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This is a question Absolute Power

Have you ever been put in a position of power? Did you become a rabid dictator, or did you completely arse it up and end up publicly humiliated? We demand you tell us your stories.

Thanks to The Supreme Crow for the suggestion

(, Thu 8 Jul 2010, 14:09)
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Smoking, hmmm
I've never smoked, though some of my family did, because of the power aspect. As a young teenager, seeing how desperate people were for cigarettes, I decided never to let anything have that much power over me.

Anyway, smoking isn't rebelling, I'd say to my mates, it's just doing exactly what Big Business tells you to! They laughed at me.

Some of them are dead now.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 11:47, 36 replies)
Enjoying music is doing what Big Business tells you to do.
Watching films is doing what Big Business tells you to do.

Buying food is.

Drinking alcohol.

All of it.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 11:51, closed)
Buying food doesn't count
You need it to live, and there isn't enough land in the world to have us all being self sufficient and growing our own.

And alcohol just keeps the voices at bay :P
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 12:01, closed)
Buying food absolutely counts if you're going to sneer at people using the justification of "doing what Big Business tells them to do"

(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 12:17, closed)
Unless...
You only buy your food from some tiny peasant organic farmer/allotment holder.

Big business doesn't tell you to eat, it tells you what to eat. By snacking on beetroot and brussels sprouts, I am sticking two fingers up to the man.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 14:39, closed)
Hah
If organic food isn't 'doing what you're told', I don't know what is.

I'm sure there are some very honest and well intentioned organic producers around, but having some experience, I can tell you a lot of it is a total racket.

fact: Difference between organic sugar and non organic sugar in some (nameless) countries = Packet is printed different, and price is just about double. Same stuff in the packet.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 16:01, closed)
Missing my point...
It was about small local farmers, who produce goods, not huge factory farms, which produce large quantities of homogenous food that we are told to eat because it looks crunchy, or shiny, or tasty.

The organic bit was reference to the fact that you are avoiding the likes of Monsanto, and pesticide people, who tell you what type of food to eat, and grow.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 16:44, closed)
... and instead playing into the hands of Holland and Barratt ...
who tell you what type of food to eat, and grow.
(, Wed 14 Jul 2010, 10:10, closed)
There is enough land
to have everyone in the world fed to their current level. It's just that not everyone actually does it themselves.

But the planet is already so overpopulated that we now have too many people to feed them all to Western standards (arguably grossly excessive in many cases, but still). And it's only going to get worse as more people are born, and require more land to live on, thus reducing the land area available for growing food.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 14:45, closed)
I scrolled down a bit to read another post.
All I could see of your post was this worthy goal:

Drinking alcohol.

All of it.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 12:39, closed)
hahahahaha

(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 12:49, closed)
But people don't claim to be rebelling by buying food, do they?

(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 14:58, closed)
Or smoking.
Personally speaking, I smoke because I enjoy it.

I've never met anyone who didn't, and if someone said "I'm a rebel, because I smoke" I would laugh in their face.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 15:49, closed)
Yeah

Smoking killed a mate of mine.

He was run down by a bus when he went to the corner shop for 20 Rothmans

cheers
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 11:55, closed)
Hahahahhahaha
Nooo! Accept and bow before worthy righteousness!
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 12:03, closed)

yep Rothmans are the worst..
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 12:15, closed)
I had one of those too
A friend of mine was t-boned on his bike while going to the shops to buy smokes for his sister. Broke his neck, he died.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 14:01, closed)
Spooky...
A friend of mine, who didn't smoke, got run over by a lorry. Not weird in itself, but the lorry was carrying cigarettes!

Crazy shit, or what?
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 14:26, closed)
I once went out to buy a lorry, and
got hit in the face by a flying fag butt.

Wierd.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 16:02, closed)

I once went out with a fag, and got a lorry up my butt.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 16:48, closed)
I like breasts, but I hate being run over.

(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 20:08, closed)
Hm
Could it not then be argued that not smoking is then doing what some other entity (government, token interfering busybody, whatever) tells you to, and letting them have power over your life instead?

Or we could simply accept responsibility for our own actions, and the resultant consequences.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 14:45, closed)
Stop using your logic
to win the argument, it's just not fair.

Besides, you shouldn't mock the afflicted.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 16:13, closed)
I agree, take responsibility
and if you're gonna smoke, please don't breathe you shitty smoke on me, and don't throw your fucking filthy fucking butts anywhere but the bin. Also don't expect anyone else to pick up your slack, while you're out half the fucking work day sucking on a butt.
The government really does want you to smoke, they make a lot of tax money out of it, they just want to be seen to be responsible.
Yes, I can't stand cigarettes, no, you will never change my mind about it.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 23:50, closed)
Fair enough
Yea, I knew the gov. aren't wholly sincere about the whole smoking thing (or anything else for that matter), but some people are impressionable enough, so it could still work.

I'm more a cigar guy myself anyway, and that's very much a habit for special occasions, and I make sure to pursue that indulgence away from discerning/sensitive noses.
(, Wed 14 Jul 2010, 3:04, closed)
no need
i think cigarette smoke is vile, but i'll make sure i move downwind to get a cheeky second-hand sniff of a nice cigar... mmm
(, Wed 14 Jul 2010, 9:48, closed)
My cigar!!
My... precious...

*hides in mountain range, forever caressing the cigar and neglecting his own hygiene*
(, Wed 14 Jul 2010, 16:52, closed)
Fair enough.
Don't drive your car anywhere around me, if you're in London - or indeed - any city - and make sure you've cleaned your teeth, and that you've washed, that you look presentable, and are beautiful.

Also, please don't use the £9bn in extra taxes I contribute (that's after the £1bn that smokers cost the NHS), and please don't use the seats in the pub garden.

Last of all, don't, by any means, allow your children anywhere near the pub, or the restaurant, or on public transport, or to in any way, shape or form impinge upon my existence in any way.

Thanks awfully.
(, Wed 14 Jul 2010, 10:09, closed)
I get your gist
but simply put, if you consider it acceptable for me to ensure my arse is at your face level and then release the most pungent gas I can muster, knowing that you have no choice but to inhale it, then I accept your reasoning.
(, Wed 14 Jul 2010, 14:07, closed)
I don't smoke for the benefit of others
If you're getting second hand smoke then you owe me money.

It's pretty well entirely unnecessary to drive a car in a city, unless one is medical staff on call, or perhaps a trader with a lot of kit.

As such, cars belch out noxious fumes right at my neice's head-hieght.

Let's ban cars.
(, Wed 14 Jul 2010, 14:36, closed)
I grow my own tobacco
So you're the mug for equating smoking with big business

I grow my own food and weed too...hope to brew my own beer soon as well

How's that for rebelling?
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 14:45, closed)
I now picture you sitting in a forest glade...
..wearing a fig leaf and posting on B3ta via a computer made out of hemp and home-grown bamboo.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 16:21, closed)
*calls cops*
jk
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 19:08, closed)
I find it amusing that negative posts about smoking
generate so much interest. He's right though, if you are a smoker, you are a bitch to the cigarette, no if's but's or maybe's. You can come up with all the usual crap excuses, but at the end of the day, you are just another addict.
(, Tue 13 Jul 2010, 23:42, closed)
Yes but you say that like people who aren't smokers aren't bitches themselves.
Everyone's a bitch to something, and getting all sneery, worthy and righteous just makes one look like a cock.
(, Wed 14 Jul 2010, 9:43, closed)
Calm down, eh, eh, calm down...
Relax, have a fag. read comics
(, Wed 14 Jul 2010, 10:17, closed)
I made no such suggestion
it's just a favourite topic of mine, and one that has significant impact on my life.
(, Wed 14 Jul 2010, 14:10, closed)

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