Thread by @imaracingmom

🧵 Thread 🧵

I. DON'T. WANT. TO. WIN!!!

Before you read my thread, please read this story:
fox8.com/news/teen-carr… (Photo from that story)
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I have been fighting for years. Proudly standing beside many of you, we have fought fiercely for Tobacco Harm Reduction. We have perfected trolling. We can cite a study in our sleep. We can spot the enemy from a mile away. We despise the other side.

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They call themselves Public Health and Tobacco Control. We put our guard up as fast as theirs goes up over the scent of Big Tobacco being within arms length of anything.

It's been war for as long as we can remember. We're pissed that many of them won't change their minds.
3/

We want to win. To us, winning = saving lives. It's all we see, it's all we know, it's all we talk about.

We feel like we're fighting to the death. We're angry because they won't talk to us, call us names, and try to ban the technology that saved our lives.
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Why won't they change their minds? Why aren't they listening to us? Why don't the see the truth we see?

Seriously, why is this so freaking hard? We tell them the facts over and over. They don't change their damn minds!
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I'm sure some of you noticed, I'm not fighting the fight the way I / we have always fought it.

Why? Well, I've changed my mind about people who think different than me. They aren't my enemy any more.

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I found that when I stopped being disrespect of them, stopped calling them names, stopped accusing them of every conspiracy theory we have in our arsenal, that some of them are really nice people.

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I learned that many of them care just as much about the death and disease caused by smoking as I do.

I learned we don't always agree how to get there, but some of them are willing to sit down and talk about this.

Some of them are tired of fighting, too.

9/

I'm inviting all of you to try something new. Stop assuming everyone out there in TC/PH is a nasty person. Start looking them as another human and treat them the way you want to be treated - EVEN WHEN THEY DON'T TREAT YOU HOW YOU WANT TO BE TREATED!!!!!

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If you're on the receiving end of an ad hominem attack, don't throw one back. #BeKind stick to the facts. Keep it conversational. Be friendly. Keep it professional. Don't stoop to a school yard brawl. No name calling. I don't care if they did it first.
#LeadByExample
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Plant seeds, let them grow. Let people have a chance to think about stuff. No one's going to change their mind about something they're passionate about in the middle of a twitter thread.
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And they certainly aren't going to be open to other views when they're being stung by a swarm of angry, defensive hornets swarming all over a twitter thread!!!!
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I changed my mind. I'm not going to be in a battle with TC/PH. I have enough in common with them to want to work with them, not against them. I want to have conversations about more ways to help people who smoke. I want to make friends with them.
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Friends listen to friends. Groups of people working together can move mountains. Friends can influence friends. I'm going to try to make lots of friends. As many as I can.
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I don't want to win anymore. All I want to do is help. I want to help stop the death and disease caused by smoking. I don't want to be at war with people who want that, too. It's a waste of time, energy, and money to fight each other instead of helping more people who smoke.
16/

If a teenager can give up a dream, a chance at winning, to pick someone up and carry them across the finish line, then so can we.

We are the advocates - THR/TC/PH and the person on our back wants to quit smoking.

Let's do this!
~End

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