The Cool Kid said:
Tin Man said:
The Cool Kid said:
No, I'm being serious.
Nature dictates that no human being would choose to shorten their lifespan so dramatically. So what on earth drives a person to go against instinct? Hence why I have said no one in their right mind would smoke, leaving only the mentally or emotionally unstable left. Have you considered this at all?
Oh. Wow... In that case then, go fuck yourself. Nature dictates that you not live in a house with electricity and use computers, fly, cross oceans... And yet, we do those things every day. And there are
millions of people that show disregard to self safety and indulge in risk taking behaviours. So how about you stop worrying about people smoking, and start worrying about talking out of your ass less.
I'll end this by saying that the oldest man in the world died a few years back, and was nearly 116 years old when he pegged it, and was a keen smoker.
So you are arguing self-preservation, something which exists in all living organisms, does not exist in humans? And you are comparing that to inventions...how?
Tribes in Papa New Guinea live without modern technology so what is your point exactly? We choose to live with tech because it makes life easier. How does that relate to self-preservation?
Smoking is not risky though, it is flat-out damaging. You can participate in an activity, e.g. bungee jumping, and minimise the risk with safety checks and so on, but there is no such method of minimising the risk of smoking as it will cause cancer as well as other health problems.
Oh hell no - that argument is just tragically misguided. Remember "correlation does not imply causation". Fact remains that smoking is extremely bad for you regardless of who you are. Go find a group of 40~ year old long-term smokers and see how many are in good health. Or are you really wanting to argue that that one man suddenly renders all scientific work on smoking wrong?
Simply put: humans have always been doing stupid shit for kicks. I don't suppose you watched An Idiot Abroad? There were tribal people jumping off 40foot high rickety structures on the top of a small dirt bank with bits of string tied to their feet. I'm betting they've had a good few injuries from that, but they're still doing it, so the whole self-preservation instinct idea obviously has some holes in it. Not to say we don't try and survive, just that we don't always opt for the safest option. The fact that we've been to the moon or climbed K2 or whatever does show that as a race we're willing to do some really stupid stuff for very little ultimate benefit.
I don't know any numbers for sure but a quick google came up with these numbers:
* 0.2% for men who never smoked (0.4% for women)
* 5.5% for male former smokers (2.6% in women)
* 15.9% for current male smokers (9.5% for women)
* 24.4% for male ?heavy smokers? defined as smoking more than 5 cigarettes per day (18.5% for women)
(http://lungcancer.about.com/od/Lung-Cancer-And-Smoking/f/Smokers-Lung-Cancer.htm)
So in people that stop smoking relatively early in their lives that's a 1 in 20 chance of developing lung cancer in males, 1 in 40 in females. Now those are fairly good odds overall, yeh you could (and should) say it's still stupid, but then i reckon i've crossed the road at some point or other where i've had worse odds than those of coming out fine. Even 1 in 4 for heavy lifelong smokers isn't exactly a foregone conclusion. In gambling terms those are fairly good odds. Yeh, this is your life we're talking about, but still, fairly good odds overall, could be worse.
The reason i'm posting this is because you seem to be under the impression that smoking is a foregone conclusion, that once you start smoking then thats it, you may as well have just slit your wrists. But that's clearly not the case going by these numbers. When i played WoW a few years back i was in a guild full of 30-40 year old smokers. I can think of at least 10 people over 30 that smoked regularly in that guild, none of them have developed lung cancer and as far as i'm aware they all lived healthy enough lives for them to live as they wanted to live. Going by the numbers that was roughly representative of of the population, maybe statiscally speaking one or two people in that guild should have cancer right now, but certainly not all them.
I'll leave this with a question; how come fat people aren't considered the scum of the earth when smokers are? Diet/exercise related deaths were higher than smoking related deaths in the US last time i checked, fat people smell (see? i can make sweeping generalisations too) and take up more room than they should, why haven't we launched a hate campaign at those yet? At least most smokers can walk to the shops without getting out of breath.
Disclaimer: Yes, smoking is bad, kids, don't smoke, it's not cool. And no, i don't have anything against fat people, people can do whatever they want with bodies, i don't care, that goes for fat people, smokers, crackheads, bunjee jumpers, astronauts, whoever, do whatever you want. If someone is blowing smoke in your face then he's a cock and should be disliked for being rude, not for smoking. Rude people are rude people, smokers are smokers, sometimes they're one and the same, most of the time they aren't.
