Submit your comments on this article |
-Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
Bring Back Smoking |
2017-04-26 |
[THEZMAN] Here’s soemthing else. Smoking rates began to decline in the middle of the last century, with the Baby Boomer interest in health. Nicotine is known to increase focus and increase your cognitive abilities. It’s why writers and computer programmers were all smokers. In fact, STEM fields in the 20th century were dominated by men who chain smoked at their desks. Anyone who has had to sit for hours working a math problem knows how exhausting it can be. Even a small boost in focus has enormous results. What if the apparent uptick in Western IQ was accelerated by smoking? Tobacco was introduced to the West in the 16th century and its use increased steadily. By the 18th century, the use of tobacco was common. By the 19th century, smoking cigarettes was ubiquitous. Everyone smoked. It also corresponds with the Industrial Revolution. Once tobacco use became universal, Western technological progress took off like a rocket, culminating in a rocket literally taking off and putting men on the moon. Once the anti-smoking crusades got a purchase in the 60’s and smoking rates declined, it does appear that the West began to decline. Perhaps that small boost to our cognitive ability had a huge impact on our intellectual achievements. Now that the crutch is gone, we’re doing idiotic things like putting minorities in charge and inviting in low-IQ barbarians from the fringes of civilization. Perhaps the lunacy that has gripped the West is simply the withdraw symptoms of kicking the habit. Maybe we need to start smoking again. |
Posted by:Fred |
#6 Intelligence is finite. Stupidity is infinite. We may have crested a bit ago as we have far more people today than the 60s. |
Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-04-26 18:02 |
#5 There's an uptick in Western IQs? It doesn't seem to be evident. Does IQ correlate with stupidity? Do we even have a stupidity test? IQ might be getting slightly higher but common sense and civility seem to be lacking. Assume we are getting more stupid, I blame a politicized lefty educational system. Get the unions out of education (and the government as well). Get the Federal government out of education too. Otherwise, I agree with Skidmark. There are lot of health-related problems associated with smoking; COPD, lung-cancer, etc. that ought to indicate that smoking is not a good thing to do. |
Posted by: JohnQC 2017-04-26 17:26 |
#4 Once the anti-smoking crusades got a purchase in the 60’s and smoking rates declined, it does appear that the West began to decline. Perhaps that small boost to our cognitive ability had a huge impact on our intellectual achievements. Now that the crutch is gone, we’re doing idiotic things like putting minorities in charge and inviting in low-IQ barbarians from the fringes of civilization. Perhaps the lunacy that has gripped the West is simply the withdraw symptoms of kicking the habit. Maybe we need to start smoking again. On Wednesday, January 17, 1968, at 9:12 am, my Dad died at the ripe old age of 41. Two-pack-a-day man he was (I done wrote a pome about it here). I was 10. My sister was 6. My mother was 36. She was just a kid herself. The kind of thinking cited in the post, to put it mildly, is bizarre, asinine, and even racist -- WTF does this fuqwad have against minorities in positions of authority? The obtuse angle on my right shoulder says mebbe this was meant as a joke. The debbil on my left knows better and says nothing. |
Posted by: JHH 2017-04-26 17:26 |
#3 The human body does not handle smoke intake very well at all. Even "medical weed" smoke. |
Posted by: Nero White 3083 2017-04-26 14:55 |
#2 Hear, hear! |
Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-04-26 08:08 |
#1 I vote on the lowering of the voting age as a cause. Also serving as mercenaries for the world. |
Posted by: Skidmark 2017-04-26 01:43 |