John Munson, professor at the U of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, is being sued by a local cocktail lounge. The suit doesn't seek financial damages, but just to make him stop certain activities.

When I was first alerted to this story by fellow blogger John Ruberry, I was incensed. A university professor "paying" his students, with extra credit points to circulate petitions in favor of a smoking ban, and to patronize non-smoking restaurants.

I was angry, as are the bar owners who were fighting the smoking ban. I've worked with Minnesotans Against Smoking Bans and I know that big sums of extorted tax money are used by a few people to inflict smoking bans on all of us. I also know that smoking bans have destroyed many small businesses and have a serious negative economic impact that anti-smokers refuse to acknowledge.

Worst of all, I know that the secondhand smoke issue is a total fabrication from a scientific standpoint. For many organizations, it has been a straw-man opponent they could attack and look as if they're doing something of value. They've demonized smokers with lies so that they could enlist the financial contributions of people who don't have the time to discover the truth. Simply put, they've used every trick in the book to SCARE people into believing lies, and they've profited grandly by doing so. Most of those groups have gotten financial funding from corporations who sell stop-smoking products.

When I'm angered by a news item that relates to an issue that's important to me, I typically do a little investigation and then set it aside for a few days until I can approach it without anger.

Like most things, this professorial action is more complex than it first appears. John Munson teaches several sections of something called "Health Promotions". I don't expect teachers to be omniscient, but it does seem that a professor teaching such a course should make a more diligent attempt than most of us can... to know the truth about health issues. A teacher has a rather serious responsibility to either present a balanced view of contentious issues, or to present scientific evidence when appropriate. It's obvious that Munson didn't do that, because he came down clearly on the side of implementing a smoking ban and penalizing the opposition.

The fact that Munson is a state employee, teaching at a tax-supported state university, complicates his position, because he rewarded his students for taking actions that will harm some of the very people who support his salary. Yes, what he did is illegal, but far more importantly, it is wrong, not just scientifically wrong, but wrong in "bribing" students to take a political position.

I can forgive many people who believe that smoking is bad for your health; therefore secondhand smoke must also be dangerous. It's an assumption that is easy to buy into with a certain amount of ignorance, and it's very easy for someone who dislikes smoke. It's equivalent to saying that because one can drown in water that drinking of water should be banned. There are thousands of things that are dangerous in quantity but harmless in smaller doses... even some that are deadly in quantity yet essential for life in smaller amounts. The whole secondhand smoking junk-science movement completely ignores that aspect, and contributes to a "zero-tolerance" attitude that is wreaking havoc in many areas of our lives.

It's much harder to forgive John Munson for ignorance of what he is evidently teaching to students. I am assuming that because he took a position favoring a smoking ban and paid students to help implement such a ban that he is endorsing the anti-smoking position. For whatever reason... ignorance and/or bias, he has perpetrated DISinformation and lies when he had a responsibility to present truth. THAT is damned close to being unforgiveable.

Are my expectations higher of Munson because he teaches at a state university? They are, not because I hold state institutions to be a source of truth, but because many students do. From the time they start kindergarten, the supposed beneficience and truthfulness of government is fed to them. THEY expect to hear truth from their government-school teachers, so professors have influence far beyond what they deserve.

By the time I was a college underclassman, I was influenced by what I was taught, and thought that government was the solution to any and all societal problems. Solving problems was only a matter of designing the proper government programs and "making it so". I was, effectively, a socialist. As I've matured, and considered information from non-governmental sources, it has gradually become clear to me that government is not the solution to ANYTHING, it is almost always the source of our problems. In retrospect, it makes me angry that I was misled for so long by people whose word I should have been able to trust. They not only didn't present the truth, but they wasted a lot of my time in disproving and unlearning what they fed me. Many of us don't ever go through that questioning and unlearning process, but spend the rest of their lives in ignorant belief that what they were taught IS the truth. But therein lies the problem:

How can we expect government-paid teachers in tax-supported institutions to teach anything BUT that "government is the solution"? Do we expect government employees to bite the hand that feeds them? To do so is to deny human nature. To expect John Munson to be a maverick and teach freedom of choice instead of governmental repression would be unrealistic.

Sure, I hope the lawsuit causes Munson to stop bribing students to take a political position, but I don't expect it to change his attitudes about smoking or anything else. When we let the government teach our children and young adults, we can't reasonably expect them to teach anything except "government works", "government should be bigger and stronger" and "government force is the way to a better society".

Government schools are the single biggest means dragging us toward a totalitarian society. They subtly brainwash in favor of government and tend to convince us that we would be helpless without government control. The result has been a never-ending increase in government control over us... government gains power, and we, as individuals, become closer to being mere serfs. It starts in elementary schools, and it obviously continues right up through state universities.

On a brighter note, the voters of Stevens Point rejected the smoking ban.