Chapotraphouse

I assume a lot of people aren't pretending, but as someone with smoker parents and in a rural, poor town I have absolutely 0 desire, attachment, or aesthetic appreciation for smoking or seeing people smoking. Probably one of the most depressing things to see outside, other than seeing homelessness and flesh carnage.

Smells bad too. The things people were doing and failing to do to hide the the fucking stains.The orange-brown piles of nicotine dust behind unmoved furniture. Awful.

Unfortunately vaping is so aesthetically horrible and culturally noxious that smoking cigarettes now just seems like a quaint old-timey affectation by comparison.

I am biased tho because I do enjoy having one single cigarette every 1-2 weeks

Smoking and using the R slur are horrifyingly becoming normalized again. The Brooklynification of the world

I'm like the only person I work with who doesn't smoke. Having an excuse to take extra breaks is pretty cool tbh. I just hit the weed vape while they smoke though

one of my friends is quitting vaping and specifically cited the fact that he sees it as loser shit or somehow childish compared to smoking as one of his motivations. it's obviously nonsense smoking has just been around for longer but it's definitely an attitude that exists and not just online

99% of the time I think smoking is really stupid. Then 1% of the time I'm watching Blade Runner and Sean Young is literally the coolest person who ever lived.

What is weird about astroturfing?

I wouldn't call it an "internet thing" when that's a dominant cultural opinion that long predates the internet. I agree it is lame though.

yeah, cigs stink, and vapes are lame; but an oral fixation is legitimately sexy.

Uhh. In the jobs I've had going out for a smoke is more acceptable than going to use the bathroom, then again I had a manager that would hide a vape puff here and there on the job in the store when she thought no one was looking and I began picturing myself in a bingo hall in the 90s, especially with all the older disgruntled customers.

I thought it was just a MAHA thing where they're trying to spin nicotine as a "brain hack" or w/e

Idk but I just got a bunch of American Spirit temporary tattoos from an insert in a vintage (2002) playboy so I think I'll take it up.

absent a public smoking culture these people mostly see it through media and fun public events, creating grains of postive association. it has novelty and doesn't really effect them long term.

of course those of us living/working with heavy smokers are not so inured because it fucking sucks and is annoying on a regular basis---but since when were working class people the arbiters of taste? sheltered suburbanites who see cigs in movies and have one at a concert are.

The other day I passed by someone who smelled of cigarette smoke on the street. My two simultaneous, unspoken thoughts were, "You should quit those, they'll kill you and any bystander who breathes that miasma," and, "Takes me back to being a kid at granddad's place. I miss that guy."

Of course, back when my granddad was alive, I wanted him to quit smoking. It burned my eyes and smelled awful, and even as a little kid I knew that smoking kills and that secondhand smoke is also awful for your health.

It's interesting the extent to which most any "vice" can be presented as both "cool" and as pathetic, dangerous, and overall awful, and how these two contradictory perceptions can seemingly coexist. I can't name a single person I've seen smoke in real life who I thought looked cool doing it; but in movies, TV shows, music videos, and the likes, it's a different story. Even there it's not universally positive depictions, but when the depictions are positive, it's obviously propaganda; if not outright backed by a tobacco lobby, then it's at least that self-reproducing sort of propaganda that can persist even fifty-plus years after a socialist revolution, I'm thinking of Yuri Nikulin in the 60s and Viktor Tsoi in the 80s.

In any case, I don't really have context for the Internet pretending smoking is still cool — it isn't something I've personally seen, but I can be a bit insular so I won't deny that it's a thing.

I'm a stalwart nicotine hater personally, never even tried it because I would probably like it too much, like other stimulants, but I have to admit like 90% of my IRL comrades smoke cigs and that shit has had an impact on my view of smoking. Its not exactly cool, and I still feel bad because I know and see that it's hurting them (and me a little) in the long run, but I'm not gonna pretend there's nothing aesthetically/vibe wise pleasing about it (which is the legacy of decades advertising and astroturfing but.... it worked I guess). Once in a while it makes me wish I could still smoke weed or something on the reg and be a normal functional human, just so I'd have something too when everyone's smoking.

Vapes do not have that cool factor, but I guess can be good harm reduction. zyns are even more boring and gross. unfortunately that is probably a lot of what prevents my comrades from switching. plus the whole industrial manufacturing situation vs cigs which you can roll your own (kind of a false dichotomy since the rolling tobacco is also quite processed... but that seems to be a factor for people)

I've definitely seen an uptick in the aesthetics of smoking being cool or tough. I found it kind of strange when some game had you playing in first person with a cigarette (RV There Yet) or when a youtuber lights up while chatting to camera.

As someone who grew up with heavy smoking parents/grand parent it would be enough to put anyone off. The reality of the smell, the stains on your fingers and how you smell like an ashtray. The aesthetics of developing a cough, taking a drag and coughing as you try to catch your breath. Along with all that 2nd hand smoke.

But that's the insidiousness of the propaganda you only see the cool kids with their aesthetic looks

If by internet thing you mean Mad Men, yeah. Watching Mad Men while trying to cut down on smoking was a bad idea.

Watching Mad Men while living in China while trying to cut down on smoking was an even worse idea. People just be handing you cigarettes. Even content creators like Ludwig and Michael Reeves picked up smoking when visiting China.

Didn't help I had local spot in Wuhan that is a cat cafe that served single origin Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Russian vodka and an owner that hands you a free cigarette for every drink. My routine was to get a double espresso and 2 shots of vodka (Chinese shots, so 50mL each), 2 cigarettes while petting a cat. Depending on if it was a weekend or not, I'd stay for the rest of the bottle. Then I'd stumble out and go down the street to get Uyghur food.

I miss home.

Pretty sure it's just people being suckered in by marketing campaigns by the cigarette/vape companies.

Yes it's weird, smoking is disgusting and so is every smoker, but perhaps I'm biased because a bunch of my extended family smokes and their children now have chronic bronchitis as adults.

Probably a reaction to everything being digitalized and a longing to escape to more "natural" aethesticism. Its been like this since Tumblr black and white photos over a decade and a half ago. Also smoking cigs can be an excuse to talk to people outside of a bar or social events.

Makes me wonder if the genre of "c-can yuo put that out on me......" posts idolising problematically older women is upstream or downstream of cigarette advertising.

it isn't just an internet thing and they aren't pretending

yes.... pretending

is it not just viral marketing for that chain-smoking cat

Issay this as a committed non-smoker/non-vaper: smoking is cool as shit

I’ll have a cigarette once in a blue moon mostly because I’m extremely jaded to everything around me, but it’s silly to say smoking is cool yeah

I also often wonder what the long term research of a hyper-stimulated digital world will say. I don’t think you can meaningfully compare cigarettes and screen time for example, but I wonder if there is some relation there

Counterpoint.