zlacker

> The difference is that it's unquestionable that cigarettes are enormously harmful.

It was certainly questioned for many decades before we got to that point. Meanwhile, millions died. And during that entire time Big Tobacco had no difficulty drumming up doctors and scientists willing to argue against the negative health consequences of smoking.

>>munifi+(OP)
Precisely this. Many people denied the idea that smoking was unhealthy. It sounds hard to believe, but I personally know many people who said these things to me in the 1990s.

Rejection of science in favor of something you personally want to be true isn’t a new internet age development.