Director's cutting comment
Monday, November 23, 2015 at 21:49 The director of A Billion Lives has posted this comment on another blog:
It seems that many pro-smoking (sic) advocates would like to hurt our film because they are delusional veterans of a lost war. Lost.
It's laughable to me that they are still fighting. It reminds me when they found Japanese soldiers on an island many years after WWII was done. They were still on alert, waiting for orders. They were still at war.
You can read it in full here (scroll down). No further comment, m'lud.
Update: Ouch! Documentary filmmakers of a sensitive disposition should look away now.
The rest of you should pop over to Head Rambles where you can read Grandad's take on A Billion Lives. Click here.
Further update: Want to "Learn more about the statistic that 165,000 kids die each year from second hand smoke"? Then visit the film's website where you can also "Learn more about the statistic of a billion deaths predicted this century".
The good news? "Despite all this death and suffering … Truth is coming."
And here's another quote from director Aaron Biebart:
"The bottom line is that people are harmed by cigarettes. Pro-smoking (sic) groups can debate the numbers all day, but we're really more focused on helping the vast majority of smokers who'd like to quit."
Hang on, I thought A Billion Lives was all about exposing the lies of public health. I'm confused. I guess I'll just have to wait and see the film.
Reader Comments (7)
What can one say except that it's about time the vaping movement showed its true colours and it's good at least to see the mask finally slip.
Pro-smoking?? What a twat. Anyone who knows anything about this long running battle knows it's about pro-choice but then what do deluded nicotine addicted dummy suckers like that know .
War??? They ain't seen nothing yet.
Important to stress, Pat, that Aaron Biebert does not represent the entire vaping movement. There are many vapers who support freedom of choice (for smokers and vapers). Some are more vocal than others so it will be interesting to see what they make of Aaron's comment. (I think he's feeling a bit bruised because some of us took exception to him regurgitating the unfounded claim that 165,000 "kids" die of passive smoking every year.)
One vaper has already commented:
"As a vaper and ex smoker I am extremely disappointed in your comments on smokers above. There is a thing called freedom and choice. Smokers are fighting for their right and freedom to choose, are you saying you no longer believe in freedom and choice? Is freedom now a lost cause? How sad to believe that.
"Please don't assume that it is just smokers that are unhappy with your SHS quote in the trailer. If you are going to throw smokers under the bus then you will have to do it without this vaper's support. I sincerely hope this is not the case."
Groups such as Vapers In Power are now vocal in their opposition to outdoor smoking bans so this isn't black and white. The situation is fluid and informal new alliances are being created all the time. Let's not condemn an entire movement on the back of one person's intemperate comment.
"Anyone who knows anything about this long running battle knows it's about pro-choice"
Those who know, know. Unfortunately the pro-choice message has been almost eradicated by organisational group-think. Even attempts to unmask this are caught by the pervasive PH messages.
To me the trailer has already done a lot of good. It has brought to the surface the issue it was intended to and sparked discussion on wider issues,
It is a pity the film maker used his own voice to set this ball rolling as legitimate criticism of the work becomes entangled with criticism of the person and an understandable triggering of the defense mechanism.
I have criticized the trailer, yet supported its aim, Do I have to choose sides before expressing an opinion? Do I have to denigrate one side for not expressing wholehearted support and appreciation or denigrate the other for trashing legitimate concerns? I see no value in doing so as. I believe, it adds to the problem and real issues become buried in the mire. There is common ground on which together we can promote change and tolerance, our intolerance properly directed at PH (in our case subgroup TC) for what they have done to both smoking/vaping communities and the wider public.
For what it’s worth.
Aaron: “But, I am not for people attacking my film to feed their own pride.”
I would venture that it’s Aaron that’s protecting his pride. He thinks that reasonable criticism of his approach is “attack”. He’s very thin-skinned. His reaction is very much like antismokers who interpret all criticism as baseless [Wait ‘til he starts hearing from the professional prohibitionists, i.e., professional fear and hate-mongers]. And he (and some others) believes his film is going to "blow" the deception apart. For heaven’s sake.
Aaron is a sub-amateur. He has no idea what’s been going on over the last 50 years or the last 150 years in tobacco prohibitionism. He has no grasp of the 400 year history of antismoking and how prohibitionists operate. He has no idea who it is that typically supports/funds prohibitionism apart from government. He is unaware of the attempts in the USA, particularly in the 1980s when the antismoking hysteria really took off, to reel in the fanaticism but to no avail. There is now a highly entrenched global “Public Health” network, that includes government health bureaucracies, with the WHO as its headquarters, which is funded to the tune of billions per annum, with social engineering intent, and a slick propaganda machine (with a plethora of well-worn memes and “strategies”) that also includes much of a dumbed-down media, dysfunctional academia. And then there’s an apathetic public.
The prohibition crusade, aided and abetted by vested interests such as Big Pharma peddling its useless “salvation” wares and government robbing smokers blind guised as “helping” them to quit, steamrolled millions of smokers in any one country. How much harder do we think it’s going to be to steamroll a group of vapers that is a fraction of smokers and that has already been considerably steamrolled by officialdom?
I’m all for exposing the shenanigans. I wish Aaron and his film well. But my hunch is that it will quickly go by the wayside like many other attempts because, good intentions notwithstanding, there is little/no grasp of the nature and magnitude of the problem. But give it a go. Whichever way it lands can produce some beneficial learning.
@Alas We've learned one thing - he's an arrogant anti-smoking propagandist.
Frankly, I now barely give a s***t about the rights of vapers, as it's patently clear most of them don't give a s**t about mine. That doesn't mean I oppose vaping, but 'with friends like this etc, etc.'
It's really sad that some vaping advocates don't see that tobacco control lies extend beyond vaping to all tobacco use. Many have long observed that tobacco control is not about health but about power. It is a shame these filmmakers don't recognize the concept of divide and conquer. Tobacco control has been using it for years and is applying it to vaping. Liberty and the freedom to choose apply equally to smoking and vaping. Favoring one over the other will result isn the prohibition of both.
All those (including myself) who had any hope that it will be somehow implied between the lines that the corruption runs deep all the way to the lies about the billion lives, throw this article in Bing Translator and let me know how, if you were Mr Q public, would perceive the message the documentary is sending. Judging from this exclusive interview the producer gave to a Greek media, the film could have just as well been made by an anti.
Triple w zougla.gr/ilektroniko-tsigaro/article/ena-disekatomirio-zoes-to-apokaliptiko-ntokimanter-gia-to-kapnisma-ke-to-ilektroniko-tsigaro