmao2302]

He used to be a history teacher. Bro might be him unironically.

[@injusticeanywherethreatens265]

Quitting smoking is EASY! What are you talking about!? *I quit my smoking habit all the time. Again. And again. And again....and again...*

[@Nickelbag610]

Not to do with smoking but my great grandpa use to call my Pokemon cards cigarette box cards. I assumed it was because an unopened pack of cards looked like a cigarette box. And hearing you talk about how trading cards came in cigarette boxes brought back that memory. But I guess I know why he called them that now.

[@jessicagothie2951]

For what it's worth, not everyone who started smoking as a teen (I was 13) is doomed to keep smoking forever. I started in 1983 and quit in 2003, two packs a day, cowboy killers in the flip top box. (Fwiw, I quit cold turkey because the gum and patches and stuff were all STUPID expensive.) Also, note that sometimes it takes people a couple of tries to get the hang of quitting, so don't be discouraged if it doesn't work the first time you try. Just learn from the experience and try again. You can do it! I did!

[@shawnrazzi5569]

Doesn't fit the narrative he's presenting though. Hilarious tjah in a 90 minute video he blames everyone involved except the smokers themselves. I smoked too and I only blame myself. This wasn't in the 70s and 80s though.

[@75aces97]

Not everyone is, but the earlier you start, the deeper the addiction later on. Just like not everyone who smokes a pack a day will ultimately die of lung or circulatory diseases, but odds are tha most will. That's what most of this is about: probability. Side note: my great granddad started smoking cigarettes at 11, smoked another 75 years, and then quit just because. He lived another 11 years, no apparent lung problems. Dont ask me how. 3 of his sons smoked, and didn't live anywhere near as long.

[@HauntedXXXPancake]

@@shawnrazzi5569 Yeah, He definitely lost some credibility with his dismissiveness of personal responsibility and more so with the statement "addiction is a disease".

[@vulpes7079]

I know someone who relapsed 6 times. She was successful the 7th time and has been free from tobacco for the past 5 years

[@vulpes7079]

​@@HauntedXXXPancakeaddiction IS a disease

[@helenr4300]

The whole second hand smoke issue and no smoking places. Even if passive smoking were not dangerous, being forced to breathe in someone else's choice of smoke is anti social, especially when no alternative to move away. I loved your smoking section on a plane with the swimming pool comparison

[@ireneshankweiler-qb4ve]

As I 90s kid I honestly do not remember bubble gum cigarettes, but I do very clearly remember those weird chalk like ones with the red tip, that came in the packs that looked like lucky strike and Marlboro packs, I believe they still make them, I also remember big league chew that was supposed to be like chewing tobacco

[@thepassingstatic6268]

I loved Big League Chew. Looking back at the packaging, they were just showing the loud part in plain sight

[@Ralkaneous]

KB: *produces content literally on par with feature length documentaries in scope and depth in a topic* Me: man, too bad he can’t post more stuff

[@Tetragrammaton22]

He'd have to pay his actors more.

[@ybokors8524]

If the only complaint is „I wish there was more“, they did a good job.

[@TheModdedwarfare3]

​@@Tetragrammaton22 That would not be very capitalism of him.

[@eamonia]

For real. Why isn't he cranking out 2 or 3 of these a week? Lazy asshole...

[@valdemarjuel1267]

@@TheModdedwarfare3 that would precisely be capitalism. He would have to invent profitable cloning first though

[@maxerd]

12 year long smoker here, 3rd day quitting, have an unopened pack sitting nearby, didn't touch it. Also biggest takeaways are: Big Tobacco wanted TV ads gone and wantted warning labels. Fascinating.

[@markkrousos5011]

Good luck on quitting! Where I come from we have a nickname for cigarettes 'καρκινοσωλήνες (= karkinosolines)', cancer tubes.

[@seekinggodfirst754]

@maxerd Throw out the unopened pack. Distance yourself from the temptation.

[@maxerd]

Lol Elon Musk is an Exec. Prod. on 'Thank You For Smoking'

[@WinterReflections]

@@markkrousos5011 "Cancer sticks" are a slang term used in America as well.

[@HorkPorkler]

Keep with it brother! I smoked for 16 years and quit about a month ago. It feels great and the want for a cigarette has lessened tremendously.

[@willgeorgiadis2025]

As an ex Juul smoker ( who quit smoking the "real" thing with them), juul is to cigarettes what crack is to cocaine. The way the nicotine affects you is hard and fast, similar to the former drug listed ( unfortunately an ex user of both of those as well). Before I quit I was going through 2-3 pods PER DAY, the equivalent to the same number of packs of cigarettes. I am afraid to see what scientific study reveals in the future about vapes.

[@fugawinow1636]

You likely already know but in case you don’t. There’s a documentary called “The Century Of The Self”, and it’s one of the most awesome docs I’ve ever seen. The whole first episode covers Bernays’s importance to the entire concept of the documentary. There’s three parts, and I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t regret seeing it. Thanks for all the great content you’re making! Sent my mom some humble pie on thanksgiving, in the form of your video on the subject.

[@lopiklop]

When you send "humble pie" to somebody, it's called "condescension." Something she won't miss when she's gone.

[@11conormcloughlin]

TLDR: Cigarettes aren't a symbol of freedom rather it's a symbol of how powerful corporations degrade the quality of life of its customers while simultaneously profiting immensely. I'm a former smoker (Marlboro gold/reds) I'm 20 (started smoking at 14) and I quit a little over a month ago. I know it's difficult for people who have smoked for a much longer time than me but from my personal experience if you want to quit bad enough you will do it. It is a testament to the human will to be better and if your will is strong you will be! The last part of the video really moved me because while I never got into the vaping myself I know a ton of my peers who did in middle/highschool. Most of whom still vape to this day and I've noticed a significant change in many of those people who do still vape.

[@terrystevens3998]

And how people will reflexively defend it and be reactionary to any and all laws

[@cuckoophendula8211]

Yeah, the freedom to choose to be manipulated by such companies by getting hooked on their product ironically makes such people less free (but they still believe that they're free since there's a bit of cognitive dissonance keeping them from admitting to the taboo that they're actually hooked).

[@Craxin01]

Predatory advertising is a terrible thing. You look at advertisement evolve from simple awareness campaigns to matter of fact descriptions to selling a product as a lifestyle. Greed destroys everything.

[@terrystevens3998]

@@timrube lol I bet you were one of those tools that protested the friendlys shutting down for a month.. the people that think they are self sufficient in modern society are just the people that are too stupid to recognize how much everyone relies on society.

[@11conormcloughlin]

@@timrube I don't advocate banning them. As a former smoker I know all sides. I'm not going telling people how to live their lives when i've barely got my own figured out. EDIT: On your point about responsibility and chaos I think the USA is already past that point of no return. Most peoples lives are so detached from the situation on the ground that when the house of cards fall (which I believe it is slowly) people will be in for a very rude awakening. If all the crazy news the past few years isn't an indication of that than idk what is.

[@corbid5093]

Knowing about the history of cigs really opened my eyes to a lot. I’m already rather against smoking, I never met a whole set of my grandparents because they died to it before I was born and I watched my other grandma die slowly of lung cancer at the age of 5. But this really fueled it Maybe anti smoking campaigns should teach more about the history of cigarettes

[@backsfx]

Well it would be better than the scare campaign they do today in denmark ...

[@alexcarter8807]

That's the real hillbilly way to go ... dying of lung cancer at the age of 5.

[@peterheinzo515]

you watched your grandmother die when she was 5? that’s heartbreaking.

[@Praisethesunson]

Teaching the history of cigarettes is too close to teaching the evils of capitalism. Can't have that.

[@injusticeanywherethreatens265]

Ya I feel that the history of something is what we need to establish the 'origin' of these devilish tactics. We already know here and now why they advertise the way they do: to make as much money as possibls - fuck all the consequences. But when lookijg at the histiry of the BIG TOBACCCO'S fight against public health over centuries it bdcomes more and more apparent how psychopathic they aare!

[@joelfer1172]

I've been smoking for almost 4 years. I started at 16 because I reeeeeally believed it would make me look cooler. I knew about the spook story's (Marlboros cawboy, cancer in the family....) But I didn't take them seriously. Knowing the truth about the industry has been a game changer. I'm already leaving the habit as I write this, one day after the video. I wish this was obligatory knowledge in school curriculums. I believe it would really reduce smoking world wide.

[@JinwooYoon1217]

Best of luck!

[@Mienarrr]

good luck to you! dont be sad if you end up giving in a few times. the road of quitting is hard, but once you are actually free of it, however long it takes, your quality of life will be soooo much better! ❤

[@37parman]

39:30 my dad died in 1995 at 54 years old. He first had abdominal pain in June and diagnosed in August with mesothelioma. He died on thanksgiving day. I remember he smoked Kent cigarettes.

[@santiagoochoa4984]

My man, you're in a league of your own in the way you choose topics and present information. I'm a journalist and I truly believe watching your videos has made me a better writer and helped me in the way I conceptualize stories. Keep at it bro, you've got yourself a new Patreon patron.

[@18skeltor]

Lovely comment 🌹

[@sabaducia]

As a millenial, I am now feeling a need to re-examine so many things that I consumed as a teen/YA 😬

[@jannikheidemann3805]

Good. Good. Let us know what else you find in terms of potential germs of degeneracy in your childhood.

[@pax6833]

I can't believe I ever thought Bill Maher was smart. It only seemed like his takes have been getting worse the past decade but it turns out he's always been a center right libertarian moron.

[@AryaOghuz]

Hey, I like the video but the indigenous peoples of America actually did inhale the smoke of tobacco. It just depended on the group. Famously Aztec shamans and other meso and South American peoples smoked (and inhaled) the fumes of the Nicotiana Rustica plant. You are correct when you say it did act as a hallucinogen though, as they would often continue to inhale until they were unable to do so anymore. They believed that this would allow them to communicate with higher powers/gods. Even today Rustica has the highest nicotine content of all tobaccos. In modern Thailand (as well as other countries) they smoke it with bamboo water pipes. Some parts of the Middle East also use Dokha which is a strong tobacco (not sure of the species) mixed with herbs for flavor that creates an extremely intense “head wrap” nicotine high that can last for minutes. Cigar smoking also originated from Mesoamerican shamans, although they would often wrap the tobacco with leaves from other plants

[@onewholovesvenison5335]

1:19:58 Cigars still come in all sorts of flavors, like chocolate, vanilla, and grape. They are probably left alone because cigars are not meant to be inhaled (although frequent cigar smokers still have high rates of oral cancers, and a somewhat higher risk of lung cancer than non-smokers). However, not all of the flavors would appeal to children. I don’t think any child has ever said “Yum! I love espresso and rum!”.

[@zacharynolan9553]

Very timely video. I’m 22 and have come to the island nation of Cyprus for my first international internship. I never smoked in high school, only hitting a juul once before deciding I didn’t like it. When I came here to the EU, and witnessed the immense smoking culture, I couldn’t help but be peer pressured. It’s been only a few weeks but now I’m reminded of the real damage they do. Not gonna buy another pack or ask for another cig. Thanks KB

[@serbsi2922]

Good luck

[@TheRunningLeopard]

As someone who traveled for the first time to Europe for a study abroad, I was shocked by the smoking culture in Italy. I have overall pour lung constitution, with exercise induced asthma that leads me to get bronchitis every once in a while, and I could tangibly feel the difference from irritation. Stay strong man, the peer pressure is tough but your body will thank you in the end. - Another 22 yr old dude.

[@reptile_loki]

Cyprus is the country with the most smokers on Earth , you literally landed on the only place in Europe where smoking is a regular

[@yannick245]

@@TheRunningLeopard I'm happy that I'm living in a state in Germany _(Baden-Württemberg),_ where it's still allowed to smoke in small bars. Larger ones can have a designated smokers room. But beer smell and cigarettes smoke is what makes a bar a bar. But other states go the full _"US way '_ and ban all indoor smoking. Many bars had to close because of that. For example: 42,4 % of al men from 30-35 are smokers. These are the guys hanging around at bars. Overall, smoking is much more prevalent in Europe and is not seen as a social stigma, like in the US. I'd always play the _"I'm European"_ card if over there. What's funny is that our cigarette boxes got worse and worse over the years with all the warning signs and slogans and now with these disgusting pictures. While the US is the only place I can think of, were there's only a small one-liner about the dangers of smoking, printed on the side. But you guys, while being the greatest anti-smokers in the world, still have just _"normal"_ looking packs!

[@yannick245]

@@reptile_loki Actually, Greece is #1 in the Europe, with 42%. Cyrus _"only"_ landed at place nine, with 39%> _Sources:_ _Eurostar:WHO_ _Statista 20022'_ But they still have a life expectancy over 80, just like Japan. But with Japan it might have something to do with that all cigarettes over there have a charcoal filter. I know that it's nothing but a hypothesis of mine but I think that's something to have a look in.

[@maltaethiron]

Thank you for adding the bit about harm reduction. Vaping flavored nicotine has gotten me, my brother, and both my parents off of cigarettes permanently, but I definitely discourage people who don't already smoke from picking up vaping.

[@Praisethesunson]

The problem is cigarettes are so bad consuming literally any other product is an improvement.

[@cornettotrilogyenjoyer]

it's easy to switch from cigs to vaping because vaping is more convenient by every possible metric, but it's not easier to quit nicotine through vaping

[@StefanoFierros]

@@cornettotrilogyenjoyer that's the point of harm reduction tho, it's pretty much impossible for very heavy users of cigarettes to just quit, so you have to minimize harm with things like vapes.

[@nunnaurbiznez8815]

Did he just say they have a way to make carcinogen free cigarette but they just don't? Think of all the garbage people are exposed to that could be made much safer but corporations don't because of $$$.

[@christinafidance340]

Just wanna say that I used to smoke Parliaments and YES, that extra bit at the end absolutely has a great mouthfeel! It was actually really difficult for me to even go back to regular cigarettes after them. It doesn’t feel like wet paper in your mouth at all. It’s cardboard, yet it doesn’t get soggy for some reason. I don’t smoke anymore (I vape- I KNOW! But it’s an improvement at least. I def want to quit vaping too eventually though.)

[@mh4971]

I remember working with a woman at my first job, I was 15 or so. She was maybe 30, but looked quite a bit older in pretty long-term smoker fashion - sunken in eyes, hollow cheeks, aged neck and chest etc. She didn't seem completely happy with her life, considering she was working at McDonalds at 30, which isn't bad but I think you have to *really* enjoy McDonalds to enjoy working there at that age. She had a short-fuse but she often said she had a soft spot for me. One day as I was taking out the rubbish, she was out near the big bins on her smoke break, looking rather miserable to be standing next to a stinking bin. I throw the rubbish bags in the bin, and as I am walking back to go inside, she asks me "do you smoke?" Having grown up with a smoker father who died and an ex-smoker mother, I was always incredibly averse to smoking, I confidently replied "absolutely not". She walked closer to me, cigarette in one hand, softly grabbing my shoulder with the other, and said something to the effect of "I started smoking at 14, you are around that age, right? I see girls around your age at work join me for smoke breaks and they probably think they are cool for joining the 'big adults'. That's how I started. If I could go back and stop smoking, I would in a heart beat. Darlin', don't do it to yourself, none of those girls are cool, they look incredibly dumb to me, and in about 20-30 years time, you are gonna look so much better than they will, and you will definitely be richer too with how expensive cigs are nowadays." As she was speaking to me, the harsh smell of cigarette smoke invaded my nose. I nodded, softly yet quickly saying "Thanks" as to not start coughing from the smell and walked back inside. It was the first time someone in my life told me they regretted smoking. And, I see the girls I went to high school with who still smoke, and they have sunken eyes, aged neck and chest, crows lines, everything, and this is only 5 years after finishing high school. We are in our early twenties. Not good.

[@cravinbob]

Do not try to be an author of stories because this one is very amateurish. Thank me later.

[@mh4971]

​@@cravinbob You know, I started my day hoping to god you would tell me what you thought. God is real - he answered my prayers.

[@aliciasnavely5109]

@@cravinbob lol agreed. 💯👏🏽 I was cringing reading the entire thing.

[@Dash62g]

Thanks for sharing this anecdote. I had a similar experience once. Kudos for not biting these argument-bait replies, lol.

[@bekkimadison]

"Yeah that almost sounds like something real human beings say to each other"

[@ThatBum42]

My grandpa has Alzheimer's. Occasionally he'll repeat phrases from his youth, one of which is "And they are mild!" It's immensely sad to me that he can't recognize his two daughters but he still remembers this stupid marketing slogan.

[@aturchomicz821]

Woooow....

[@laguerrapiutotale9208]

This is the power they have over public perception

[@Silvermoon424]

That's so tragic.

[@clanmclaren6647]

Should be known that while complex memories like those of people are destroyed by alzheimers, very simple things like slogan jingles and favorite songs are one of the very last things that stick around. He did't love you guys any less, he can't help it his brain was literally dying.

[@emilymoisuc8579]

Sad. The irony being that nicotine has been shown to help stave off Alzheimer's. Using it, minus cigarettes, as a therapy is being researched now.

[@mitch7525]

I really appreciate this video. I rewatch it occasionally, the only problem is that it makes me extremely cynical for the next few days. It's sad to think how much of our culture simply exists to extract a profit from the masses at any cost.

[@meeeka]

I'm American born but live in Australia and have a 20 year old daughter. She started vaping during the 2 year exam prep all high schoolers here and Covid. She told me about it a year ago and I went nuts. But here, vapes come in fruit and ice cream flavors and the government says it's fighting tobacco (on all cig packs are the worst photos of human distortions,all attributed to tobacco.) Plus a pack of cigs is close to $30 with all the taxes put on them. But last week she came crying to me that the breaking off of the habit is getting nowhere, so she's moved to patches. After watching this, I'll not sleep all night.

[@mike000000000000able]

As someone about your age who also loved Penn and Teller, thank you for ripping into them when deserved.

[@lainiwakura1776]

But the episodes where they talked the crazy stuff were good. They made me see cheerleading in a new light as well.

[@asmaran9262]

It is insane that I (22 yr old) can still remember a time when going to a restaurant almost always started with "Would you like to sit in the smoking or no smoking section?" Just a bit of a mind blow when I look at how rare smoking is anymore, and that basically no restaurant has a "smoking section" anymore

[@Jakob165]

it's also just flat out illegal in a lot of states now. Minnesota in particular completely banned smoking indoors in buildings opened to the public. can't remember when but it's been that way up here for quite a while.

[@rugbybeef]

All one need due is stand an adequate distance from a hospital and you will find a group of staff members (and quite often patients) smoking rapidly. The differential adoption and failure of anti-smoking campaigns to address the socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, and class differentials in smoking patterns continues to leave the underprivileged at a disadvantage. Yes, smoking is largely gone in many white collar workplaces and in public accommodations (restaurants, hotels, bars, etc). However, it should be noted that in many blue collar workplaces smoking is still very tolerated and deeply rooted. At hospitals this tension is acutely demonstrated as it is more frequently technicians, facilities, administrative support, and janitorial staff who continue to smoke and much rarer to see nurses and physicians.

[@lainiwakura1776]

I don't remember that at all, but I live in California and they probably had those rules in place when I was a toddler in the late 80s.

[@lainiwakura1776]

@@rugbybeef I think it's more that nursing is a high stress job and smoking helps take the edge off, kinda like food for the fat nurses.

[@rugbybeef]

@@lainiwakura1776 I was saying that I no longer see nurses smoking anymore compared to the beginning of my career approximately 15 years ago. These days it appears much more common for other staff members (medical imaging technicians, phlebotomist, medical assistants, patient transport, etc) to be smoking I personally believe this is due to RNs and NPs are generally from more privileged backgrounds and able to attend BSN and MSN programs,, growing professional stigma and sanctions for smoking, generational effects, and their higher levels of medical education and direct experience with patients suffering from chronic conditions related to smoking.. In my experience it is rare to see RNs, especially younger RNs smoking at all. In my experience, there were a few older nurses who smoked when I started my career. Back then, it seemed that CNAs and LPNs (part-time, night school, or vocationally trained) were more likely to smoke. Our health system also stopped hiring staff who use tobacco products nearly a decade ago, so it is basically implementing a date restriction on tobacco. Noteworthy, I haven't seen someone recognizably an RN or smoking in quite a while. (The health system I know assigns a particular scrub color to roles/credentials so it is easy to identify RNs/LPNs versus those in other colors by dept & job) There was a guy on my hall my freshman year of college who dipped. He and his roommate became very close as they were both on the wrestling team and had arrived a week or two early to start practices. His roommate ended up picking up his dip habit pretty quickly and the first guy's girlfriend was unphased by it. My step-brother dipped, so I was kind of used to random repurposed bottles being around and didn't really give it a second thought. The other folks on our hall though were mostly from upper-middle and upper class families where no one used any tobacco. They never really got used to these two guys walking around with Gatorade bottles as informal personal spittoons*, and were totally grossed out now and then when they would leave one accidentally on the lounge table or the shelf in the hall bathroom. They didn't even want to touch the bottles to throw them away and were madden just knowing they there may be a few floating around into their room. It's funny, I haven't thought about that at all in years. *Not spitting from across the room Bugs Bunny style, just like carrying with them doing laundry, studying or whatever and holding it up to their mouth when the collected saliva filled their mouth.

[@valentins.2637]

Can't believe you skipped over the "how to light Something without Matches?" Part. That Shit got me hooked

[@ManiakPL22]

"the spittoon was replaced by the ash tray" is such a powerfull raw line holy shit! I love this line.

[@MrTaxiRob]

A good friend of mine was an on-air radio personality climbing his way up the ranks at some local Clear Channel properties at the time. He was actually doing quite well for himself; but when smoking bans started, he became one of those "smokers' rights" guys. Ten years later he died of cancer.

[@insertcolorfulmetaphor8520]

I remember easily accessed pull operated cigarette machines in the local Denny's like restaurants, still in 1996. Every child smoker from the nearby middle school and the high school would always get cigs (a pack) for about $1.75 in quarters... Wild times. Child of the 1980's ( a X'ennial generation kiddo)

[@EnigmaticLucas]

I'm too young to remember when it was allowed everywhere (born in 2002), but I do remember a few local restaurants having smoking sections as recently as 2013 or so

[@LuciFeric137]

Yep. I used to stock those. Great little profit centers.

[@TheOneTrueAnthemis]

I've heard X'enniels referred to the Oregon Trail Generation Uniquely positioned to see the full analog and digital worlds

[@t_ylr]

@@EnigmaticLucas I'm about a decade older than you. I remember smoking sections and cigarette machines, even at Chuck E Cheese lol. Tho where I lived that stuff went away in the mid 00s. I remember a lot of adults complaining about having smoke outside in the rain and the cold haha.

[@lukewarmwaterr]

@@EnigmaticLucas I was born in 2000, I remember having to sit in the smoking area one time at a restaurant with my parents because they were out of space in the normal section. came back a few months later after the ban and now there is no smoking section!

[@Valyssi]

This was a great insight into not just tobacco, but how easy it was to manipulate the public, using techniques which are still widely used today. Of course there's something to be said for today's ability to instantly Google something (like what the special interests of various 'institutes' are), but it's also made it similarly easy to spread propaganda in the first place

[@kensurrency2564]

thanks, Freud

[@peterdollins3610]

Excellent piece. An Uncle let me smoke a cig when I was ten, laughing. I stared at him thinking there's nothing in this. Adults must be so stupid. At 15 1957 I started work as a fireman on the GW Railways in the UK. Starting the firebox fire meant standing in front of green thick smoke streaming up into the face. Even on running Stream Traains the smoke could abd did get back into us. So I coud never and never wished to smoke. Good work.

[@Blauefrucht]

In Germany, our former chancellor Helmut Schmidt is famously known for smoking menthol cigarettes. He even stockpiled tens of thousand for them, when they were outlawed in 2013.

[@truegemuese]

Ich wusste gar nicht, dass er die gehamstert hat.

[@caseclosed9342]

If you look at the Reagan presidential library’s KZbin channel they have a video of Schimdt’s arrival at the White House and the top comment is “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Schmidt go this long without a cigarette!” 😂😂😂

[@markwilliams2620]

Germans are stubbor......er set in their ways?

[@lShishkaBerryl]

Lmaoooooooo I had an old roommate message me to ask if I'd drive an hour to get her mother menthols at the native reserve before they were banned, then presumably drive another hour to deliver them. I did not, she can go there herself if she wants them bad enough.

[@sinenomine2428]

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve quit smoking. I’ve used the patch, switched to vaping and continued to go back to cigs. I watched your show halfway through, paused it, had a smoke, and then put a patch on. I bought those boxes of patches a year ago. It’s time. I’ve been smoking 23 years. It’s time to quit for good.

[@apfelkopf_7617]

Ey. You're right. Life's too short to ruin it with this sort of repetitive crap. My tip coming from a history of obsessive masturbation: when the urge comes, do three pushups and just go outside. You can go barefoot if it's safe, the sensations will distract you quite well. Don't force yourself any long distance, just make going outside for two minutes your goal. That way the mental barrier to actually doing it is lower. The pushups will make you stronger and let you walk outside straighter each time you deal with the urge in a smart way, just as a bonus. As of typing this, I'm fighting an urge myself, but I don't want to lie to both of us, so I'll go outside now. Be kind to yourself, since that's the person you're around the most :)

[@lShishkaBerryl]

Whatever you do, don't smoke with the patch on. You'll get soooo nic sick it isn't funny.

[@danielmorton1606]

Quitting smoking isn't a single event its a process where you will make mistakes. Good on you and avoid the point where you quit quitting. You are trying to change your brain. I

[@cornettotrilogyenjoyer]

i smoked for 15 years myself and also did gum and vape and neither did the job what worked for me was taking about a week or two to switch to santa fes/cheyennes (filtered cigars) as they have about 1/3 the concentration of nicotine as a regular cigarette once my body was adjusted to those lower concentrations, it was a lot easier to manage withdrawals and cut back until i was able to take a full week of vacation in a cabin up north to just detox the rest of the way wishing you luck, nicotine is a hell of a drug

[@eamonia]

You got this, scro. I wish you success on your quest and all the best.

[@seandobson499]

This is the best video I have seen on the lies put out by the tobacco companies. I am English and was only a very light smoker until I joined the British army at seventeen and a half, being posted to West Germany at eighteen where we could buy duty-free cigarettes, and they were a great comfort and stress reliever on active service. I smoked about 20 cigarettes a day for some thirty years, plus a small cigar after a meal. The army, cigarettes not withstanding, kept us in peak physical condition, so I never has a smokers cough or shortness of breath, but after many years of army service, upon my return to civilian life, not only were cigarettes much more expensive in the UK, but I began to hate the stench of tobacco on my clothes and I reduced my cigarette intake to about ten a day but began to enjoy smoking less and less so some fifteen years ago, I decided to quit smoking, relapsed once but quit on my second attempt, purely on will power and the very real desire to quit smoking and have not smoked now for close to fifteen years and its one of the best decisions I have ever made, I no longer smell like a walking ashtray and my sense of smell and taste improved so much so that I can not stand the smell of smoke from cigarettes or anything else combustible and if I am walking behind a smoker, I have to cross over the road.

[@RyuakiraX]

35:44 "Their normal amount, 10 to 40(!) a day." 40 a day sounds like an absolute chore to get through.

[@cofeewarior]

I started smoking when I was 17. I smoked a lot for 8 years before I tried to quit for the first time. I always told that it was my own choice and I believed all that nonsense, I overlooked the warning lables on packs, even dismissed the science about secondhand smoke. Your video was very interesting in showing that all the tobacco contreversy is fabricated by the tobacco industry and that it successfully pushed it through an entire generation. I believe that your video should be shown to a lot more of people, smokers or not, to expose even more this industry and deter any kid from smoking. If my 17 year old self would have seen a video like this, he would have never touched his first smoke because we all know that smoking kills, but we do not all know that the tobacco industry lied to us so viciously and fooled us. I'm still struggling to stop smoking completely, but by the Lord's grace, I will eventually make it. If I can give an advice on anyone here that think that smoking is cool or want to try his first cigarette: the best way to stop smoking is to never begin.

[@Praisethesunson]

Fun fact. The cigarettes given out to soldiers during world war 2 killed more people than the actual war.

[@doughboywhine]

As they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”

[@lShishkaBerryl]

You can do it! I started smoking at 14 and quit 18 years later. Vaping is what finally helped me, I tried every patch gum and pill known to man with no results. Over 6 years tobacco free now, still vape 3mg juice I make myself. I haven't gotten a cold or flu since I quit smoking either, used to be at least once a year.

[@rodh1404]

I genuinely wish you well with that. Unfortunately, all too many smokers quit only after too much damage has been done.

[@commisaryarreck3974]

Started when i was 18 Quit when i was 22. Was slightly irritated for a week, anyone incapable of quitting cold turkey is simply suffering from personal failings and a spineless wretch trying to shove responsibility for their own life and choices to others Also fuck ciggarette companies, not defending those scumbags here, just can't stand the bullshit excuses everyone makes Addiction is personal failing, grow a goddamn spine and take responsibility for your own life for ONCE in your pathetic existence

[@erisdiscordia5429]

The 12 Years a Slave poster is kinda subtle on the addiction thing. Actually, I really like the subtle manuevering between pictures, blocking the addiction aspect to switch to the "We know this is stupid but we're gonna build an entire culture around being super proud about doing it anyway" aspect of Starship Troopers. Well played, KB prop master. Well played.

[@bitnewt]

I spotted the little cigarette props on the shelves but didn't get the significance of the posters! This is neat!

[@enock542]

i think dude has that there every episode

[@erisdiscordia5429]

@@enock542 Yer, does seem that way. Everyone's gotta notice at some point, though.

[@enock542]

@@erisdiscordia5429 that's a fact family. hope you're enjoying your night yo. stay up

[@erisdiscordia5429]

@@enock542 Same, bud.

[@CafetiereEnOr]

I started Vaping this week and I plan on phasing out nicotine during the reste of the year and be a non addict by 2024. Thank you so much for making this video. I always knew the risks associated to it but I always thought I was getting something out of it. The aim of your video (not talking health risk but showing how, regardless of those risks, cigarettes are kinda dumb) really made reconsider my « cute sin » (guilty pleasure in French). Thank you so much you may have given me a few more years to live lol

[@annemarie3811]

“Cigarettes should be like hard liquor, you can’t just get it in the line at the grocery store or gas station…” *Laughs in Chicago*

[@ianmacdonald9201]

As a kid, I remember the smoking section on the plane For those too young to remember, imagine 80% of the plane lighting up and you are one seat behind all of them in the "no smoking" seats. Bonus was breathing the recirculated air on a 10 hour flight to Europe. It was the same for restaurants at the beginning but at least you were out of there in less than an hour.

[@LMvdB02]

That's really quick dining lol

[@LMvdB02]

American?

[@spaceman081447]

@ian macdonald I can remember when "NON-smoking sections" on planes and in restaurants did not even exist.

[@Entrailss]

Your room is the only time I can ever imagine “12 years a slave” and “starship troopers” being mentioned together.

[@Pantalaimon91]

@@chompythebeast The first movie is satire. The book is absolutely not and an active proponent of militarism.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

@@chompythebeast I understood after first watching it. I wasn't dead sure it was satire, but when I saw the KB video I felt really validated on picking that up.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

Slavery guarrantees citizenship!

[@jaesynn2015]

Lol, I ask people if they remember Face all the time. "It's me, FAAAACE!" *manic eyeroll*

[@bjorn-falkoandreas9472]

Mr Better, sir. I am 20 years your senior and had the good fortune of my mother insisting we leave the US back in the 70s. I am acutely aware of the past 50 years of filth accumulated in German history and the most famous 12 years by virtue of a lot of education. When I left the US in my luggage was a picture book and a record. One of those Disney Golden Books. My favorite one was The Song of the South. Took me decades to learn that that was bad. Took me another decade to learn that the bits that were extracted were actually good and probably the only good thing Disney Corp managed to get right. They had actual folk tales which were Americanized version of west African stories. That rabbit was a trickster spider god in most version and Disney somehow managed to Brother's Grimm that by talking to people before that oral traditon was lost. That is the kind of complex relationship I was brought up with in the US. My parents parked me at a black church so they could go their merry way and you can imagine the amount of cookies I was fed with and how alien the concept of racism in the US was to me. And then there was the 90s. Man, Bill Maher and South Park. I was in my late 20s when the ManBearPig episode aired. That was the day South Park stopped existing for me. They apologized for that one decades later. It was obvious back then. What annoys me is how long the McDonalds thing and the fiction of the frivolous lawsuits leading to payouts lasted in the US. All of that is something observable with cold hard facts and yet people get their education from entertainers with no obligation to veracity. The US -to this day- uses the code word "hygiene" for circumcision. It took me 30 years to understand the lotion jokes and that American men are not naturally filthy and don't know how to wash. I am certain a lot of people repeat and do things unthinkingly just because it was always done that way. Shyster got a shipment of novelty pickles? Sell it to people cosplaying as Germans to hang in their christmas trees. That one has stopped being a curio in German news magazines ages ago. Deluded eugenicist and failed bland cereal salesman is obsessed with masturbation? Make the US the most circumcised nation with no religious background for it whatsoever. Actual science had to be done and ignored to refute this particular brand of idiocy. Elderly woman suffering 3rd degree burns to her thighs and genitalia to the point of skin grafts? Have comedians repeat the lines spun by the lawyers of a fast food company going on about frivolous lawsuits. Uncharismatic politician picking up the cause of climate change, a phenomenon so well understood it was taught in my school back in the 80s? Bunch of weirdos from California who made their low-effort sweatshop animation their brand make fun of it. Young woman groomed by a man in power? Make fun of her till the end of days. Entertainment, religion and pseudo-science. You are teaching a valuable curriculum and the source critique you frequently do is now more important than ever. A young person cited a NYP article as news to me and I wasn't able to explain the propaganda techniques to them. You will need to do one on that one. Propaganda as entertainment and propaganda as news because that is the oldest unrefuted falsehood that the US does not do propaganda.

[@Starfox2020]

I love your cutaways to period pop art. It's really enlightening to put words into cultural context.

[@Praisethesunson]

It was nice to see Billiam "Boomer republican" Mahr has always been a piece of garbage.

[@rvdb7363]

We had chocolate cigarettes when I was a kid in the 90s. We got them in our shoe in the weeks before Sinterklaas (December 5th). They looked very similar to the real brands. I remember 'smoking' 100s of them. They were all the rage. When they banned candy that looked like cigarettes, they tried bringing them on the market as "chocolate sticks", but that never took off. Chocolate sticks covered with a layer of thin white paper, just didn't make sense without the cigarette link. These chocolate sticks were on the market when my youngest brothers were young. I remember them eating the sticks, but they didn't fake-smoke them and when I asked them just now if they remembered them they both had no memory of them.

[@Turnil321]

They have gone the way of the negerzoenen (nigerkiss) and black pete (a black-face helper).

[@MultiMariana55]

I remember those! My dad used to smoke but quit it shortly before moving in the new house with my mom, and bought me the chocolate cigarettes whenever we went by a candy store and they had them. While I didn't 'smoke' them, some of my friends did. One day they stopped selling them at a store we had close so they faded from my memory for many years. About a decade later the memory was suddenly triggered as I walked by a store in a side alley that sold 'chocolate sticks' that seemed very familiar. So I went in and asked the lady at the counter who confirmed they were the same thing. Felt nice to know I wasn't crazy hahaha. My sister had no memory of them and looked at me odd whenever I mentioned them.

[@fukpoeslaw3613]

You had to peal off the paper or spit it out later 😄

[@katrijndekeersmaecker1904]

I'm sorry, this is completely off topic, but I'm very confused. I'm Belgian, so the Sinterklaas tradition is something I grew up with and which my entire environment (and I to a limited capacity, because I'm a childless adult) still participates in every year. ... But It's on the 6th of december! I'm very sure of that. So do they celebrate it on the 5th somewhere?

[@rvdb7363]

@@katrijndekeersmaecker1904 Saint Nicolas died on december 6th and that is his feast day, but in the Netherlands the celebration with the presents is on Saint Nicolas Eve (so the evening before the feast day)

[@ravenoferin500]

I've been trying to quit for years where I had my best attempt was in the Philippines. I could get single cigarettes everywhere. Having to go through the chore of marching to a store for everyone cut me back a lot. Really irks me that I don't have that option in America.