Menthol helps offset the burning sensation caused by the hundreds of carcinogenic additives in cigarettes. However, Black smokers consume fewer cigarettes than white smokers, so the FDA's "logic" completely falls apart. Menthol doesn't actually increase consumption. 1/n https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1387858240080433153

Cigarettes are the highest taxed consumer good in America. Poor smokers spend between 15 and 24% of their income on cigarettes.

In the US, about 1/3 of poor people smoke cigarettes. The prevalence of smoking among poor people hasn't significantly changed in decades... 2/n

...yet the price of cigarettes keeps going up. A pack of Marlboros (20 cigarettes) currently costs $14 in Chicago. The average smoker (poor or wealthy) smokes about a pack per day.

The smoking industry is subsidized by poor people, with both our dollars and our health. 3/n

I won't try to cover all the reasons poor people smoke, but suffice to say that our capitalist government has created a very effective fascist machine with the cigarette industry, and the health effects of smoking are far worse in America than in many other countries. 4/n

I come from a long line of poor veterans & undereducated domestic violence survivors, and every one of us has been or still is a chainsmoker.

My mother, a trauma survivor, has severe asthma & recurrent pneumonia, and my dad, a disabled veteran, can't laugh without coughing. 5/n

The FDA has never given a damn about poor people. The FDA exists to keep white "middle class" women quiet and white capitalist men alive long enough to hoard the world's wealth. 6/n

Eric Garner was murdered by NYPD in 2014 for being a Black man. Our government justified their crime by accusing Eric Garner of selling cigarettes.

The FDA is condoning racial violence and widening health disparities with this ban. 7/n

And they're mocking us. The FDA's announcement explicitly states that the ban is targeting marginalized communities. 8/n

We have color blind laws on the books that serve only to harm Black people twice.

America "can't be racist" because racism is illegal, yet Eric Garner was stopped, frisked, & executed, and both the FDA & the cigarette industry are targeting Black people's health. 9/n

Day in and day out, I hear "trust science."

You cannot trust "science." Science ain't say shit.

*Scientists* say, and *scientists* do, and *scientists* are.

And scientists are racist. Scientists are sexist. Scientists are capitalist and wealthy and ignorant. 10/n

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has been at the forefront of national COVID-19 science and health news. It's both the first and the largest school of public health in the country. 11/n

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health was founded by a eugenicist with funds from the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Rockefeller Foundation, founded by John D. Rockefeller, spearheaded the American eugenics movement. 12/n

John D. Rockefeller, the wealthiest American ever, made his money by founding and operating an oil monopoly.

Rockefeller Jr. continued his father's disgraceful legacy by orchestrating an attack on 1,200 coal miners and their families, murdering 21 of them, for unionizing. 13/n

And finally, let me direct our attention to the obvious:

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is named after Michael Bloomberg, a Wall Street investment banker who was sued four times for sexual harassment and rape. 14/n

Bloomberg also pioneered, expanded, and championed stop and frisk as mayor of NYC.

Americans must stop our cultish scientism, and we must stop unconditionally supporting public programs.

Our country is capitalist. Our federal government is merely a capitalist fraternity. 15/15