• Throbbing_banjo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 days ago

    Unrelated to what we’re talking about, but I still remember briefly switching to Winstons in the 90s because I saw an ad with Frank Zappa smoking one on the back of a rolling stone magazine. I still remember that every time I see Winstons in any context.

    It’s horrifying how effective that marketing was.

  • 404found@lemmy.zip
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    5 days ago

    Blaming Boomers might make you feel better for half a second but the truth is their political leaders mislead them too. There is a reason Trump saying he was going to “drain the swamp” appealed to so many people.

    Boomers, lower class citizens, Republicans, Hispanics, whites etc are all people who deserve not to suffer.

    If the priority is to minimize suffering then labels stop mattering because people start actually seeing the big picture. When you can’t see the big picture you up being mad at a ghost that’s been created in your head. You’re angry at something you will never be able to actually see or meet because you over-classify a classification.

    • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      I agree. You can only track a span of time when referring to a whole generation of people. As in, “something happened during that time”. It was not caused by all of the people included in the generalization. Most likely in the past, as it is today, it’s the 10% of the greed monkeys in any generation that you can point to, not the whole shebang.

      • 404found@lemmy.zip
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        4 days ago

        Yeah it would be like blaming millennials for going to war with Iran or the 30% inflation that’s happened over the last 6 years or the massive changes that’s happened with the government.

        Pointing fingers doesn’t change anything and if you believe a certain group caused the problems people are seeing today then what are the people today doing to fix it because they are next up to be blamed.

  • riquisimo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 days ago

    Portable cameras were NOT this good when airlines allowed smoking. You ever see a pic of a ps1/GameCube display at Walmart? This is before THAT.

    • InputZero@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      There are two reasons, one ageism is one of the remaining forms of discrimination that’s still socially permitted, and two some of them deserve it. I don’t know if it’s unsaid or forgotten but most Boomers have way more in common with Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and Gen Beta because it’s actually a class war. It’s just that the number of boomers in the wealthy classes are disproportionately larger than the other generations. Still most Boomers are not wealthy, they’re just wealthier than younger people.

      Also generations are bullshit. They’re used by politicians and marketers to segmentize the population to make it easier to sell you on voting for them or selling you a product. The real solidarity is in class solidarity.

    • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      Because the rich want to distract us from the real class war by redirecting anger at old people. Old people who lived in quite possibly the easiest lives with the most generous minimum living conditions and social safety nets that have existed, and were tricked by the rich to give it all up so they’re kids wouldn’t have it, because most of them have brain damage from lead in fuel.

      • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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        5 days ago

        Because the rich want to distract us from the real class war by redirecting anger at old people.

        Part of it is just demographics and survivorship bias. The majority of boomers who are still around are the ones who didn’t have to break their bodies to make a living. The average age of billionaires, senators, and CEO are all in their late 60s, so it’s easy to look at the group and wonder what the hell is wrong with the generation.

        were tricked by the rich to give it all up so they’re kids wouldn’t have it

        I think to accept this as the answer it requires a plastering of cognitive dissonance. The rich themselves are old, they are from the same generation and are the people who voted for trickle down economics and empowered neo conservative policy. I don’t think this generation was tricked, moreso I think they were bribed and were happy to prioritize their own wellbeing over others.

        because most of them have brain damage from lead in fuel.

        This is mostly an artifact of pop science. GenX is actually the generation that was exposed to the highest levels of lead. I think a more important explanation of why boomers are the way they are is simply socioeconomics. They were really the first generation to be fully reared by modernity and the age of the atomic family. Where family units moved away from their extended families to pursue better economic mobility. Meaning instead of being raised by a community of family, they were often raised by an isolated mother, and a father afflicted by suppressed PTSD from war.

  • gwl [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 days ago

    I mean there’s a huge reason for the loss of luxury on planes that everyone conveniently forgets

    Planes were EXPENSIVE, they were a luxury, and around the latter part of the 80s they figured out how to reduce the price. Tickets went from $500 to $50 for the exact same 1 hour flights to the exact same locations.

      • gwl [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 days ago

        It’s not just that, they figured out a factory line that made the production cost of planes drastically drop too

        They’re still not cheap to produce, but they went from exorbitantly expensive, might only have 10-25 flights per day to an airport has 1000s of flights per day

    • rmuk@feddit.uk
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      5 days ago

      People who are too young or, frankly, not thinking hard enough really do romanticise what the world was like when people could smoke fucking everywhere because people really did smoke fucking everywhere. Restaurants and pubs had a visible smog in the air, the odor permiated all flavours and everything was slightly sticky unless it was wiped clean a few minutes before. Being trapped on a bus with a bunch of smokers was nightmarish enough, but being at the back of a plane - the cheap seats - where air was very, very slowly circulated front to back was hell, especially for asthmatics.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        5 days ago

        your clothes stunk unless you hung them out the next day. Disgusting addiction.

        Now everything smells like Green Apple.

    • restingboredface@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Omg yes. I am old enough to remember the tail end of the period when smoking was still allowed on planes and JFC it was awful. They had a smoking “section” but it was still an open cabin so you could smell smoke everywhere. And if you were in the same or next row as a smoker you couldn’t escape it for the whole flight. Flying sucks now, but removing smoking is absolutely an upgrade.

    • clubb@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 days ago

      But they gave you something. This could easily be replaced by some soda, or anything else. Meanwhile, leg room is no more, and you’re only getting you own thoughts to contend with now.

      • auntieclokwise@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Most non budget carriers give you a soda and a snack. But you also have to realize that they aren’t GIVING you anything - you pay for that, always. It’s just marked up and built into your ticket price. Leg room is 100% still available, you just have to pay more. The ticket for that is STILL cheaper (adjusted for inflation) than it was when lots of leg room was standard.

          • XiJinpingStanAccount@lemmy.ml
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            5 days ago

            I worked for an airline for awhile. What you get on the plane is determined by the length of the flight usually. The longer you are on the plane the more things you will get. And of course the class matters.

  • myyass@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    I tried ones similar to these the stevemre way, from Vietnam rations before they got absurdly expensive. They kicked hard like the Ukrainian cigarettes I had, they were both unfiltered. It’s actually kind of funny, the Ukrainian cigarettes inflicted so much pain–I don’t know how my dad smoked them–that I smoked my first cigar like a cigarette thinking this is fine.

  • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Flying was also considered a luxury back then, but yeah keep whining about an generational difference while democracy is torn down around you.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      A flight to France from NYC in 1955 was $310, which is the equivalent of about $3900 today. You can find that same flight for under $300 today.

      Las Vegas to Los Angeles was only $13.70 or $171.88 in today’s money, you can find that for less than $50 today.

      Even if you include the extra fees and everything today that were part of the base fare in the early days of flight, that only adds another 10% or so to the cost.

      The reason that air travel today is so unpleasant is that it has been commodified. Airlines have to compete only on price, and it’s easy to search for the prices. Just 20 years ago it was extremely difficult for anybody except a travel agent to search for airlines prices. Because of that, people often stuck with a favourite airline or with whatever the travel agent recommended. Now, anybody can go to any number of sites and in a few seconds know every airline that flies between two cities with every schedule and every price.

      Since every airline wants to make the sale, they make the price shown by the search the lowest one. Then, to get their profit margin back, they add on fees and make things that used to be built into the price.

  • Furbag@pawb.social
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    5 days ago

    People don’t remember that the whole world used to smell like cigarettes.

    Ever go to a casino in Las Vegas? Like that, but everywhere all the time.

    • TRock@feddit.dk
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      5 days ago

      Do they allow smoking inside at Las Vegas? I always wanted to go there. Not anymore if that’s the case

      • Ravenheart@lemmy.zip
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        5 days ago

        Even their airport smells like cigarettes. Honestly, the LA airport is the nastiest, dirtiest one I’ve ever been seen (and not in a good way, lol)

        • zebidiah@lemmy.ca
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          5 days ago

          the one thing i remember from the last time i was there was the penny slots at the departure gates… they literally want you to leave every cent you have behind

          • zjti8eit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 days ago

            I was born in Vegas, and yeah, its ain’t just the airport. Like we’d go to Kmart or the laundry mat and there were slot machines. When I was 4 and moved to Phoenix that’s what I thought was so weird about Arizona was no slot machines.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        Yeah, your not going to find casino floors (with some minimal exceptions) smoke free in Vegas. Chain smoking slot grannies are like a majority of their revenue.

      • Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de
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        5 days ago

        Not sure, but even if they don’t any more. It might still just smell.

        Can’t get that out easily without ripping up every carpet/fabric.

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        Dude I’m 26 and got to smell the dying drag of that era. It doesn’t smell nearly as much like cigarettes, at least in my neck of the woods in SoCal don’t know how much the Finns or Franks smoke so mayhaps it’s different elsewhere.

        • dethedrus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 days ago

          I’m a few decades older and grew up in Socal, so I got smoking everywhere (including my mom and aunt at home) and horrendous smog.

          I don’t miss any of that ghastly nonsense.

        • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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          5 days ago

          Not everywhere are people so polite and kind. EVERYONE here lights up. People smoke in cafe’s, I cant eat in a burger place without smoke forcing me to cough.

          They laugh at me for coughing, I’m allergic to the stuff.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            5 days ago

            It’s not out of kindness, it’s laws that many cities and states passed in the 00s to ban smoking in various places (and eventually everywhere indoors altogether in most places).

            I think it’s a state and local level thing here though, so it’s going to vary by location. I’m referring to the US if it wasn’t clear.

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            I think it’s less so a matter of politeness or kindness and moreso because one of the few great projects within the US over the last 50 years was the war on smoking. From the banning of smoking adverts to the anti-smoking PSAs of the late 00s and 2010s there’s been a consistent push against cigarettes specifically, also it’s expensive with high taxes noone has the cash for that.

            • zjti8eit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              5 days ago

              Anti spitting laws created to prevent the spread of tuberculosis, get people to switch from chewing tobacco to smoking cigarettes in the USA.

              • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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                5 days ago

                A mix of the collapse of the tabaco lobby, economics, and a general cultural trend away from addictive narcotics since it’s also affecting alcohol. Also I suspect the broad decriminalization of weed and it’s general cultural acceptance probably helps.

        • Psythik@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          I’ve got a dozen years on you and you’re lucky to have only caught the tail end of it. I had to put up with the whole world smelling until I was 18.

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            Fuck, don’t envy you on that one. I used to work estate sales and holy shit every third house smelt of dust and decades old cigarette smoke, felt like puking the entire time I was working those ones anytime they had a garage I was in there and not the house proper.

  • Soapbox@lemmy.zip
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    6 days ago

    I read an anecdote somewhere recently that the air in planes during flights has more germs in it now than it did in the smoking days because they had to filter the air so much more because of the smoke.

    No clue if its actually true or not.

    • tazeycrazy@feddit.uk
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      6 days ago

      Not sure if it’s the bacteria or just having fresh air cycled though the caben. Apparently it saves the airlines millions as they don’t have to replace filters and the system runs at a reduced capacity. Good to know someone is benefitting

  • protist@retrofed.com
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    6 days ago

    Restrictions on in-flight smoking started in '88, when the oldest boomers were 43 and the youngest were 14. The Greatest Generation were the ones who smoked like chimneys.

  • ContriteErudite@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    My stepfather was a lifelong smoker. He smoked a full pack of Marlboro reds every day, and my mom smoked a full pack of menthols. I calculated out how much they spent yearly on cigarettes alone and it came to over $5000, and that was in the late 90’s; it’s probably much higher these days. Both of them had been smoking since the 70’s.

    When I talked to them about quitting, they both said that they enjoyed smoking too much, it’s a stress relief, it’s something to do, etc. They were aware of the health risks, but believed the risks were overblown and that emphysema is an “old person’s” disease.

    Last year he was diagnosed with stage 3 emphysema. The man is a dyed-in-the-wool hard-as-nails army vet boomer, and his obstinate machismo made him ignored years of poor health and lung disease symptoms all to finally end up as an old person with an “old person’s” disease. Credit to him though, he did quit cold turkey the day his doctors delivered the diagnosis; the same obstinacy that pushed him to never give up smoking is what pushed him to quit. Me and my family love the hell out of him, and we’re glad that he finally quit, but it’s so aggravating that there are still so many people out there who discount the risks of smoking.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 days ago

      Every time sometime says they smoke a pack (if not more) a day, it blows my mind.

      That’s twenty cigarettes. I mean Jesus Christ people, like how??

      I’ve never been able to make it through a full cigarette before feeling nauseous and putting it out.

      I’m aware how tolerance works, but 20 cigarettes every day just seems insane to me.

      • dethedrus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 days ago

        My mom smoked 2 packs a day until at least her mid 40s, after staring at age 10. I have no idea when she stopped because I went almost no contact after moving out at 17.

        She appeared in excellent health until a massive stroke at 77. Barely recovered then died of the flu at 80. This is after years of going vegan and walking 10+ miles per day.

        Mind you, she was antivax, trending heavily towards anti medicine and anti science. As a former very well regarded biochemist.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          5 days ago

          It’s almost an impressive feat… To be able to consistently smoke forty cigarettes per day every day, for decades.

    • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      My mom never quit and died from COPD. My dad did quit back in 1981 but still had congestive heart failure later in kifecand had no chance when he got the 'rona.

      Both of my sisters smoke. One sister has already had a heart attack.

    • mortemtyrannis@lemmy.ml
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      6 days ago

      In my country there were ads that showed a smoker who had emphysema as part of an anti-smoking campaign.

      They described it like taking a deep breath and then exhaling just a small puff, then inhaling that puff and repeating forever until you die.

      Sorry for your stepfathers diagnosis.

  • PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk
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    6 days ago

    It also used to be obscenely more expensive to fly

    you weren’t getting the equivalent of ryanairs £13 gatwick to holland flights