Why must people try to assume a position of moral authority based on the silliest things?

[Kortney]

The reason I don't smoke is because of two reasons:

1 - I'm a 5'4" girl. I'd look like an idiot.
2 - I have little siblings who look up to me and I want to set a good example for them.

I don't want the people I love and care about to start smoking.

My best friend's Father died last year from it. He was 45 years old, and now she hasn't got a Dad. She is now extremely anti-smoking because she has been personally affected by it. She doesn't go around being anti-smoke because she is taking the "moral high ground" or any other nonsense, she just doesn't want others to go through the same thing as she did.

But you know what the funny thing is? I remember her Father giving everyone a rant eerily similar to what you were going on about in the opening post, Aerodyamic. His wife was complaining about his smoking and he started saying things about "It's my life choice", "I can smoke if I want to", "It's my own business", "smoking isn't the only thing that kills people", "I'll be fine"...

Thirteen months later, he is dead. His three daughters are without a father. His uneducated and unqualified Wife is a widow without work and they are going through a complete breakdown.

Yeah, it was only his business right?

Granted, you don't have children or a family, but my point still remains. I don't look down on you. If you were my brother or my friend or my father, then yes I would be very disappointed with you. Not because I want to look morally superior, but because you are affecting me and I wouldn't want to see you get one of the many symptoms smoking throws at people. I wouldn't want my close friend of family member to have his quality of life altered.

Which country? I live in Canada, and tobacco advertisements are illegal, so I don't see ANY giant signs displaying tobacco products, and all the smokes I buy have graphic warning on the pack that take up HALF THE PACK. For example

You got it lucky. I remember laughing during my stay in Australia:

Haha. Intense. There are much worse too.


If you are too weak willed to quit, don't take it out on other people.

If you honestly don't want to quit, that's fair enough, but expect to cop a lot of slack over it. That's just the way the world works mate. People jump on your back about many things in Western society, and smoking I'm afriad is one of them. Face it. If you get sick and need direct medical attention, our society will help you and look after you and medical professionals will do the most they can to ensure you don't die. You're fucking lucky. Stop moaning.

 

[schroing]

Most ironic thread of the day.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

This is really not about morality.

If you're a non-smoker, it's nigh impossible to see positives in other people smoking. You're getting all the negative aspects, without the buzz...why would you like it?

I'm pro choice, smoking is a choice...it's also a bad choice, a bad choice that I feel you should be free to make. Having said that, I dislike it very much and I am very grateful for the indoor public smoking ban.

Sometimes you just have to accept that you are doing something stupid, I think it's fully acceptable to enjoy something stupid(I know I do), but you have to accept some criticism with it. The only reason we are as tolerant as we are, is because we have grown up with cigarettes. If they were invented tomorrow, they would probably be illegal, and the stigma attatched to picking up the habit would be far greater than it is now.

 

[Normalgamer]

Okay, OP... when you deem the risks of second-hand smoke as "the silliest things", you have officially lost all credibility. Look, if you want to suck on tar and ruin your lungs, that's your business, but second-hand smoke has caused many people suffering. Bitching about people vocalizing legitimate concerns is just dickish.

You do realize there's a very easy solution to that, and it doesn't involve altering or interfering with anyone's habits or behavior: Move away from the smoke. It's not that hard to walk away from a smoker, and it takes less than a few seconds to get well away from the smoke and whatever harmful chemicals it contains.

There's one, and only one, exception to this: If it taking place in a private building that you have some level of ownership of. Otherwise, just move the hell away. It's very simple, and does not require you to force your opinions on anyone else, which is a far higher crime than having to deal with a rather revolting smell for a few seconds.

Didn't know that unborn fetuses can survive and move outside their smoking mother, and I didn't realise that babies can move from the man smoking in the restaurant.

I'll agree that bothering you about it is extremely annoying, but if your smoking in a public place with children around I'd be annoyed too, you seem sensible enough to where your not so your harming anyone thus nobody has the right to ***** to you.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Hell, most of my friends smoke (I think I'm one of the only exceptions) around me, and I haven't died a slow and painful death... yet.

I don't particularly like it, especially when they keep offering me a smoke when they know I refuse to do so, but they have the courtesy to open a window if they do it inside.

 

[Irridium]

What if I don't give a damn if you smoke or not, does that make me exempt?

So what if you smoke? Unless your going around blatantly blowing the smoke in people's faces, no one should care.
Seriously, unless the place they're smoking at has a sign that says "no smoking", then leave smokers the fuck alone.

My grandfather died due to cancer caused by cigarettes, but you don't see me crusading against cigarettes.

 

[ShrooM_DoughKiD]

http://www.elusionelectroniccigarette.com/au/

/thread

E-cigs have no harmful chemicals, only that pure nicotine that all we smokers need to deal with pious assholes.

**EDIT** Areo, i bow before your mighty powers of logic and reasoning. Smokers unite =D

 

[hurfdurp]

It's just something I don't do, in the same way I'm not an astronaut, not really an issue of morality for me.

 

[Aerodyamic]

snip snap

I'm going to address the attempt to debate my point about outside, first: Cars. Trucks. Industry. They all produce more airborne pollutants than I do, or than any 100 smokers, all madly puffing away do. I'm not going to have a major impact on the health of most people around me, in an outdoor location, relative to other sources of pollutants, or at all, if you consider the rate at which any airborne particulate disperses into the air. We're not talking about sarin gas, which requires a minuscule ppm count to kill, we're talking about something that's already in the ppm's, before it even comes BACK from my lungs.

Also, if second hand smoke could cause instantaneous cancer, natural selection would have instantly prevented a lot of individuals from passing on that problematic gene.

And then there's the 'smokers only smoke when they're packed in with non-smokers like sardines in a can': I actually try to avoid those situations, in that if I REALLY want to have a smoke, I'll move to a downwind position, so that the smoke doesn't even carry towards the non-smokers.

Firstly, you cannot compare Cars to smoking. That's like comparing videogames to drugs.

Secondly;
Well that is fine then. If you move away, then I don't care at all what you do (unless you're doing some drugs of course <.<).

Actually, I can compare cares to cigarettes, since cars produce TONNES of pollutants. Hell even a feedlot full of cows or pigs will produce more pollutants in a year than a smoker will in 2 lifetimes.

In fact, I can compare the massive amounts of pollutants our society produces to cigarettes quite handily, since the coal-fires in China are expected to burn for millenia, and produce more carbon monoxide than all of human history. How much pollution do the coal-fires in the continental US produce in a given year, and how much of it is carried downwind to cause negative health impacts on the unsuspecting and undeserving?

UNLESS your cigarretes actually are coal-fires, you CANNOT compare these two because they are wildly diversed things.

I can punch the smoker in the face for blowing smoke in anyones face, but I can't punch the driver for driving his/hers car to work.

You're welcome to TRY to punch me in the face, but that's neither here nor there; the fact remains that most smokers are more aware of the health risks of their habit than most drivers. And you can, in fact, punch a driver in the face, if you catch them at a red light.

In fact, the fact that you're willing to ignore the fact that there are other forms of pollution that vastly outweigh smoking, as far as their health impact is concerned makes me think that you're sadly misinformed, willfully ignorant, or a hypocrite. My smoking affects me, primary and with much greater impact than it affects anyone else, because I choose to have as minimal an impact on other as I reasonably can. A car is indiscriminate in the way it produces; you start your car, you begin polluting, period.

-snip-

You missed the other reason people hate smokers, it smells. I ask people who are carrying babies with wet diapers to move away from me. If some homeless guy who smelled like B.O and piss was standing next to you wouldn't you ask them to move?

Do you wear cologne or perfume? Maybe I'll think your choice of fragrance, that you may have paid a great deal of money for, is offensive, but I'll politely ask you to not stand upwind, or wear quite so much next time. Most people are more offensive in their conversations with smokers, concerning the smoke, than many racists are, when screaming profanities about minorities, in my experience.

And honestly, it would depend on why that homeless person was standing beside me. If he was waiting in line at a food bank, or waiting to use a restroom to try to wash up a little, I'd probably be willing to cut him some slack, since most homeless people don't exactly have the means to single-handedly elevate their position. That's another topic, though.

 

[Ham_authority95]

Yeah well... Smoking is pretty dirty ya know? Haters gonna hate...

You can either rip your hair out getting pissed off with self-righteous pricks (wouldn't bother with that because you'll become an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object) or just give them a glazed look and walk on by... As the great Dr Okeer would say "The greatest insult an enemy can recieve, is to be ignored"...

Agreed.

Seriously, just calm down and ignore people who act like that.

EDIT: This thread officially has three sides right now:

1. "Smoking is disgusting and dislike anyone who does it."

2. "I don't care if you smoke or not

3. "Just ignore those people. Don't expend to much energy getting pissed."

Take your pick.

 

[molester jester]

I should not have to move to avoid you're cloud of death.

Ok it's not like the 5 seconds it takes you to walk by a smoker in the street is going to do you any harm. Hell the only way i could see you having any right to be pissed is if he exhaled it directly into your face, which is highly unlikely.

 

[Aerodyamic]

I don't drive because I don't see the point of owning a car in Khon Kaen.

I don't smoke because it sucks.

I don't drink alcohol because it too sucks.

I don't cheat on my wife because I have no problem controling my urges.

I do however dislike people who do any of the above just because it is not something I find pleasure in.

I don't like people that assume that everyone has to conform to their narrow-minded perception of how things SHOULD be.

It's just something I don't do, in the same way I'm not an astronaut, not really an issue of morality for me.

And I can completely accept that, but I expect some courtesy, provided I'm courteous in my pursuit of my bad habits.

 

[Aerodyamic]

Neither you nor the other "high-horses" are on any better moral ground here.

Smoke if you want, fine. If you know the consequences to it and understand the effects it has on your body and other people, go for it. But understand that other people do not share your lifestyle and find the habit disgusting and immoral. If someone asks you to please put out the cigarette, maybe in a restaurant or a subway station, then be polite and stave off the cigarette for a bit. One time when we were outside at a restaurant, a man asked us if we minded if he smoked. We politely said that we'd prefer if he didn't and he, in turn, respectfully complied and didn't light up. Hope that guy has good health.

The high horses here aren't free from their own flaws, but your argument of "if you're against smoking then prove to me that you...[insert pointless list here]" is a huge strawman or ad homenim or some kind of really bad fallacy that you dropped to.

Look, you're a smoker and hopefully you understand the effects that smoking has on a person. You're free to do whatever you want to your own body, that's none of my business. But when the "moral authorities" go off about how "smoking is disgusting, it should be illegal, etc..." you have to understand that smoking really is that way. They're not talking about smoking as if they're completely pure and healthy, they're talking about smoking like one more way for someone to die unnecessarily. As far as I know, the Tobacco industry is only one of two industries that profit from the death of people; the second being the death industry (funerals, cremations, etc...)

Again, if you are a smoker, go ahead and be a smoker, I have no qualms over it. People have their lifestyles, I have mine. I'm no healthy saint, but I plan to keep away from alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, and that's my choice.

Where do you people live, that smoking inside of ANY PUBLIC PLACE isn't against about 4 different civic statutes? If I smoke inside an open-air bus shelter, I can get a ticket for smoking in a public building, which is a $500 dollar fine, and charged with public mischief, which starts at a $250 fine, and requires a court appearance, and the possibility of a criminal record.

Seriously, all the smokers have been chased outside, in 99% of the industrialized countries.

 

[Ham_authority95]

So why on Earth is this thread here?

We all need another thing to occupy us between womb and grave, I suppose.

 

[Gabriel Xollan]

I must say you have a nice posting style. It really puts mine to shame, but to get back on subject I won't argue that most of us will probably find that we have a sin or two that makes anything we tell one another mute.

To be more to the point, I'm not holier-than-thou. I respect you. People have been smoking since ancient times and even into the future will continue. Why I personally choose not to is for a sound reason, but it something you may have already came to terms with and decided was not worth being concerned about.

My heart aches to see people I know smoke because I witnessed someone die to it personally. Yet as a good argument people die every day to almost anything. So its a gamble, but taking risks is a part of life. Choosing how much to gamble is a choice that only the person gambling can decide. What others and myself hope to accomplish is more or less to advise a re-council of an unnecessary gamble.

Equally I hope you will also continue to put in your advice and continue to strengthen your resolve for what you think is best. This way all of us can remember that there is always more to a debate than simple bickering.

In conclusion you are correct in saying that many fail to look at the whole picture when making a post. Yet, a post has been made and hopefully the words will have meaning to someone that reads them. For better or for worse it can only be up to that person to decide what is truly best.

 

[schroing]

I don't like people that assume that everyone has to conform to their narrow-minded perception of how things SHOULD be.

The irony.
The pain of the irony.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Do you wear cologne or perfume? Maybe I'll think your choice of fragrance, that you may have paid a great deal of money for, is offensive, but I'll politely ask you to not stand upwind, or wear quite so much next time.

Bah, just make with the face punching. It seems to be a popular option for things.

People who's scent (either body or added chemicals) I can detect before being within half a metre of them, people who spit when they talk, people who don't want their hands after going to the toilet, cat owners who let their cats roam free... I set all of them on fire as a form of pre-emptive defence. Then I light a cigarette off their burning remains.

 

[schroing]

I don't like people that assume that everyone has to conform to their narrow-minded perception of how things SHOULD be.

The irony.
The pain of the irony.

And how is it ironic?

Because he doesn't want to get yelled at for his habit?

He's coming onto this forum and telling people that they shouldn't do something.
In less hyperbole, that's exactly what he's complaining about people doing.