Nazi Tactics Rebuttal Intro

Dear Dr. Williams,

I recently read your essay on the vilification of cigarette smokers in Ideas on Liberty, “Nazi Tactics” from August 2002. After reading this essay I was appalled to say the least, your claims were completely inaccurate and extremely exaggerated. In one claim you say, “As a result of both official and non-official fraudulent claims about the health effects, as well as the health-care costs of smoking, there has been widely successful vilification of cigarette smokers and tobacco manufacturers” (par. 5). It has been proven by many different studies how detrimental tobacco is to a persons’ lungs and how likely it is to cause cancer, how could you possibly say that these are false? The effects to second hand smoke have also been proven and any doctor could tell you this. The government is not out to get smokers, it’s out to protect non-smokers from the health risks they can’t help but obtain in public where smoking is allowed. This “vilification” of cigarette smokers is completely justified because of the risk they put others in, you say, “These people who control our lives are almost finished with smokers; but never in history has a tyrant arisen one day and then decided to tyrannize no more” (par. 7). The government was established to protect its citizens and help make decisions such as these. I never thought protecting innocent lives from tobaccos’ deadly smoke was tyranny; this is a completely absurd claim. It’s not fair to harm a majority of the population by the 20% of Americans who chose smoke (par.4)”