Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Perspective on Propaganda

This really pisses me off. One of the reasons I like living in Oklahoma, is it's not California. Well, I guess it is now. People totally buy into the modern propaganda on so much crap, and it really makes me mad. Take the list on this page, for example. There are a lot of people that are anti-gun and/or pro-gun control because of all the accidental shootings. According to this table, you are nearly twice as likely to die from medical malpractice than accidental gunfire. Furthermore, you are many times more likely to accidentally die from many other situations, including (but not limited to) car accidents, falling, poisoning, drowning, or choking on your food! Let's compare these stats to those on this page.
Secondhand smoke is responsible for an estimated 3,000 lung cancer deaths among U.S. nonsmokers each year

I am claiming that I'm putting these things in perspective, so let's make that an actual number. According to this page, the U. S. population in July of 2007 was 301,139,947. That would mean that the people who die each year of lung cancer from second hand smoke account for .000996% of the population. To simplify that for some of you, that accounts for only one of your 10,000 closest friends. I wouldn't exactly call that a F*&%ing epidemic. And, you are over THIRTEEN TIMES MORE LIKELY to die in an automobile accident than you are to die of lung cancer that you got from second hand smoke. You are more likely to die in a fire than from lung cancer associated with second hand smoke. What pisses me off more than anything else is the fact that there is so little truly comprehensive information concerning health risks according to smoking. I would like to see a study that says that X% of smokers contract whatever disease, not associated with other high-risk lifestyles such as glazier or machine work. I suspect you can't find this information, because it would be detrimental to the argument that it it so terribly, terribly bad for you. So, we just have to go with their numbers, I suppose.
But, if we take the above U. S. population number, and figure that 1/5 of the population smokes, as is guessed by The National Cancer Society, that would make 60,227,989 smokers, of which 440,000 were estimated to have died due to tobacco for the year. That would be 1 out of every 137 smokers dying of smoking-related illnesses. This amounts to less than 1% of all smokers dying each year. If the statistics could be applied straight-forward, if I smoked average cigarettes at an average rate over the course of 137 years, would I be almost certain to die of lung cancer? Not quite pandemic proportions.
It is estimated on the same website that 213,380 people got lung cancer from tobacco in the year of 2007. That would account for one out of every 282 smokers, or .36%. So, If I smoke for 282 years, and don't die of anything else, I'll get lung cancer. I know that statistics don't work exactly that way, but the way tobacco has become public enemy number one is ridiculous, and people need to start understanding the lies they are being fed.
It's like they want us to all believe that if you smoke, even occasionally, you will certainly die of cancer, and if you are around people who smoke, you will most likely die. I just don't think that's true, even looking at the weighted statistics of tobacco's enemies.
Given these statistics that I have laid out for you, people need more guns and smoking, and let's do away with cars, doctors, and water.

2 comments:

instinct said...

Michael, Michel, Michel, you don't seem to understand that they are trying to take care of us and if they have to warp the fact and use scare tactics so that they can get some more tax dollars out of us, then that's just what has to be done "for the good of the children"

I also like how they try and say that "Cigarettes cause cancer". No, the actual statement should be "Cigarettes MAY cause cancer".

Not exactly the same thing, but that doesn't stop the health facists from using it for lawsuits, new smoking laws and general vilification.

Zaakir Abdullah said...

Great post, I agree 100%.



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