“Thank You for Smoking…?”
Peter Brimelow brings to light an interesting idea in his essay “Thank You for Smoking…?” Brimelow’s purpose of his essay is to defend smoking. He provides the audience with information that is worthy of their consideration and valid enough to make them think twice about how they stand on the issue of smoking. Unfortunately, some flaws in Brimelow’s technique distract the audience from his message that smoking is not as unhealthy as it appears. A few mistakes transform his work from a well-written argumentative essay to an unsuccessful attempt to spread his beliefs. What started as an essay to rouse new views on the issue of smoking swiftly lost all merit and became a means to assail the people in
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Freedom is a value that people have and want to retain. When Brimelow makes this argument about smoking look like an attack on freedom, people are likely to join forces with him. The facts found throughout the paper are worthy support to Brimelow’s main point, but compared to appealing to these values of people, it is merely an added influence.
Brimelow’s essay also appeals to peoples’ warrants and personal beliefs about health. Health, along with freedom, is another important issue that grabs the attention of the audience. Throughout the essay, references are made to a number of diseases that smoking can help to fight off. Such diseases include Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Osteoarthritis, and different types of cancer. Studies have shown that these diseases are less common among smokers (Brimelow 142). Backing, or support for warrants (McFadden), is found in paragraphs where Brimelow has found other positives of smoking. Not only does the warrant appeal to the values of the audience, but when there is even more backing to support it, people are emotionally drawn to the issue and have even more information to persuade their judgment.
By now, it appears that Brimelow has captured the attention of his audience and persuaded them to agree with him. His main claim has been
Smoking is an activity that has been around for many years for people to use and adapt into their lifestyle. It is a tool that many people use to help reduce the stresses of life and put them in a comfortable position that enables them to cope with the hectic lifestyle they are living. However, smoking has been scientifically proven to cause many types of cancer, the most common being lung cancer resulting in numerous deaths across the United States. According to BBC, "Smoking is a greater cause of death and disability than any single disease" (BBC, 2). Evidently, the benefits and drawbacks of smoking have been debated for many years, and only recently have some countries have placed a ban in public places such as Britain and the United
One of my first memories in the United States was taking a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E) class. I was in sixth grade and a top student, as talking about drugs and alcohol and the way they affect us was fascinating to me. This is why, the following year, I volunteered to become a peer educator in Teens Against Tobacco Use (T.A.T.U). For a couple of years, I gave presentations to young students which included facts, demonstrations, and games, to spread the knowledge that tobacco is harmful and that staying away from smoking prolongs life expectancy and increases the quality of life. It should come as no surprise, then, that I consider myself a big proponent of staying tobacco-free and encouraging others to quit smoking as a great way to promote health. I remember watching my mom and sister as they took part in their nightly ritual of smoking a few cigarettes to unwind. “Did you know that a main component of cigarettes is used as rocket fuel?” I would ask them, as I opened the window and they stared back at me blankly. “We know, we know” was the answer every time. I knew that convincing them to quit was no easy task, but I was committed. Day after day, I proudly stated a new fact about the evils of smoking. Finally one day, they quit. At first, they attributed it to the cost. Since we had just immigrated to the United States, the cost of cigarettes was simply not something they could afford. I didn’t believe it. I proudly
Dr. David L. Katz, A clinical professor of public health, and director of the prevention research center at Yale University School of Medicine expresses his opinion on public smoking in the following passage.
The essay “Thank You for Smoking,” written by Peter Brimelow, is far from an influential essay on why people should smoke. Through this essay, Brimelow makes an effort to convince the audience smoking is actually beneficial to your health. I find it hard for people to write about what they think are the benefits of smoking when there are so many obvious reasons why you should not smoke.
Next the columnist begins a strongly worded evidenced-based approach by discussing the declining percentage of regular smokers. The Editorial begins to bring in numerous sources of evidence such as Anti-Cancer Council data and the survey results of Victorians from 1998 to 2006. This use of scientific statistics shows the reader that The Editorial offers an expertise point of view into the issue and has genuine factual evidence to back up their arguments. This would reassure the reader
People that smoke are the people that get all the unhealthy stuff in a body like cancer and many diseases that can be caused.“If smoking persists at the current rate among young adults in this country, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are projected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. Another 100,000 were babies who died of sudden infant death syndrome (often referred to as SIDS) or complications from prematurity, low birth weight, or other conditions caused by parental smoking, particularly smoking by the mother. “Smoking has been around for a long time. The problem with smoking became worse when “production climbed markedly when another cigarette-making machine was developed in the 1880s by James Albert Bonsack, which vastly increased the productivity of cigarette companies, which went from making about 40,000 hand-rolled cigarettes daily to around 4 million.” Smoking is a problem around the world because it causes lung cancer, many other cancers, and some horrible diseases. This problem should be solved because “More than 10 times as many U.S. citizens have died prematurely from cigarette smoking than have died in all the wars fought by the United States during its history.”
The movie, “Thank You for Smoking” is a comedy with a tobacco industry lobbyist, Nick Naylor as the lead. The movie has an eerie comic theme which tackles the serious issue of the addicting substance of tobacco, or to be more specific, nicotine. The idea which the movie was trying to portray was that this lobbyist was a great speaker who is able to manipulate many a feeble-mind. A lobbyist, to begin with, is one who is employed to persuade all-concerned of the employer’s concern(s), in this case, the marketing of tobacco products.
Tobacco has existed for long as we have known about history, but due to the negative effects of it to the broader community Tobacco has sparked greater controversy across the globe. Many people argue that it is the government’s responsibility to protect the individual but on the contrary some disagree and believe it’s up to the individual. This essay will elaborate above mentioned aspects and lead to a logical conclusion.
Goal: I want to persuade my audience that smoking is a health risk to all of society and that smokers should be encouraged to quit.
Smoking is an expensive habit. People who smoke cigarettes can spend as much as $2,500 a year on them. Smokers’ claim that it helps relax them and it releases stress but the negative aspects of smoking outweigh the positive. Smoking is a health hazard for smokers and non-smokers. Smokers should have the right to choose what to do with their own health but they should respect non-smokers. Many people believe that there are good and bad outcomes from smoking. I believe that smoking is bad and that it should be banned.
In “A Silence that Kills” Lyndon Haviland expresses the idea that the public must confront the social inequities of tobacco use. Haviland believes the communities must communitcate a sence of urgency and engage all Americans in the battle against tobacco use. The author expresses her ideas thoroughly by concentrating on certain fact of tobacco use or second hand smoke affect, the epidemic in out current communities, the silence of the government, and the concern for public health. With the constant repetition of unity and a well-organized, concentrated article, the author easily captures the attention of the reader and the intended American audience. However, the author lacks information on
Have you ever been in a room full of people who are smoking? Have you ever questioned why they would put their health as well as yours in jeopardy by smoking? Did you ever think smoking could be good for you? Peter Brimelow says just that in his article “Thank You for Smoking…?” In Brimlow’s article, he explains all the health benefits smoking can provide you. Such evidence as that of D.M Warbutton, a British researcher who said that smoking stimulates alertness, dexterity, and cognitive capacity(141). Citing a number of scientific journals, Brimlow has also found that smoking can reduce the risk of developing such diseases as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s,
The effects of cigarette smoking can be horrifying. Smoking is dangerous not only to those who smoke, but to non-smokers and unborn children as well. Cigarette smoking is also physically and socially harming.
The side of smoking that is rarely published will be explored in this paper. The side that only a smoker knows, not the side the governments and health agencies provide the news media with. This information is valuable because it is not very well exposed to the world. This essay will answer the question, “Why do you smoke cigarettes?”.
Smoking tobacco has been a part of American culture since its very conception. Throughout our history, tobacco has been advertised as a simple pleasure for those who seek it out. Whether you are sitting on the porch with a couple of friends or in a dimly lit jazz club, tobacco ads give off a false sense of comfort, power, and success. Until around the mid-1900’s, smoking cigarettes was not considered unhealthy. It was only later that the public realize the detrimental health consequences that came with smoking tobacco. To spread this information, specific advertisements were aired to help inform the public of the dangers of smoking. While these ads have changed over time, the same message and warning still remains evident.