A Message to the Anti-Smoking Nazis: My thoughts.

My opinion (as a smoker meself (though admittedly one, not being allowed in pubs (ID never works) who isn't overly affected by the smoking ban) I like to be able to smoke socially, in public, but at the same time, I don't wanna be responsible for inflicting the damage I'm happily consentingly doing to myself on the person next to me who hasn't consented to having it done to them. So I'm in favour of pubs, bars, clubs (and enclosed public spaces) being allowed to tell people not to smoke inside, but at the same time, being allowed to tell people they CAN. It shouldn't be black and white.

 

that would be nice. but in addition, don't get pissy about the outdoor smoking section, okay? typically a bar will have a designated outdoor smoking section. stay the fuck out if you dont' like being around the smoke. for pete's sake, there's nothing mroe annoying that people petitioning a bar to get rid of the nice outdoor smoking section because the non-smokers want it for themselves. jeez, people, get over it.

 

Yep, people are selfish assholes. A person needs to force themselves into swarns of smokers to be truly bothered by the second hand smoke. People just like to dictate other people's lives.

I'd like to see SelfControl telling one of the country boys or black folk here not to smoke in his presence... he'd get shot.

 

Yeah, the pubs here are starting to cotton on to that, by the time I'll be able to get served in pubs they'll probably have properly nice smoker's gazebos and such.

Outside of enclosed public spaces though, people can definitely, piss off about smoking. They can easily move away.

 

i have to agree that smoking right in front of an entrance to public property is rude. okay, so don't do that. that's fine. but don't go chasing down people and tell them they can't be smoking somewhere.

what i do despise is when people toss their butts everywhere. that's just nasty.

 

really, to me, it's a matter of "who was there first?" if you need a smoke and there's a buncha people in a spot who aren't smokers, go smoke somewhere else. unless it's designated a smoking section. that's kinda fun to light up when they can go do their thing inside. but outside of that, find somewhere else to smoke. it's polite.

 

Yeah, the butts are a problem.

I don't toss mine unless I'm drunk at a friend's house and miss the ashtray on the porch.

I don't really smoke right in front of building entrances either. There's a 20 foot rule on campus, and I oblige.

 

As a person who has lost her grandfather to lung cancer, is currently losing her father to emphysema, has an aunt with COPD due to working in a smoky bar for several years, and is herself (meaning me) allergic to cigarette smoke, I don't feel I have the ability to remain objective enough to debate this issue...
I really wanted to, but I just don't think I'll be able to keep my cool long enough.
I've never been able to comprehend this, but I suppose the pain of losing people close to you can do that...
I hear all these people saying "you wanna smoke? well smoke then and die, i don't care." Some of us do care. It breaks my heart when I hear about people dying from any kind of drug use, because it just seems so senseless. What could possibly be so damned alluring?
So I apologize if I can't be sympathetic to your cause. I hope you understand my reasoning, and why "because it's fun" just isn't a good enough reason for me.
There are more important, not to mention more enjoyable things in life...

 

That's utter bullshit. Like I said, most smokers don't have much of a sense of smell left.

Which proves... oh wait, I remember what that proves: FUCK ALL THAT'S WHAT.

This really is pathetic: you've evaded just about every point or question put to you and just belligerently whined on about how everyone who doesn't like the smell of smoke must be sneaking into your lungs just to find something to complain about. It's utter crap, and you sound like a moron.

 

I've never actually said that I should be able to walk up to a crowd of smokers, stand around them coughing, and then demand that they put out their fags. A few idiots in this thread have basically decided that anyone who argues with them must be a Nazi, and just reinterpret any argument against accordingly. I've been opposed to people who have said that cigarette smoke doesn't smell bad, those who have dismissed passive smoking off-hand, and those who have whittered about their rights to do all kinds of downright jerky things.

In short, I'm letting them have their space, but letting them have their space doesn't extend to letting them just talk complete bollocks non-stop unchecked.

 

Some people enjoy the smell of cigarette smoke.

Second hand smoke won't affect you if you walk through a cloud of smoke for a second.

I fucked your dog.

On the other side of the coin... there are more belligerent people out there, you should find them and harrass them. Maybe they will also sound like morons to you as they tried to protect a basic human right.

Your dog liked it too. We shared a cigg afterwards.

Wanna bum one? I'll roll you one. Seriously, no charge.

 

I truly do understand where you're coming from, and especially feel sorry for your aunt, who died from exposure and not from smoking.

Yet the point of the argument is that people should be allowed to kill themselves if they really want to. It's as simple as that.

 

This is supposed to be America, home of the free. Think about it.

The thing is, if you do not like someone smoking near you, you can always just leave. Nobody is FORCED to sit in a bar and breath second-hand smoke.

Now if I am in someone else's car or house, and he asks me not to smoke, I will comply.

But in public, it is not YOUR house. If something bothers you, dont whine about it, walk away.

 

I was eating in a restaurant in Florence, Italy some years ago when an American couple came in and asked to be seated in the no smoking section. The waiter replied, "You are free to NOT smoke at any table".

 

You're right that I'm not forced to sit there, but ultimately, one smoker affects more people than one non-smoker, so it makes more sense for the smoker to go outside than the non-smoker(s).

It's pointless to talk about this in terms of rights and freedoms; one man's freedom impinges on another, QED. You end up with an impasse unless one is impinging more than the other. And that's when the health issues become... well, issues.

This is the thing:

Public spaces belong to everyone. There are lots of things we aren't allowed to do in public for social reasons. Might've seemed like a facetious example earlier, but in all seriousness: how would you feel if someone started masturbating in a bar next to you? Would you feel unable to impinge on their freedom and thus leave the bar?

You mention "home of the free": my point is that no-one has total freedom and the very idea of it is obviously ridiculous. You can cite it all you want, but you know full well that not everyone can exercise all of their freedom whenever they want.

 

i had one guy tell me smoke smelled like vacation to him. i thought that was funny. bad/good smells are purely matters of opinion. and yes, i have had my space invaded by someone entering the smoking area just to be a twat. it's annoying. no servers or anyone are supposed to be out there but the smokers. it's pretty simple. yeah, i hate smoking, but i try to always be courteous to others. i have kids, too. i don't want them around it. but yeah, fucking nonsmokers can be a pack of twats. i've got my own fucking insurance. get off my ass. i have my own problem, and i'm trying my damndest to take care of it. don't add to my stress level, alright?

 

If people like SelfControl existed in any kind of measurable quantity then places of business would voluntarily ban smoking and not because of some bullshit government ban. Do to the fact that most places of business did not ban smoking until the government forced them to unequivocally proves that the smoking ban was created by frightfully powerful special interest groups that do not have the peoples interest in mind. So people that are offended by smoking should just have to shut the fuck up because they are a very small minority. And no minority should EVER have the right to make laws or regulations at the expense of the will of the majority.

 

you are so wise.

 

Unlike, say, tobacco lobbyists, who have everyone's best interests in mind?

Have you considered the possibility that the government actually is concerned for your health, rather than just pissed off about smoke?

I'm not actually uptight or vocal about smoking, despite how I may come across here. Despite everyone's attempt to put words into my mouth, I do not deliberately stand in the middle of groups of smokers and demand that they all put out their fags. But I do have a problem with the self-righteous cunts who are pushing bullshit lines in this thread. The stuff about 'the right to smoke': bullshit. The assumption we are for some reason having to work to that passive smoking isn't unhealthy: also bullshit.

But mainly, the assertion that there's nothing anti-social about smoking, and that's it's just a tiny minority who don't like it. Why should I have to prove that the smoke is actually killing me in order to find it annoying and ask you to stop? If someone is running around the bar you're in screaming, you'd want them to stop, but wait: it's not killing you, so you can't, right? This is a point that you might want to address, although no-one else is bothering and it wouldn't change my opinion much if one out of god knows how many of you had a coherent explanation for why they are different.

It may only be a tiny minority who actually confront you about it, but realistically, I don't see that that means much, unless you honestly think everyone is totally honest with everyone all the time. The law has been introduced so that people don't have to put up with smokers just because, as a pro-smoker hinted earlier, they'd feel too threatened to ask people to stop.

Also, I'd add that quite a lot of places of business did have smoking bans in effect before the actual smoking ban was implemented. Y'all talk about bars like they're the only public place: what about your workplace? Should anyone who doesn't like being smoked at "just go work somewhere else"?

There are plenty of people who aren't offended enough to campaign about it but still think it's stupid and are glad that they can go to public places without having to put up with it. If you want to quibble about minorities, let's not forget that smokers are a minority too.

And I'll be honest, pet: your laws ARE made by the minority, and the will of the majority is, for the most part, to do whatever it's told until someone tells it to do something else. Are you one of the few people who started smoking because they thought "hey, that sounds like a great idea", rather than being pressured into it by a peer group? That's the majority for you. The majority are stupid and manipulative, and do things like taking up an expensive addictive drug with huge negative consequences to their health purely because a couple of bigger kids said they wouldn't be cool if they didn't. That why the will of the majority shouldn't be listened to, because the majority is an idiot.

Yeah, see, again, I've not been arguing that smokers should feel obliged to put out their fags in designated smoking areas, but I'm pretty sure that it's a small minority who would do what you're describing. If you're talking about public places that aren't designated as "smoking areas", i.e. the street in general, your point holds less water; if it's not designated as a smoking area, people don't have to assume that it'll be full of smoke.

And okay, well done, you found someone who likes the smell of smoke. So what? If you found someone who liked the smell of spunk, would it then be okay for me to have my wank in the middle of the bar? I'm still waiting for anyone to explain why that would be unacceptable.

 

it was just an amusing sideline, i thought it was funny. "smells like vacation?! where do you go on vacation?" but anyway, here in colorado, with all the health nuts, yeah, there's quite a few people who go out of their way to to pick on smokers in their designated areas. they see a nice patio, which the bar owner has set aside for smokers' comfort, and they go out there and get all shitty with the smokers because THEY wanna sit in the nice patio. well, too bad. so it amuses me.