For (Y)our Own Good: Denormalization

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. C.S. Lewis,  God in the Dock

And of all tyrannies, the most successful are the most covert, which work by stealth, through divide-and-rule, setting the majority against any chosen minority who are deemed 'dangerous' to the body politic.

The World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control contains a central plank of global policy requiring signatories to engage in national activities which denormalize smoking, ie:

Denormalization strategies seek to change the social norms concerning tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke by informing the public about their negative consequences on health, society, the economy and the environment.

The programme to denormalize smokers has been so successful that the comment threads of mainstream newspapers all too frequently contain such gems as these:

33 Tartancult,
23/09/2011 00:54:29
I don't want smokers banned, I want them dead.
Cremation would be fitting

 Smokers are weak minded defectives. There's also plenty of fat smokers too. If I were consul and you smoked in public and/or your smoke was anywhere near a normal person you would be badly beaten.
Gordon Akman | Broadbeach - June 10, 2011, 10:49AM

JFW, 03/02/2011 16:43:33 I do hope never to be treated by an NHS worker who is stupid enough to be a smoker; it's worrying that some people that you might be forced to rely on in an emergency have such limited brain-power.

We could always just change the law to allow people to legally shoot dead anyone caught with a cig between their lips outside the four walls of their home, as long as it's not a rented home or presently under mortgage, since it's not technically their home. If people find a bullet through their head whenever they light up, they'll not light up. Simples. Probably won't happen. I can dream though. God, I'd have a field day if that ever came to pass...
- Ken, Kent, 6/4/2012 16:28

Breaking the smoking ban should carry the death penalty. Smoking is suicide and you will burn in hell.
Sent via tellyougov.com 16:48 on 4th March 2011

Never censored, although roundly condemned by other commentators, substituting 'smoker' for any other identifiable minority would constitute 'hate speech'. These statements are often attached, not to stories related to calls for a relaxation to bans, but to the fates of smokers who were forced outside by bans, defying bans, or the victims of denormalization itself.

Telegraph
Mrs Moss, 33, who had been a care assistant since she was 16, was found stabbed to death on after a frenzied attack at the back of St George’s Hospital in Hornchurch, east London.
    Friends said she had left the building to smoke a cigarette at around 10.30am on Thursday. Her body was found half an hour later by a woman walking her dog.

Eastbourne Herald
A 12-YEAR-OLD boy hanged himself with his school tie after a teacher caught him with cigarettes.
   David Arnett came into his Cavendish School classroom smelling of smoke on December 15. Teacher Joanna-Clea Burns told him off, confiscated the cigarettes and a lighter and gave him 24 hours to tell his parents.
   David told a friend the pain was ‘like a knife in his stomach’ during the walk home to Longland Road after school, and spoke about killing himself.

X Nomavayi

Boy, nine, died after his mother set him and his brother on fire as a punishment for smoking
A mother who killed her nine-year-old son by setting him on fire as punishment for smoking has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
    Noluthando Nomavayi , 37, from Delft in Cape Town drenched her two sons with paraffin and set them alight when she discovered them smoking cigarettes in May 2011.

When socially-sanctioned hatred of a behaviour and a product tips over into hatred of the people using that product, no one should be surprised.