# Hey, you, yeah, you the selfish jerk! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 22, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-yeah-you-the-selfish-jerk/336840 "2005-12-22T18:52:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-yeah-you-the-selfish-jerk/336840/61 "2005-12-23T20:29:16Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > I’m not asking anyone to stop smoking. I AM asking them to not make me breathe it, and to be understand that my desire is not in any way abnormal, a weakness, or my fault. I was born breathing air, as was the whole human race. If you wish to add smoke to that air, please do it in a way that doesn’t involve me – which you most certainly can – AND don’t give me any shit about it. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Nor do I think it’s unreasonable to ask you not to be so shrill about how if you pass within 100 feet of a cloud of smoke you’ve surely contracted incurable cancer. A little tolerance from both sides would be a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-yeah-you-the-selfish-jerk/336840/62 "2005-12-23T21:42:42Z")
Where did he say he’d contracted cancer? ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-yeah-you-the-selfish-jerk/336840/63 "2005-12-23T22:11:03Z")
He didn’t stand next to the sign which said No Cancer. ---
**Author:** ![M.Meursault](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@M.Meursault](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/M.Meursault)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-yeah-you-the-selfish-jerk/336840/64 "2005-12-24T04:21:27Z")
I’m a smoker and I have to say that I agree with **Monty** and **Sailboat** about smokers smoking in no-smoking areas. It’s just so incredible rude. It’s akin to the assholishness of using a cell phone in a cinema. I don’t think this is indicative of smokers being assholes as much as it is everyone not having any manners any more, in regards to anything. When I smoke where I’m not supposed to (which usually happens when I don’t see a no-smoking sign or where they’re not always posted, like at a school where you can’t smoke within x-feet of the entrance but that’s not enumerated on a sign) and someone asks me to snuff out my square, I apologize and snuff it out or move. What smokers like **fetus** fail or forget to recognize is that no-smoking signs are typically put on someone else’s property and the owner has the right to forbid smoking there, just like they can forbid solictors. While I admit that no-smoking signs can be a burden when there are so many in a small area, greatly limiting where I can smoke, I’ll just grimace and trudge there because I understand that smoking is a huge and nasty affront to some people when it’s done where it shouldn’t be. What annoys me, though, is when I’m smoking somewhere where I’m allowed to smoke and people complain or ask me to move/snuff out my smoke. I completely understand that smoking is a disgusting habit and the smoke greatly bothers people. However, in a given place where I’m allowed to smoke and am, why should I be the one to give in to another person? Why can’t they just move to somewhere where they don’t allow smoking? If they allow smoking right outside a doorway, people can and should bitch about walking through smoke if it bothers them, but they should not get upset if the smokers refuse to move. Either avoid the smokers or hold your breath for the three seconds it takes to walk through the cloud of delicious flavor. In regards to “why people smoke:” I smoke because I love it. It’s fantastic. I love the release of a cigarette after class. I love cigarettes after sex or food. Or sexy food. I love smoking when I drink. I love smoking when I take painkillers. I find it delicious and wonderful. I’ve quit before for about a year so I know I _can_ do it, but at this point in my life, I don’t really want to. I jog enough where my lungs still work well enough for my lifestyle. I don’t mind the stale cigarette reek on my clothes because I can’t smell it. I don’t mind spending so much money on cigarettes because I know I’d just waste it on something else if I didn’t smoke. Sometimes when I’m on the treadmill, I give serious consideration to quitting, to just jog another mile and not light up again. Then I get outside and spark a square and it’s more delicious than the best meal I’ve ever had. I smoke alot, by the way; I’ve been edging up to two packs a day since I’ve been on winter break and have little to do apart from summer job hunting. I can see myself quitting in the future though, especially since so many cities seem to be going anti-smoking. Bloomington, IN, where I live now, allows no smoking restaurants and bars, which is hinderance and means I don’t go to bars anymore. If I move back to Chicago after graduating, I will probably quit or largely scale back. Last time I bought a pack in the city proper, it cost me $5.50, which even I, champion of tobacco, have trouble justifying paying. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-yeah-you-the-selfish-jerk/336840/65 "2005-12-24T08:47:12Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > For your information, we prefer to be called “pro-breath”. I’ve got plenty of breath, and it always smells great. I’m not sure what exactly you stand for, here. > [@Sailboat](#): > > And it’s not exaggerated. Sure it is. I never, and I mean never even _think about_ the idea of deliberately exhaling an entire cigarette’s worth of smoke (or one puff) directly onto a child’s face, attempting to fill him/her with toxins. That’s what you implied in your post when you made an analogy to walking around spraying toxins directly on people. Being in the same mile of open air as someone exhaling a few puffs of smoke is not going to kill you, and not even be remotely as harmful as what you suggest. > [@Sailboat](#): > > I _might_ have a compunction to expose (or risk exposing) people to toxins that’s as compulsory as your nicotine addiction. Who says I have a nicotine addiction? I’ve quit before as convenience (monetary or otherwise) dictated with no withdrawals or cravings, and plan to quit again on New Year’s for my girlfriend and expect no withdrawals or cravings then either. I don’t even take my cigarettes everywhere. I spend entire days with non-smokers without even thinking about lighting up. > [@Sailboat](#): > > I can’t see inside your head to know how strong your compulsion is – neither can you dismiss mine. You can’t see inside my head to know how strong my compulsion is, but we can both reasonably assume that neither of us wants to spray toxins directly on somebody. > [@Sailboat](#): > > What part of my theoretical addiction to exposing you to poison makes it less a “right” than your addiction to exposing me to poison? The part where you take toxins and spray them directly on people. This is far different from my poison, which is directed at no one and dissipates quickly in the air. If I’m smoking outdoors and you’re standing there with me, you’d have to practically hug me and suck in with all your might when I exhale in order to directly take in the toxins you’re so afraid of. > [@Sailboat](#): > > so my best guess is that they think the smell “rises and leaves” efficiently. It doesn’t. Not very well. I never mentioned smell. I was referring to toxins. > [@Sailboat](#): > > Okay, how about right next to someone? As long as I get to expose you to toxins with my theoretical habit, we’re even, and I’m not picky about “dierectly onto”. Is it still wrong for me to do this, but okay for you? Sure. I’m already smoking, what do I have to lose? 😉 Seriously, though, assuming you spray your toxin into the air, in quantities as small as a puff of smoke-filled breath, I’d think we’d all be OK. Maybe overall a little less healthy than we would have been otherwise? Probably. But outside, with it dissipating into the air, would we die or develop cancer? Probably not. > [@Sailboat](#): > > For you to claim that the amount I’m exposed to is insignificant seems to be asserting special knowledge. I claim no special knowledge. I am ready and willing to be convinced that walking by a smoker _outdoors_ and being vaguely exposed to two lungfuls of smoke several feet away, once, on the way to class, is dangerous. Annoying? Maybe. So is nose-picking, but I haven’t seen any “no nose-picking” signs around. > [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > I think maybe I was conflating your view with fetus’s view that ignoring no smoking signs was perfectly kosher This painting is too black-and-white, although I admit that I probably brought that on myself. I think that I understand why someone would ignore a no-smoking sign because there are so many of them where smoking shouldn’t have any effect. Is it bad and wrong to ignore the signs? Yes. But when signs run wild many feel that there is _nowhere_ for them to smoke, and that’s why someone might think that way. I echo **Binarydrone** : Pick a spot (please) and we’ll go there. > [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Isn’t it legal to put out the cigarette? Sure, but I think it might be workable to have options other than (a) “put out cigarette” and (b) “get run over”. > [@Monty](#): > > You don’t think there’s a particular reason for the subway to put those things up there? I misread the OP, was itching for a fight, and misunderstood/ignored the fact that the site of the smoking was apparently indoors etc. I hereby withdraw my original comments. > [@Guinastasia](#): > > fetus, you’re an inconsiderate ass. Sorry. I deserve that. Again, I was being inflammatory and I apologize. I’m really not that much of an asshole IRL. > [@lalaith](#): > > Am I justified in speaking up and asking someone to put out their cigarette or do I continue to say nothing? If I saw you hacking up your lungs, I would probably ask if it were bothering you, unless you were _really_ obviously fake-coughing just to be an ass. If you came up to me and said “I’m an asthmatic, and you’re sending me to an early grave”, I’d definitely put it out. Let me say again that I _really was_ an inflammatory ass in my first posts in this thread. I apologize and take back those comments. I’m not really that much of a dick, but when I see something that’s a hot-button issue for me I tend to exaggerate my viewpoint (thus making me a hypocrite too, considering that I accused **Sailboat** of same) to make a bigger target for someone to shoot at, so I can drop the gloves and do intellectual battle. It’s a low thing to do, but it’s more addictive than smoking, for me. I’ve done the same thing before on #straightdope WRT another of my hot-button issues and . Some of you might remember that. If you don’t, I’m not going to enumerate it on this thread, but I’ll be happy to discuss it privately via email. Anyway, I apologize again for being a dick. I really don’t set out trying to give babies cancer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-yeah-you-the-selfish-jerk/336840.md?page=3)