Allow me this rant. Trends come and go, but something being "in" that's highly addictive and harmful and can't be easily dropped is a problem. I'm coming from a place of enormous privilege in that I don't have an addictive personality. I enjoy smoking the occasional cigarette when I'm out with my mates, but I rarely crave and never need it. The thought of smoking often makes me nauseous and that's a feeling I cherish. Seeing it become so ubiquitous in popular culture, whether by influencers or pop stars or all over movies, feels predatory to me. Beyonce lighting a cigarette on stage and lighting her piano on fire was so *goofy*. Big Tobaccco is an evil corporate cabal and I loathe the fact that a bunch of gross men are watching this "trend" and laughing all the way to their third home. They don't give a shit if your mouth starts rotting or your lungs turn black or you have to breathe with a tube in your neck.
Throwing Fits had a great screed about this the other day, minus the caveats to protect the white guy’s IG poses with “darts.” Goofy.
Also, go watch the Michael Mann banger The Insider (1999).
