Maybe at first, yeah. But in 50 years, when almost nobody under 60 smokes and it’s prohibited everywhere, who would go out of their way to start this particular habit?
As a lifelong smoker, one of the hardest hurdle to quitting is going out, having a couple of drinks, then seeing other people smoke and resisting the urge to go buy an easily available pack.
There’s the child-raping, and then there’s the whole barreling towards a cyberpunk hellhole that Trump and the heritage foundation are engineering. This doesn’t seem like a difficult choice to make, I honestly can’t understand these people.
The fact Iran even entertained him this long is the only reason he has power at all.
That, and the colossal firepower of the US military.
Yeah, it also says that they have a low opinion of the local government, which they blame when the reforms promised in the state press fail to materialize.
Regardless of the country, I’m very suspicious about such unanimous acclaim. There’s just no way 9 out of 10 people are happy with any given government. Have you ever been in a group of more than 10 people, trying to make a choice that’s OK for everyone?
Look, I’m not saying that the west is perfect and China is horrible, but maybe try considering the opposite is not true either.
Yes, I am aware that .ml lives in a fantasy world where there are no dissidents in China. It also helps that speaking ill of the CCP has never been harshly repressed in China.
OK maybe not started (couldn’t find a definitive origin), but they did use it quite a bit.
Additionally, the original image of Xi and Obama together as Pooh and Tigger, and the subsequent picture of Xi and Shinzo Abe as Pooh and Eeyore, emerged as group pictures of world leaders, but only the comparison of Xi to Pooh stuck.
Maybe because the others didn’t throw a tantrum about it. Or maybe because Chinese users have to use euphemisms and memes to avoid censorship.
Further, that doesn’t explain the immense popularity among westerners in portraying Xi as a yellow bear, nor why it seems to be especially popular among western right-wingers.
If you say so. I for one had not seen this meme for quite some time and had completely forgotten about it until you brought it up.
You’d have to ask the Chinese internet users who started the meme. Or there is a detailed wikipedia article if you’re interested in the backstory.
Vapes don’t produce smoke but vapor, i.e. nothing “burns”. And inhaling smoke is by far the most harmful aspect of using cigarettes.
Not saying nicotine or vaping is harmless, but I’d be very surprised if vaping turns out to be as dangerous as smoking.