Good Luck With That Not Dying Thing, Jonny

Perhaps I'm extraordinarily sensitive (i.e. fucking livid) because my fuckhole neighbours hit my cat with their car the other night, and when confronted they denied doing so despite that they were the only ones who had driven on our mostly-private street that night, and that I had found my cat's fur and bodily fluids on their car's grill/bumper, and then, to top off a truly shitty day, just after grabbing their six-month-old baby and holding it up like a shield of some kind, my cat-killing neighbours chose to threaten me. Fortunately, the fuckholes didn't act on their threat, for who knows what might have happened if they had... Some neighbours, eh?

Given the above, I can accept that I am not in the best frame of mind -- my objectivity may be a bit hampered.  

Nevertheless, I'm getting real tired of some vapers acting and speaking like the anti-smoking Tobacco Control Industry.  Some of you are not helping; in fact you are only making it worse for yourselves in the long run.   I wrote this back in February:

I am also extremely at odds -- nay, extremely livid at a large number of vaping companies using the same bullshit rhetoric and propaganda that the anti-smokers have used to denormalise tobacco use in order to sway potential customers. [...] I'll just say that any vaping company that wants my business will have to work for it, and that company better not be spouting any anti-smoking propaganda because I will consider it my enemy if it does.

To be very clear to my vaping readers, this does not apply only to vaping companies, it applies to individuals as well.  So, vapers, if I'm following you on Twitter or Facebook, and you tweet or post any anti-smoking rhetoric or propaganda in support of your e-cigarettes cause, notwithstanding that I completely understand that you are under attack by Public Health and the EU, I'm going to unfollow you when I see it. If you try to contact me, I will ignore you. Forever. Because you aren't helping. You are part of the problem. I don't care what you believe. Do not attack smokers, smoking, and do not spout rubbish about living forever. 

Take this guy, who I had never heard of before last night until I read this BBC article but I figure some of you probably know him, named Jonny Lavery.   Jonny is afraid of dying (emphasis added):

A group of friends sits around a table in a pub in south London, exchanging stories and putting the world to rights in a cloud of scented vapour.

One of them is 31-year-old Jonny Lavery.

"I had a big problem with death, a really big problem with dying," he says. "I wanted to avoid dying at all costs."

But three years ago, Lavery realised that as a smoker of 15 years, his chance of doing this was diminishing. Roughly half the world's smokers die from their habit. The trouble was Johnny just enjoyed it too much to quit.

Then he found an alternative - the electronic cigarette.

[...]

Ninety per cent of e-cigarette users are also smoking, [Robert West] says, indicating that the devices are being used as a quitting aid. Countries that have banned them are, in his view, "nuts".

Jonny Lavery and others are planning a trip to Brussels next week to protest against the draft European legislation, which they see as a threat to their hobby. 

First off, Jonny. Good luck with that trip to Brussels. I sincerely hope you and your vaping mates succeed. I don't know if you will or not, but let me assure you that many politicians in Brussels and here in the UK hate you every bit as much as they hate smokers. They see no difference between vaping and smoking, and they never will.

Secondly, and to the point really, good luck with that not dying thing.  Because you're a proper muppet if you think e-cigarettes are going to keep you from "dying at all costs." You're going to die regardless if you smoke, vape, or hide yourself away inside a plastic bubble for the rest of your life. I understand you're excited about vaping, but like most reformed ex-smokers, you aren't helping by saying incredibly stupid shit like that. You are only helping the anti-smokers, and that makes you part of the problem. You aren't even helping your own cause, but I suppose you don't see it that way.

Now perhaps Jonny was misquoted. Or perhaps Jonny truly believes that he'll live forever because he chose to vape over smoking tobacco.  There is no mention of what kind of death Jonny is afraid of. I presume it's cancer. Perhaps someone in his family died from cancer.

But Jonny ... You're going to die eventually, no matter how you live your life, no matter what you do or don't do. We all are. You had better come to terms with that someday  -- I certainly would not want you to be surprised.

Update - 8 July 2013:  Jonny Lavery has left a comment below, and explains that his comment was taken out of context.  I cover that in my next blog post here.