this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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How White Lighters Got Such a Bad Rap (www.atlasobscura.com)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by slothrop@lemmy.ca to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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the link was posted in a comment here:
https://lemmy.ca/comment/20493193

and it brought back a memory or two.

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[–] Manjushri@piefed.social 5 points 3 days ago

I can't speak to the mindset of people who are superstitious. I'm just repeating what the alleged basis for the superstition was.

The belief was that when the first soldier lit his cigarette, the enemy would see the light; when the second soldier lit his cigarette from the same match, the enemy would take aim at the target; and when the third soldier lit his cigarette from the match, the enemy would fire, and that soldier would be shot.