Thud!

Settle down folks this double posting isn’t going to become a regular thing.  Sometimes something happens in the world of vaping that just requires a second post.

By now you should have seen the debacle that is the article from Vox.  It is, to put none to fine a point on it, dire in the extreme.  Terribly one-sided, and all of it in favor of a particular US Researcher’s point of view.  I’ll be honest and state that I suspect the article may have been written by that researcher with only a few changes made by the author herself.  Call me cynical if you like.

There has been an almighty fallout from this one article.  It has been relatively amusing for the most part.  Of course, us vapers are a passionate bunch and when we see deliberate misinformation being spread we immediately question the person doing the spreading. Cue the obligatory “victim tweet” by the author.

Does Miss Belluz not understand investigative journalism?  Reading the article made my eyes hurt simply because it was chock-full of the same type of propaganda that CDPH are peddling.  Pretty much all of the so-called “information” detailed in the article is completely unsubstantiated.  But of course, us mere mortals of the vaping community are once again shilling for “Big Tobacco”, we couldn’t possibly know the truth could we?

Cue yet more Twitter mayhem.

Some of you may remember this chap, who apparently likes to “debate”.  Except, when challenged he simply hits the infamous block button.  This little gem cropped in my feed thanks to another lovely vaper Agent Ania.  David Gorski, who according to his profile is:

Mustn’t forget his partner in trolling FrozenWarning:

These two cupcakes embody the very definition of the term “troll” by using deliberately provocative tones to get the response they want so that they can then try and either belittle you or they’ll simply _block _you.

Now you’d think that with those two being “so open to debate” they’d actually welcome a few folks dropping in and asking questions.  You know, actually debating a subject.

Even asked that asked that exact same question myself.  It’s simple, we are continually ignored by the PH Grandees any opportunity to have a debate on the subject of e-cigs and the respective regulation proposals, harms and all that jazz we literally jump at the chance to talk about it.

Unfortunately for us, these two won’t.  Instead they come up with the usual responses:

Not only do they do the usual rubbish, they even spread the message that vapers won’t communicate.  But that is exactly what we want to do.

You might think I’m specifically targeting these two gentlemen, but I’m not.  This is, unfortunately what vaping advocates all over are dealing with.  Narrow minded, incredibly short-tempered individuals with an over inflated sense of self-worth.  Which brings me nicely on to my next point.

Yes, Mr Simon – multiple hashtag – Capewell.  This gem of Public Health is a bit of a strange fish to put it mildly.  If you’ve not seen his tweets, you really aren’t missing much.

Yep, that is how he tweets.  Tags a whole host of his PH buddies in an effort to spread his inane message as far as possible.  Unfortunately, for some crackpot reason he is actually listened to.  What is even more disturbing is that this fine upstanding PH Grandee just re-tweeted a completely biased article with zero regard for the impact that it can have.  Isn’t he supposed to be looking out for, I don’t know, OUR HEALTH?

Of course, he’d tag the ever so prevalent Bobblegom in that, seeing as he is the go to if the UK media want a soundbite on e-cigs.  It is puzzling though, as FPH have put out a survey requesting our input on a course of action over e-cigs that could be quite promising, I’d strongly suggest taking the time to complete it.

Let’s assume, just for a moment that Simon may be able to engage.  After all his profile says:

Out of several tweets in response to his re-tweet of the article our dear old friend didn’t respond. Not once.  It seems as though every single person in Public Health that has a negative view on e-cigs does one of two things:

• Blocks us vapers preventing us from engaging
• Ignores us vapers preventing us from engaging

These are the people who are responsible for the public health.  To folk like me, they are simply mouthpieces with no will of their own to actually talk to people about the very topics they are posting about.

What is it going to take for people such as Chapman, Capewell, Glantz and the rest to actually stop and think for once?  Obviously they don’t want to climb down from their ivory towers and risk getting themselves dirty by talking to us mere mortals whose lives are affected by the decisions these people take.