I first started eating out regularly in the '80s, and even now I will occasionally randomly ask to be seated in a restaurant’s non-smoking section. It’s surreal to think that was ever a thing.
I’m starting to forget that these things existed, because I’m old enough to remember a time when there was such a thing as a smoking/non-smoking section in restaurants but it feels like an entire lifetime ago that it was actually relevant to the point now where it would be a massive culture shock to see somebody light up indoors anywhere, let alone in a restaurant.
I like to point to indoor smoking bans and seatbelt laws as actual evidence of how a culture war backed up with science and facts can be sustained and won even against seemingly insurmountable odds to the benefit of society as a whole. In both of those cases, the data eventually won out against the multibillion dollar industries that were resisting regulation as well as the “muh freedom” crowd.
I first started eating out regularly in the '80s, and even now I will occasionally randomly ask to be seated in a restaurant’s non-smoking section. It’s surreal to think that was ever a thing.
I’m starting to forget that these things existed, because I’m old enough to remember a time when there was such a thing as a smoking/non-smoking section in restaurants but it feels like an entire lifetime ago that it was actually relevant to the point now where it would be a massive culture shock to see somebody light up indoors anywhere, let alone in a restaurant.
I like to point to indoor smoking bans and seatbelt laws as actual evidence of how a culture war backed up with science and facts can be sustained and won even against seemingly insurmountable odds to the benefit of society as a whole. In both of those cases, the data eventually won out against the multibillion dollar industries that were resisting regulation as well as the “muh freedom” crowd.