Being Accountable

FROM:  John S. ... posted (2) Years Ago, Circa 2017

Ahh, remember that day when Mr. Smith from Big Tobacco came up to you and stuck a gun to your head, a cigarette in your mouth then punched you in the gut to gasp in as he ignited the death stick - thusly forcing you to fully inhale it?  Remember how from then on you needed the gun to your head less and less and just did it on your own because you were brainwashed?  Oh, oh, oh, remember how cigarettes were so addictive that you were hooked on the first slightest whiff and started thinking about how to rob banks to finance your cigarette habit? 

No?  Neither do I.  For one thing I don’t call ANY industry BIG anything because it’s a derogatory way of saying “Billy just pulled my hair and I’m telling mom” kind of statement.  I heard the term “Big Vitamins” last week and I swear to God I wanted to punch that person in the throat because, just like when it’s big anything (tobacco, auto makers, etc) it’s ALWAYS because they are about to b!tch about how they are ruining the world. 

I don’t care how addictive the TOBACCO INDUSTRY made the product, it was you and you alone who decided to do it.  Sure, they made it look cool and your friends embodied that coolness and it reinforced your desire to do it.  Sure, they didn’t disclose how bad it was for you but science has been telling you since the FIFTIES, but what does science know anyway?  And, by the way, do you think Apple and Microsoft and Amazon aren’t lying their a$$es off to you every day about the hazards of their products?  Get real, all “big” companies lie like dogs. 

If you are the type of person that blamed one president or another for your current woes, or blamed those greedy Arabs for jacking up oil prices so that you can’t afford to drive while they take a sh!t on their solid gold toilet, or blamed the tobacco industry for forcing poor you to endure smoking then you are the type of person that doesn’t understand accountability. 

Being accountable is a big step in recovery, in my opinion.  At the very least being accountable absolutely IS the most important part of being an adult.  Instead of being outraged that the tobacco industry hasn’t done enough to ease your suffering (and in my mind they have paid their due for their deceit, get over it already) and that the “about time” ten year old ruling to air ads are pissing you off because they don’t make your quit any easier I want you to remember that YOU and YOU ALONE did this.  The only ones who really didn’t have that claim were those that started smoking in the 50’s and 60’s, the courts have tossed out most of those types of suits since because the basis is “well, you were told a million different ways and you want to sue someone over your own ignorance?  I think not”. 

Reach down and pull up your big boy/big girl pants and stop moaning about “big” anything and just remind yourself that you did this to yourself and YOU are the hero that will end the insanity.  YOU will show “big” whatever about how much they don’t control you.  YOU will go to be a winner today because YOU took the step to stop pretending that anyone else has control over your life and today YOU decided to hold yourself accountable for YOUR actions. 

Don’t smoke.  Just don’t.