A (hopefully) mature discussion: Is it really okay to hate smokers?

[blarghblarghhhhh]

As a smoker I feel I should defend myself here. There is no reason to hate smokers. People say they dont like the smell of it leaves on people. There are lots of smells in this world that people choose to apply to themselves, your not going to like all of them so tough shit.

I live in america where smoking indoors is heavily regulated. If you go to a place of business and someone is smoking there then just leave, choose another place to do business. its the business owner who gets to decide if someone can smoke at there place not yours.

If they are smoking outdoors then who cares? in an open air environment there is no way your going to breath in any smoke at all unless the person is a dick and blowing it in your face, in which case punch him, because well, you know, hes a dick.

I personally smoke for no other reason then the fact that I like to do it. I enjoy all aspects of it really. i enjoy the feeling of it filling my lungs and like to see the smoke cloud leaving my body. There are some situations for me where smoking just feels right.

I would also like to state that I think most smokers who claim to be addicted are full of shit. Ive smoked for five years now. Roughly nine months ago I had to have my wisdom teeth removed which meant i couldnt smoke or use a straw for three to five days according to my dentist. I had no problem going five days without smoking. there were situations where I wanted to smoke but there was nothing I would call a withdraw. no headaches, sickness, or freaking out about not smoking.

 

[blarghblarghhhhh]

I don't hate smokers, and I don't hate that they smoke, but I do think they're idiots. What I do hate is when they choose to smoke around me. It's offensive, and harmful to my health. If they choose to give themselves diseases that is their choice but I refuse to inflict those diseases upon myself so they should be respectful and not smoke around me. I hate it when I'm walking down the street r standing waiting at traffic lights and someone nearby starts smoking; as I said already I don't want the diseases and I should be able to navigate public areas without being exposed to carcinogenic chemicals.

Uh...you're practically doing drugs. That IS a reason to be frowned upon. That being said, I don't hate smokers. I'll leave you to your own devices as long as you stay the hell away from my immediate vicinity, and FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T WALK SLOWLY IN FRONT OF ME. You might enjoy your little smoke but that doesn't mean I have to sacrifice the purity of the air I breathe in.

not trying to nitpick nut your in more danger of the car exhaust the fills every city then getting cancer from being around a cigarette for one minute tops. theres even a trick to avoid it. if your standing next to someone and they are smoking, take three steps upwind. problem solved.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

There really isn't much to this - people don't necessarily hate smokers so much as they hate smoking, and they hate smoking because it's a bloody public nuisance. When you light up in public, why the hell wouldn't you expect dirty looks? Smoking is a disgusting habit that everyone around you gets to share against their will via second-hand smoke; if you went about your day constantly and noisily farting you would get the exact same reaction.

Nobody bloody cares if you're smoking in your own home, they just don't want to have to smell you and breathe your output. As for the level of reaction smoking provokes versus more 'genuinely appalling' vices, well how often do you run into pedophiles who are openly flouting that status? How often do you find people loudly proclaiming the virtues of rape? Almost never, right? This isn't rocket science - familiarity breeds contempt: smokers are all over the place, shoving their habit in the faces of all the non-smokers around them who would prefer their air stay non-befouled, what do you expect will happen?

Walk around your workplace constantly blowing a Vuvuzela and see how quickly everyone starts to hate you - it isn't that they hate you, they hate that you're constantly doing something annoying in their presence. Smoking is just as obnoxious (albeit quieter) if you're a non-smoker as a person constantly 'playing' the vuvuzela is if you have functioning human ears.

 

[Diligent]

The effects of second hand smoke are totally overblown.
Have you ever been on a busy street? On the highway with the windows down? In front of a campfire? Sunbathed on a beach? Experienced the smell of pavement tar on a hot day? Hell, check your shampoo, it probably has carcinogens in it. Do you think those activities are better for you than smoking? If you want to argue that just because those things exist doesn't mean you should be subjected to cigarette smoke on top of it too, well that's like saying you don't want somebody to squirt you with a water gun while you're swimming in the ocean.
Our world is chock full of carcinogens and if you think the occasional smoker you walk past on the street is somehow going to dynamically shift your health for the worse, you're crazy.

To answer your question, no it isn't justified to hate smokers.

 

[roostuf]

I believe that smokers have the right to smoke, who am i to say what they can and can't do. Even if all the facts say that smoking is a addictive and it slowly kills you, so, its their problem NOT YOURS! They know the risks thanks to our over-kill of anti-smoking advertisements everywhere you look, if they want to smoke let them if you have a problem about that then YOU should move!





(p.s i don't smoke).

And no there is no justice in slandering smokers.

 

[Diligent]

As for the level of reaction smoking provokes versus more 'genuinely appalling' vices, well how often do you run into pedophiles who are openly flouting that status? How often do you find people loudly proclaiming the virtues of rape? Almost never, right?

Why don't we just throw in serial killers and sacrificing babies into your argument?
Come on, get real. The topic said mature discussion, not goofy straw man discussion.

 

[DemonicVixen]

I hated my mum smoking. I hated the thick yellow/orange nicotine I had to WASH off her walls, furniture etc after she died. The stale smell in the mornings when I used to wake up was disgusting. As much as I miss my mum, I DONT miss the smoke stench.
I hate my partner's mum and her boyfriend smoking when we go down there. The room is often smoky and makes me feel sick and stuffy.

I HATE seeing people smoking around kids, even if it isnt their kid. If my friends want to smoke around their kids then I cant stop them, but I sure as hell wont have them smoking around mine.

 

[iLikeHippos]

I don't hate responsible and considerate smokers;
I do hate the opposite ones though.

Don't tell me you've never met them! They are always just outside the entrances, not giving a fuck to take that extra 10 yards to not be in the way.

They also do not give a shit if you, a non-smoker is peacefully waiting at the bus, just wanting to mind your own business.
No, they MUST smoke 5 feet away from you and just make your day a little bit more miserable to curb that addiction of theirs for a while.

Maybe I am just cranky, but my nose is QUITE sensitive, and it would be nice if we could RESPECT each other in this modern day and era.

 

[TheAbominableDan]

I smoke occasionally. Only during pub nights and such so clearly I don't hate smokers, and I don't think anyone should.

I would like to defend smoking by saying that if you are within earshot of a person smoking outside they are not going to give you cancer. If smokers can smoke for years or even decades before getting cancer then you being in the vicinity of the odd cigarette isn't going to do you in. I speak of situations like when I was at a barbecue last summer and was asked to move twenty feet away to the other side of the yard because people were terrified of the one cigarette I had all day. Relax people.

EDIT: I should point out in said story I was already standing apart from the group, but apparently not far enough until I was far enough away that I was completely removed.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

Yeah dont you just love it when you are riding your bike through the city, nearly suffocating on the gases of the crappy car in front of you. The car stops at the same place you are going to. You stand in front of the Shop/bar/whatever to finish your smoke, and the guy who just blew a few gallons of toxines in your lungs complains about you smoking 3 metres away from the entrance? Yeah keep preaching haters, i just dont care.

 

[THAC0]

I used to be a hard core smoker hater.

Now, I smoke about a half pack every day. Have for the last year. I know that some people hate me for it, and that is fine. I revel in the fact that I have been able to put someone in a bad mood just by standing there.

Actually i have met a lot of people because of my smoking. For some reason people have been very willing to just come up and start talking to me when i am smoking. Most of the conversations start with them asking to use my lighter or bumming a cigarette off me, and then the conversation goes from there.

Hate us all you want, smokers rock.

 

[York_Beckett]

Having gotten to a point where smokers are more common than pigeons in my hometown, I think I'd rather go hating on the several repressed Waterworld-jokes I could think of judging by the topic's title.
But honestly, I don't really bother with them. There isn't really any reason to hate them because they enjoy smoking (maybe with the exception of making it harder to breathe.) I don't hate people who smoke, unless they come up to you and blow a small toxic cloud right in your face. If that is the case, I guess I'd really hate that one thing they do with the whole smoking-thing. Otherwise, not really.

 

[Metazare]

Smoking for a lot of people is a stress release, an unhealthy one but no one regardless of who they are is in a position to judge them nor anyone else. I like a cup of coffee every morning and the occasional energy drink for a pick me up. It's not good for my health of course but the choice is there for me to make.

It's literally gotten to the point at least in the US where if you're a smoker you're barred from smoking in just about any public place, even if it's outside because people have developed an irrational paranoia of cigarette smoke.

A bar or restaurant is an excellent example of this. I can remember when I was younger going into restaurant or bar and they had two places to sit, smoking or non smoking. The smoking sections would be far away from the non smoking section too. Often times on the complete opposite side of the building. Smoking sections are non existent now, and if they do happen to still be around in some places I've yet to see one. If you want to smoke in a bar today you're forced to go out in the cold, and you can't wait outside the building either while you have a smoke you're forced to walk something absurd like 50 yards away from all civilization.

Even outside away from high traffic areas you're not safe to enjoy a smoke. You'll hear about it sometimes in the paper or on the news about someone who walked by another person who was smoking on the street and they have a fit and try and sue the person.

You know who else got similar treatment, black people. Now before you jump down my throat understand that comparing the treatment a smoker gets these days to the atrocities that black men and women went through years ago is a real stretch, but it's the only thing even remotely close to what we can compare the treatment of smokers today.

Yes smoking is a bad habit and it can have negative effects on those around you if you regularly smoke around the same people day in and day out. But the fear of cigarette smoke is based solely on paranoia. You won't get cancer from standing next to a smoker for 5 minutes.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

People smoke for the same reason that people drink coffee or energy drinks, because it helps them get through the day

I'm pretty sure that's only the case if you're already addicted to smoking. I can get through a day perfectly happily without wishing for a cigarette.

As for why I dislike the habit, its because you aren't just affected your own body. Every time you breathe out you're blowing poisons into the air. And don't assume that its all in the smoke and gets blown away. Theres plenty of stuff you can't see in your exhalations. So other people breath in the toxins and they don't have a choice in this. What you do to your own body is your affair. But by smoking your are forcing it onto other people as well without their consent.
Smoking is almost breathe-rape when you think about it...

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I think forming such a strong opinion over someone over something so trivial is ridiculous. Granted, I don't like smoking very much but if people want to do it then that's fine (preferably not around me though). I know lovely people who smoke, I couldn't even begin to hate them over something like smoking.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

As for the level of reaction smoking provokes versus more 'genuinely appalling' vices, well how often do you run into pedophiles who are openly flouting that status? How often do you find people loudly proclaiming the virtues of rape? Almost never, right?

Why don't we just throw in serial killers and sacrificing babies into your argument?
Come on, get real. The topic said mature discussion, not goofy straw man discussion.

No see, I would, because that's entirely logical - you seem to be operating under some misunderstanding of just what constitutes a "goofy straw man argument". The central question this thread posed is why do people feel justified in 'hating' smokers so much when, in the grand scheme of things, smoking is a comparatively minor vice and there are far more appalling things people get up to that don't seem to engender that same reaction.

So those questions I posed? Not straw men in any sense of the term - expressing more aggravation and 'hatred' on a daily basis towards smokers than you would towards serial killers, ritual baby murderers, sexual predators, etc, well there has to be a reason for that, right? And the reason is quite simple: Most of us don't actually know or have to interact with anyone who does the various horrible things we've both mentioned. The (completely justified) hatred our society fosters for those particular social deviants is, for the most part, all encapsulated at an intellectual level - we think that stuff is awful, and would probably say as much if prompted, but it doesn't typically impact our daily existence in any meaningful way and we certainly don't spend our days contemplating how terrible those things are.

I don't know anyone who would honestly suggest that smoking is even in the same arena as those other "vices", it's like comparing "being kind of a jackass" with "perpetuating genocide". Your response suggests however that you believe I was genuinely equating smoking with rape and murder - I would certainly never suggest that myself, because it's a ridiculous notion! Those were simply examples I picked to illustrate the far more pervasive nature of smoking versus baby murder and the like - the point being that minor irritants you see every day tend to have more emotional impact than horrible concepts you probably only ever hear about. In other words, familiarity breeds contempt.

Oh yes, there's also the bloody OP:

So let me pose a question: How many groups of people can you think of who it is societally acceptable to describe as "disgusting?" Child molesters? Rapists? Serial killers?

Smokers?

I didn't even make the jump to using those in an example, this thread started out that way - taking me to task for "immaturity" for using those in an example is therefore highly illogical, and also rather amusing (to me); perhaps you should have read the original post more thoroughly before you decided I needed a self-righteous chiding?

 

[Thaluikhain]

So do you dislike people who drive cars and trucks, as well, especially older diesels?

Yes...though, at least where I live, CO isn't an issue, they've forced upgrades to stop of at least minimise that.

But...don't get me started on people who own off-road vehicles, but never take them off-road.

 

[standokan]

No, that would be incredibly naïve even though many assholes are smokers, not all smokers are assholes, to my opinion, smokers are cool, but that's mainly because of characters like Spike Spiegel, in real life smokers probably aren't so cool.