A challenge to all members and guests. Try to find any word which ends in ism which describes a favorable outcome for the followers of such an ism. Or the victims of said ism.
For the followers there is the undeniable benefit in some cases, of the sense of moral superiority, or of the satisfaction of certain intellectual pretensions. In these cases the victims become marginalized and vilified, usually permanently. The followers simply become insufferable, and boringly repetitive, also permanently.
For openers, here's an article on smokism. Yes Pete that means us!!! It is not good.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]An excerpt:
THE CRITIQUE OF HEALTH SCARES AND STATE PATERNALISM
by Chris R. Tame and David Botsford
Critics of the anti-smoking movement, like Bernard Levin, Iain Murray and Keith Waterhouse, were scorned when they first warned that that movement was a prelude to similar campaigns on other pleasures or lifestyles. A decade ago, Waterhouse declared:
"The most pernicious thing about smokism is that it is not really about smoking at all. Cigarettes happen to be the product the smokists currently want stamped out. Tomorrow it could be - and will be - white bread, or beer, or junk food, or mashed potatoes. The object of the exercise is to impose the will of those who believe they know best on a supine population which is supposed not to know enough to come in out of the rain." [109]
We have shown that this is precisely what has occurred. We now offer a more detailed critique of the rise of health scares, which increasingly justify the title of "health fascism".