For a change, a positive article on our hobby.

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crazyhog

Starting to Get Obsessed
May 18, 2015
229
26
Here's a recent positive article on pipe smoking. Too bad they are few and far between. Enjoy, if you haven't read it before.
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/like-a-fine-tobacco-the-pipe-smoking-revival-has-been-a-slow-burn/

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
The owner of my local independent pipe shop, George Hoffmann is quoted, so that makes this article even more interesting to me. He's at Pipes by George in Raleigh, N.C. There were a few edits I'd make, but it's well written, weaving the narratives and quotes tightly into the whole. I don't know if it spots a trend or just sounds hopeful, but it's music to my/our ears.

 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
Nice article.
The reader comments which follow are as predictable as gravity, however. :evil:
The HiveMind now believes that ANYTHING concerning tobacco in ANY WAY is categorically evil, and 100% deadly to anyone and everyone who comes within a hundred yards of it.
Here's how that absurd, extreme conclusion came to be: Humans are slow moving, physically weak, have small teeth, and no claws. Since their inception the only way they survived was in groups. As a result, their social/tribal/grouping instinct evolved into a behavioral imperative right up there with food, shelter, and sex. For several million years to NOT be part of a tribe or group was a death sentence.
Then along came mass media, and soon after that so-called "social media". Technology that was not around during the first 99.99999999% of human evolution. The human brain doesn't care about how recently a given environmental factor came to be, though, it is hardwired to respond to certain things in a certain way, and it damn well WILL come hell or high water. And when one of those invoked imperatives is "going along to get along"---i.e. the tribal dynamic---and a given notion/idea takes hold among a critical mass OF the group, rationality and logic go out the window. No one wants to be shunned by the tribe.
It was not only a handy mechanism, it was an essential one. h. Sapiens literally owes its existence to it.
It sure is a pain in the ass of the MODERN world, though. Pipe smoking being a tiny---but highly illustrative---example. "The Tribe says tobacco is categorically evil, and I want to be accepted by the tribe.... Therefore, I will join the movement!"
A woman who used to live across the street from me approached one day when I was smoking a cigar on my porch, to inform me that I was setting a BAD VISUAL EXAMPLE for any child who might happen by and see it.
Think about how she got to such a place in her mind, and how powerful the virtue signaling urge must have become for her to confront a man sitting outdoors on his own property about something she IMAGINED MIGHT BE a POTENTIAL risk involving a child's POSSIBLE future, and you will understand what our hobby is up against.

 

bnichols23

Lifer
Mar 13, 2018
4,131
9,554
SC Piedmont
Y'know, I haven't seen her around here lately, but the lady's picture reminds me a great deal of Witch of the Hollow's avatar! Good article, & yeah, the comments are highly predictable. Have these people never heard of MYODB?
Bill

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
People will forever exert endless energy trying to improve and reform others, since it is so much easier than improving and reforming themselves.

 

kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
13,140
21,408
77
Olathe, Kansas
Good article, though I would seriously dispute its claim that smoker pipe tobacco is any kind of health hazard. If it is the actuarial tables are all wrong.

 

5star

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 17, 2017
727
2,018
PacNW USA
Thanks for posting that.
IMO any article that highlights positive aspects of tobacco pipe smoking is beneficial.Even misinformed statements in the article comments section are very useful, since they provide an opportunity for fact based rebuttal.

 

hawky454

Lifer
Feb 11, 2016
5,338
10,220
Austin, TX
A woman who used to live across the street from me approached one day when I was smoking a cigar on my porch, to inform me that I was setting a BAD VISUAL EXAMPLE for any child who might happen by and see it.

That’s just absurd but unfortunately it’s not all that rare. I get shocked looks of disapproval all the time when I’m smoking my pipe outdoors while playing with my daughter or just walking our dogs. It used to be that folks had fond memories of the nice aroma a pipe produces but now it’s damn near child abuse if a father smokes a pipe near his children out in the “wild”. It’s really a damn shame. I’ve even been warned of the dangers of 3rd hand smoke... yup, you read that right, they are now spreading word that 3rd hand smoke (residual smoke on your clothes or hair) can cause severe allergies in children and can even go as far as to cause ADD in some. As far as I’m aware there is no science backing this up, it’s just another scare tactic for the antis to use to demonize the use of tobacco. My apologies for posting a negative in a positive post, just couldn’t help myself.

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,602
14,666
Nice article.
The reader comments which follow are as predictable as gravity, however. :evil:
The HiveMind now believes that ANYTHING concerning tobacco in ANY WAY is categorically evil, and 100% deadly to anyone and everyone who comes within a hundred yards of it.
Here's how that absurd, extreme conclusion came to be: Humans are slow moving, physically weak, have small teeth, and no claws. Since their inception the only way they survived was in groups. As a result, their social/tribal/grouping instinct evolved into a behavioral imperative right up there with food, shelter, and sex. For several million years to NOT be part of a tribe or group was a death sentence.
Then along came mass media, and soon after that so-called "social media". Technology that was not around during the first 99.99999999% of human evolution. The human brain doesn't care about how recently a given environmental factor came to be, though, it is hardwired to respond to certain things in a certain way, and it damn well WILL come hell or high water. And when one of those invoked imperatives is "going along to get along"---i.e. the tribal dynamic---and a given notion/idea takes hold among a critical mass OF the group, rationality and logic go out the window. No one wants to be shunned by the tribe.
It was not only a handy mechanism, it was an essential one. h. Sapiens literally owes its existence to it.
It sure is a pain in the ass of the MODERN world, though. Pipe smoking being a tiny---but highly illustrative---example. "The Tribe says tobacco is categorically evil, and I want to be accepted by the tribe.... Therefore, I will join the movement!"
A woman who used to live across the street from me approached one day when I was smoking a cigar on my porch, to inform me that I was setting a BAD VISUAL EXAMPLE for any child who might happen by and see it.
Think about how she got to such a place in her mind, and how powerful the virtue signaling urge must have become for her to confront a man sitting outdoors on his own property about something she IMAGINED MIGHT BE a POTENTIAL risk involving a child's POSSIBLE future, and you will understand what our hobby is up against.
Great post George...and while I take a different view of human history and human origins, I certainly agree with your assessment of human nature.
I would just add that not only is the group-think not always in the best interest of the individual, but it is often not really in the best interest of the group as a whole either. But it is nearly always in the best interest of the group rulers.
they are now spreading word that 3rd hand smoke (residual smoke on your clothes or hair) can cause severe allergies in children and can even go as far as to cause ADD in some.
They gotta ride that scapegoat as far as it can take them.
EDIT: After all, if they don't blame tobacco for those things, the sheep might start looking in other directions...food, medicine, water, air.
Perception management is a vital component of control.

 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
For anyone who wondered "where I was coming from" with my previous post, and/or how a nicely-put-together article on our hobby could elicit the response from me that it did, the best way to explain it is by pointing out the ABSENCE of something:
There's a major sub-category of collecting called "Breweriana" which covers items connected to beer and spirits. Steins, bottles, signs, shot glasses, and so forth. Imagine if the comments section following every article about that field of collecting became a platform-of-opportunity for anyone obsessed with the many well known and well-documented potential dangers of alcohol. From drunk drivers to lost workforce productivity to destroyed families to cirrhosis and pancreatitis.
Never happen, right? Why? Because the editors of the magazine wouldn't allow it.
But they apparently DID think allowing their readership to sound off about visiting cancer wards & etc. was their duty when it came to the Evils of Tobacco.
The depth and extent of social conditioning required to generate such appeasement is frightening.
Disagreement with the prevailing orthodoxy is what Orwell referred to as wrongthink.
After a while, it becomes thoughtcrime.

 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
George: It was a good story. The problem with it is that, in her own clumsy way, she was correct. And, your response could/should have been, "I'm not a feckin role model and I simply do not care."
You think tossing her into the wood chipper in my backyard was too much, then?
How is a man supposed to keep up with what's acceptable and what's not, anymore? I mean, since she was a lady, I cranked the throttle to the max to make things as quick as possible. And you're saying all I had to do was TALK to her?! 8O

 
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