I don’t know when you grew up*, but I grew up recently enough that the idea of smoking being “cool” was long in the past. It’s not about being “more righteous”. I have plenty of my own vices. The only difference is that my vices don’t absolutely suck to go nearbefore you get addicted, and aren’t both widely-regarded as uncool and very noticeable.
I’m not sure why references to a long-dead popular musician or obscure American lobby group are relevant. Culture changes.
* actually, as I wrote the rest of this comment I realised you put enough hints in. PMRC and Frank Zappa? Yeah, when they were in the zeitgeist, I’m sure smoking was still considered cool. But by the '00s to early '10s when I was a teen, that was long past being true. (But vapes had not yet come along as the new popular thing.)
I don’t know when you grew up*, but I grew up recently enough that the idea of smoking being “cool” was long in the past. It’s not about being “more righteous”. I have plenty of my own vices. The only difference is that my vices don’t absolutely suck to go near before you get addicted, and aren’t both widely-regarded as uncool and very noticeable.
I’m not sure why references to a long-dead popular musician or obscure American lobby group are relevant. Culture changes.
* actually, as I wrote the rest of this comment I realised you put enough hints in. PMRC and Frank Zappa? Yeah, when they were in the zeitgeist, I’m sure smoking was still considered cool. But by the '00s to early '10s when I was a teen, that was long past being true. (But vapes had not yet come along as the new popular thing.)