Nothing shows the Green Party up for the authoritarian control freaks they are than this press release with this statement:
We need to get smokes out of our homes and out of our shops,” Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said.
So blatantly collectivist, so blatantly uninterested in personal responsibility, choice and property rights.
Who is this "we" Metiria? Why do I have to do anything as a non-smoker? Why should I have anything to do with what other adults do in their homes and their shops?
What are "our homes" and "our shops"? They are NOT your homes or shops. YOUR homes and shops are the ones you own, not everyone elses. Property rights still exist in New Zealand. It is not some grand socialist uber-state where everyone is responsible for everyone else.
"Too often the focus is on punishing smokers and not controlling the industry that profits from the drug" Oh and the Greens want smokers to have the right to smoke on their own property or to allow smoking on their own property, including restaurants and bars? No. The Greens like punishing smokers too.
She has taken upon herself the role of Big Mother, given that Cindy "Stalin" Kiro no longer has he position:
"Mrs Turei said her main focus was on caring for New Zealand’s babies and children.
“This means giving our wahine, our mothers, all the support they need to quit and to stay smoke free."
New Zealand's babies and children? They don't belong to the state, or the nation or country or whatever collective entity you want to ascribe to them. They belong to their parents and guardians. NOT you. They are not "our wahine, our mothers". After all, over 90% don't even vote for you.
Feel free to give them support Metiria. Through your own efforts and money. However, you should stop treating smokers as stupid, pathetic and incompetent children who need you to protect them from their own actions. How patronising and disgusting it is to think of yourself as better placed to make their decisions for them.
The only people who can get tobacco out of their homes and shops are the people who own them. Feel free to try to convince them, but get the hell out of the way if they tell you where to go. Yet the problem with the Greens is that they don't believe in peace, they don't believe in non-violence. They warmly embrace the violence of Nanny State taking people's money, telling them what to do in their shops, and treating them like children.
I say this as someone who personally loathes tobacco, hates the smell of it and who has seen people I love suffer the consequences of smoking. However, as much as I would not shed a tear if tobacco became a thing of the past, I find far more threatening the finger wagging patronising petty fascism behind the Greens treating people like they are children.
It makes one want to light up.
UPDATE: Meanwhile the Netherlands has taken a step towards freedom according to the Daily Telegraph. The new coalition government, which includes the Party for Freedom (the much maligned party of Geert Wilders who is more a libertarian than anything else despite the braindead media thinking he is aligned to neo-fascists) has abolished the smoking ban for owner-operator pubs. In other words pubs with no staff. It is a small step, but it shouldn't be debated. It is simple. It is private property. If you own a pub, then you can decided if you or your patrons smoke there. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. If you don't like it, don't go there.
UPDATE: Meanwhile the Netherlands has taken a step towards freedom according to the Daily Telegraph. The new coalition government, which includes the Party for Freedom (the much maligned party of Geert Wilders who is more a libertarian than anything else despite the braindead media thinking he is aligned to neo-fascists) has abolished the smoking ban for owner-operator pubs. In other words pubs with no staff. It is a small step, but it shouldn't be debated. It is simple. It is private property. If you own a pub, then you can decided if you or your patrons smoke there. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. If you don't like it, don't go there.
4 comments:
On an unrelated post (other than it indicates their totalitarian tendencies) I said:
To my mind, Socialists don't really get the importance of property rights, and how they underpin human rights. Indeed, they get distracted inventing new human rights which require greater invasions of freedom to justify the need for the government to enforce them.
I think Delingpole put it well in his latest column,
"is about recognising that having to put up with behaviour you don’t necessarily approve of is a far lesser evil than having the government messily and expensively intervene to regulate it."
Well said, Scott.
The hysteria here over tobacco and alcohol is at fever pitch.
What annoys me is people who agree with this sort of rubbish on the basis that they don't smoke. There was a person on the news who thought said it wouldn't bother them as they don't smoke. The point is one day you might want to have a smoke (I don't "smoke" but enjoy cigars), or they might come after something you like to do but they don't! My worry is alcohol will be the next big thing, we're seeing this already with people wanting to ban new outlets and limiting opening hours. Just because you don't want a drink at 5am doesn't give you the right to tell others they can't have one either.
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