mushrat Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 um..ok i might as well set this in writing one more time just so people understand a few things. When i joined the forum things were VERY different. We pretty much talked about what we wanted, things were much looser and freer. Then over the last few years we've had to tighten the rules to keep up with the times. I've banned people who taught ME how to smoke the hookah correctly way back when because they just couldn't adapt. It sucks we have to be so careful about what we say but there are things most people dont consider. The biggest is the anti-smoking anti-drug anti-fun movements out there. They will latch onto ANYTHING they can to make Hookah look bad. If they can show a post where hookah is associated with NHT, THATS what will show up in the media and on the internet. If they show people under 18 talking about smoking hookah here in the US, thats what we'll hear about, you get the idea. If we are going to try to show that hookah doesn't HAVE to be used for NHT, contrary to Bill Murray in Zombie Land trying to show otherwise, we have to step very carefully. We have to be so fucking clean we squeak. Do i like it? Fuck no. Go look up some old posts from 5 years ago if you want to know how i really feel. Is it necessary to set the example that hookah can be a legitimate past time? I think it is. Do i hope a time will come when we can relax a bit, you bet your ass. Nuf said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmccoy90 Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Well said. I'm watching Zombieland as we speak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcane Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 i'll watch it too now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mokutou Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Fair enough. Before I was educated and developed a liking for smoking shisha via hookah, I was under the impression that hookah WAS just used for NHT. I think with it becoming more of a trend, that idea is being scaled back, but it going to take some work and visibility of hookah enthusiasts to cement the image that hookah is not about NHT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmccoy90 Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 It doesn't help that smoke shops around cities like Chicago proudly display hookahs next to other NHT devices in their storefronts. If that's the only time you see a hookah, or even your first time, I understand the stigma... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehelios Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 The sad part is that almost every "hookah" shop has to sell NHT crap so they can stay in business. Places like TexasHookah that have an actual storefront still slightly blow my mind because you just never see those kinds of places anymore. If only smoke shops could carry anything tobacco based will this prejudice of hookahs and NHT be possibly removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dizzbizz Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 [quote name='thehelios' timestamp='1294554292' post='493837'] The sad part is that almost every "hookah" shop has to sell NHT crap so they can stay in business. Places like TexasHookah that have an actual storefront still slightly blow my mind because you just never see those kinds of places anymore. If only smoke shops could carry anything tobacco based will this prejudice of hookahs and NHT be possibly removed. [/quote] Hookah, unfortunately, just isn't popular enough to keep a "hookah only" shop going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ih303 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Excellent post, Mush. I'm with you 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cp44 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 well said Mush, i totally agree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mushrat Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 i had a good relationship with the head shops in my area... while they carried minimal hookah stuff, and often poor quality or high priced, they would send serious shoppers to me. When someone came in looking for stuff they carried i returned the favour. (did i make some rules about saying the word "head shop?" i don't remember?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chreees Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Nah, head shop is fine to say as far as I know. Btw, excellent post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 [quote name='INCUBUSRATM' timestamp='1294730325' post='493966'] Nah, head shop is fine to say as far as I know. Btw, excellent post. [/quote] That's what you think Chris....See you in 7 days [img]http://www.hookahforum.com/public/style_emoticons/default/justkidding.gif[/img] <3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mushrat Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 See..getting so hard to keep track around here even *I* am forgetting what we can and can't say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukhookah Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Personally I don't care what people think bout hookahs. There's more important issues in life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmccoy90 Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 You will care if the stigma associated with our pastime leads it to be legally compromised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hookah hippie Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 This is a bit heavy for the first post of the morning I will check on this one later, thing to takeaway DON'T BE STUPID Happy Smoking BTW, when did the font change? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magick777 Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 [quote name='ukhookah' timestamp='1294932838' post='494245'] Personally I don't care what people think bout hookahs. There's more important issues in life. [/quote] Personally, I agree. In respect of this forum, though, I have pursued this debate at some length to probe why the rules are as they are, and have reached the conclusion that they serve the interests of a majority of the users of the forum. I don't [b]like[/b] some of those rules in the same way mushrat doesn't [b]like[/b] some of those rules, but it is important to recognise that we in the UK are in a minority. Personally, I couldn't give a stuff what the ignorant minority think here in the UK... but then, I doubt that a typical British copper would [b]respond[/b] to a report of someone smoking a hookah pipe unless they were causing a nuisance with it, or committing some crime in the process. It's just too well known here. I have the impression that attitudes to hookah are more informed and more liberal in the United Kingdom than they are on balance in the United States, in spite of the fact that our government has taken an illiberal approach both to the smoking ban and to the taxation of tobacco. In London at least we're more cosmopolitan than the average US city; my middle class 67 year old mother knows perfectly well what a hookah is and what it's used for and she didn't learn from me. She's had as many Middle Eastern friends and colleagues as I have. It is also the case that attitudes towards NHT are distinctly more liberal in the UK than in a majority of American states, again in spite of the official position, and that usage of NHT is estimated as high as 10% of the population here. That doesn't imply that I approve of it, but it is not in most of Europe the perceived crime against humanity that it might be in some parts of the United States. (no insult implied to the millions of free-thinking Americans out there; you will not dispute that there is a lot of moral conservatism in America, whether you agree with it or not...) Also... we're chronologically on the wrong side of a smoking ban and tobacco tax legislation here in the UK; while over there, they're facing a lot of the same. The battle for hearts and minds isn't ever going to be [b]won[/b] where tobacco products are concerned, but, there are many degrees to which it can be lost. Here, the facts about hookah speak for themselves, and whatever your view on the consumption of tobacco as a practice, it will seldom here be judged for something it is not. In the US, they have a strong incentive to be "so fucking clean they squeak", as mush put it. Therefore, if we choose to post here, so do we. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmccoy90 Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Yeah. Essentially, we've got a lot of knuckleheads in the States that tarnish the image that has been otherwise unremarkable for several centuries. You guys are lucky that your society is less ignorant. Please don't take that for granted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insidius Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 One of those cases where the rules may be worse than the consequences. We become what we hate. Censor too much, and you become worse than that which you seek to avoid. I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mushrat Posted January 15, 2011 Author Share Posted January 15, 2011 oh belive me, I understand. It was a forum wide effort to find a way to talk about NHT at all. We tried different euphemisms and finally I forget who came up with NHT and NH. This at least enabled us to discuss the subject in certain situations. Just cause I made the rules to protect the forum doesn't mean I like where they are headed. As for hookah, I don't necessarily want to start this convo again in THIS thread, but they were NOT originally used for tobacco I don't believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukhookah Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 I don't know what's better: 1) A free thinking society when it comes to hookah/shisha or 2) The silly tobacco tax system who would charges us here in the uk in the region of £100 for a kg of al fakher. I'd sacrifce the ignorant society for the cheaper shisha. You guys in the US are too fortunate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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