So Free It's Deadly: Thank You For Smoking
So Free It's Deadly
The expectation in Thank You for Smoking quarrels the premise of good satire in that everyone is hypocritical and corrupt. Nick Naylor is portrays as a suave and charismatic lobbyist who defends the tobacco industry's daily conflict against anti-smoking protesters, all while being a devoted father to his wide-eyed son.
Since our culture of critical spin has saturated modern America, there has been a great deal of uncertain agreement between the government and private agencies revising our cultural document to excise smoking. The idea of smoking has become the bogeyman of (liberal) American society. In this case Thank You for Smoking illustrates the moral equivalence of politics and ridicules anti-smoking advocates.
For example, Senator Finsiterre attempts the use of "scare tactics" by placing a skull with cross bones on cigarette boxes, a visual gag to continuously alert consumers that they are buying poison. However, at the Joan London show a 15-year-old cancer patient is publicized as a prop to delude the audience that smoking causes cancer. In skepticism Naylor wittingly begs the question: "Why would cigarettes want to kill this boy? Wouldn't we want him living as long as possible, and buying our products!?" Naylor then adds an incentive, concluding that the tobacco industry would gladly advertise fifty million dollars worth of anti-teen smoking. When the political lackey goes back to his boss, he gets a lecture in selecting more pathetic "cancer boys" to pull in public sympathy. They need big sad eyes and wheelchairs, the senator explains. This demonstrates the slyness and deceit of politics.
Nick defends the very hardest thing to defendcancer-inflicting products because it is the steepest challenge he could find, and the challenge fulfills him. He declares, "Michael Jordan plays basketball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk." Furthermore, another example of moral equivalence continues when Naylor finally admits that smoking kills and that he's been wrong all along. The beauty of the climax allows Naylor to be completely honest and brave at the same time; when Finsitirre asks Naylor what he will do when his son turns 18, he ponders and haws, finally saying, "If he wants to smoke, I'll buy him his first pack." At this very moment it makes it very lucid that in modern America, freedom of choice is as much under attack as smoking.
The outcome of Thank You for Smoking clarifies the depictions of false moral equivalence. Both men are portrayed as greedy, deceiving, spinmeisters; Finsitirre and Naylor both daunt and showboat truth. Tobacco executives kill thousands, while anti-tobacco activists (in this case has never happened before) try to kill a tobacco lobbyist. For both sides, the ends justify the means and are simply just an amusing game.
The expectation in Thank You for Smoking quarrels the premise of good satire in that everyone is hypocritical and corrupt. Nick Naylor is portrays as a suave and charismatic lobbyist who defends the tobacco industry's daily conflict against anti-smoking protesters, all while being a devoted father to his wide-eyed son.
Since our culture of critical spin has saturated modern America, there has been a great deal of uncertain agreement between the government and private agencies revising our cultural document to excise smoking. The idea of smoking has become the bogeyman of (liberal) American society. In this case Thank You for Smoking illustrates the moral equivalence of politics and ridicules anti-smoking advocates.
For example, Senator Finsiterre attempts the use of "scare tactics" by placing a skull with cross bones on cigarette boxes, a visual gag to continuously alert consumers that they are buying poison. However, at the Joan London show a 15-year-old cancer patient is publicized as a prop to delude the audience that smoking causes cancer. In skepticism Naylor wittingly begs the question: "Why would cigarettes want to kill this boy? Wouldn't we want him living as long as possible, and buying our products!?" Naylor then adds an incentive, concluding that the tobacco industry would gladly advertise fifty million dollars worth of anti-teen smoking. When the political lackey goes back to his boss, he gets a lecture in selecting more pathetic "cancer boys" to pull in public sympathy. They need big sad eyes and wheelchairs, the senator explains. This demonstrates the slyness and deceit of politics.
Nick defends the very hardest thing to defendcancer-inflicting products because it is the steepest challenge he could find, and the challenge fulfills him. He declares, "Michael Jordan plays basketball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk." Furthermore, another example of moral equivalence continues when Naylor finally admits that smoking kills and that he's been wrong all along. The beauty of the climax allows Naylor to be completely honest and brave at the same time; when Finsitirre asks Naylor what he will do when his son turns 18, he ponders and haws, finally saying, "If he wants to smoke, I'll buy him his first pack." At this very moment it makes it very lucid that in modern America, freedom of choice is as much under attack as smoking.
The outcome of Thank You for Smoking clarifies the depictions of false moral equivalence. Both men are portrayed as greedy, deceiving, spinmeisters; Finsitirre and Naylor both daunt and showboat truth. Tobacco executives kill thousands, while anti-tobacco activists (in this case has never happened before) try to kill a tobacco lobbyist. For both sides, the ends justify the means and are simply just an amusing game.