Wow! What a shitstorm I caused simply asking that the more zealous of us non-smokers dial down the bile a bit.
I have a great deal of sympathy toward smokers. Many I know have quit, stayed off the nicotine a while, relapsed during some time of great stress, felt badly about backsliding, quit again, experienced another crisis, relapsed, and so on.
This mirrors my own problem with overeating. I feel badly enough when I’m in relapse. I don’t need to see 20-foot-high billboards with nasty scolds telling me “I’m sick of your pathetic, backsliding fat ass” to know that my reaching for the grease and simple carbohydrate tranquilizer is a bad strategy.
Smokers don’t need to pay higher taxes so the people lucky enough not to have their problem can get a tax exemption to scold them all over town on billboards.
I think that the tobacco settlement money and much of the tobacco taxes should have gone to people who have no health plan/whose health plan won’t cover smoking cessation programs to get help.
I can see now that all of these “fat taxes” and “junk food taxes” are going to go to skinny scolds and not to poor folks who can’t afford Opti-fast. Cure people’s nasty habits and you have no one to make fun of any more.
Here in Spokane, all businesses that sell food to be consumed on the premises are required to post a color-coded sign on the door: green for smoke-free, yellow for smoking in designated areas, or red for smoking anywhere.
Green signs outnumber yellow and red signs (combined) by more than 2 to 1. Seems to work pretty well.
Right, because cigarette smoke qualifies as an adversity. People who hate the reek and stink of cigarettes and their after effect are quite capable of dealing with actual adversities, (loss of job, death in family etc).
Cig smoke is an evil wrought on unwilling people unnecessarily. NO ONE is suggesting banning smoking. What we are asking for is actual courtesy when a smoker does light up. After all, unlike real adversity, cig smoke can’t be solved, dealt with, or even avoided unless smokers cooperate and use basic common courtesy.
Don’t you (collective you) and five buddies congregate RIGHT in front of the entrances to building forcing others to have to walk through the smoke. Don’t smoke in the enclosed bus shelter driving non-smoking passengers out into the rain.
And for GOD Sake, do NOT take in a giant, I’m-gonna-die-if-I-have-to-go-longer-than-10-minutes-without-my-fix lungful of smoke, throw your cigarette out right in front of the grocery store doorway, and then let the smoke out after you’re already inside, catching as many departing shoppers as possible with the foul cloud.
Why is this sort of stuff so hard to do for some smokers? THEY’RE the ones who are getting non-smokers so up in arms and angry like in the ad campaign the OP discusses. They’re the ones you should be angry at, your fellow smokers that aren’t considerate and are giving the rest of you a bad name.
I consider it rude for a person to ask a smoker to not smoke in a place they are allowed to smoke. They are essentially saying that since you both can’t be comfortable, the smoker should be the one to sacrifice their comfort. That’s rude. Here’s an idea: how about the nonsmoker stand outside for the duration of the smoke, and leave the smoker in peace?
When I finish a meal, I like to sit and relax with a cigarette. This does not happen when I’m standing outside. It actually requires a chair, and ideally a roof over my head.
Now, I’m happy to delay for a few minutes until my companions finish eating before lighting up. But other patrons? Only if they are very close to finishing, and maybe not even then.
I see the attitude of nonsmokers as no different from a vegetarian asking you not to order a steak because the sight and smell of it will ruin their appetite. “Go fuck yourself” would be an appropriate response. If I ordered a dish with nuts in it, and somebody said they or their kid were deathly allergic, I’d recommend that they don’t eat out at places that serve nuts in their dishes. Likewise, if somebody were so remarkably fragile as per some of the posts in this thread, I’d recommend that they stay out of places where people are allowed to smoke. Or maybe look into a large bubble they can wrap around themselves to preserve a suitable air purity threshold.
I’m not changing my dinner order to suit your whims. Likewise, I choose to eat out at places where I can sit and relax afterwards with a cigarette. Similar to the meal, I will not change my eating experience to suit your personal hangups.
We truly do need to unpussify ourselves. “The smell gets in my hair! My clothes!! I have to wash!!! WAAAAHHHHH!!!” It’s fucking pathetic.
This is evident when smokers think they’re being considerate when they make an effort to not blow smoke in someone’s face. A truly considerate smoker would never light up in an enclosed area where non-smokers are likely to be. If a person has really smelly farts, isn’t the considerate thing be to leave the room to pass the gas? The cigarette smoke has the added bonus od being a possible health hazard.
Smoking poses a hazard to innocent bystanders. Non-smoking does not. Why should the innocent bystanders sacrifice their comfort for the sake of the smoker?
Cars whizzing along the freeway at 80 miles per hour pose a significant threat to my health, yet I’d consider it silly to stand in the middle of the freeway and demand people stop endangering me.
The smoker is creating the goddamn problem. Clean, reasonably pleasant air is the fucking default; the status quo; the way it’s supposed to fucking be. The smoker is the one who stinks everything up. What the hell? Should I be able to hop on a bus and start yelling for five minutes and then pit the people who told me to shut up for being a bunch of pussies?!
I’m sorry, the fact that you think everyone should arrange their day around your smelly ass leaves little to doubt that you are tremendously self-absorbed, approaching the point of unbeleivability and this is all a pathetic, bitter defensive kneejerk for the fact that you got your fool self addicted to cigarettes.
Cars whizzing along the freeway are also an essential part of most peoples’ lives, and of society in general. Somehow I doubt cigarettes are getting me to Santa Cruz on the weekends or getting my parents’ prescription drugs from Livermore.
Bravo, Troy McLure! I seriously can’t help but feel like smokers are from another freaking planet when I hear arguments like these. It’s like I just want to say, “No, seriously…wait, are you SERIOUS?”
My solution - outright hostility, no hiding behind pussy ad campaigns. The other day, while leaving a restaurant, I had to walk past a woman who was doing the class “stand right in front of the door, making a disgusting smoke cloud that all patrons had to pass through.” Stomach full of especially stinky Indian food, my flash of irritation quickly turned into a flash of brilliance -
Woman: <puff puff>
VCO3: Excuse me, miss?
Woman: <puff puff> Yes?
VCO3: I was wondering if you coulBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARP! (blowing a tooth-rattling tandoori burp right in her ugly face)
Wow, I’m supposed to feel sorry for Troy because he’s just trying to help his poor helpless parents and I’m intimidated by VCO3 because, by golly, he’ll burp on me.
When I’ve finished a meal I like to give a rousing rendition of “Food Glorious Food”, eight times. The last version I do it human beatbox stylee that sometimes gets a bit spitty, and around the middle I do a Norwegian death metal version that I force everyone (no exceptions) to join in with. You could say I’m addicted to it. I do the same with other show tunes as the occasion demands it.
Those who doesn’t want to hear it or join in? Well I suggest they go someplace else. Pathetic music-haters, always whining that I’m spoiling their evening. I get really fed up with them wanting to ban music and my perfectly legal habits. Why should their comfort outweigh mine?
Before you ask; no I’m not going to take it outside. But I might consider doing it in area set aside just for me, and others who enjoy oppresive singing. If there are any public or work places that don’t provide this, well I’m just going to have to do it where ever I like. I’m not asking for anything, just special treatment for me and my hobby.
I would never ask a smoker not to smoke in a designated smoking area. I do think that somewhat violates fair play. At the same time, it’d be nice if smokers could avoid smoking in enclosed public spaces like bus shelters and the like, because that also violates fair play. Don’t you think?
Also know that Ellis Dee’s repugnamt views do not reflect my own. If an establishment is 90% smokers, then I reserve the right to light up. But in a normal restaurant environment, I’m plenty happy to step outside.
That’s pretty much what I said. A minority of smokers are unrepentant assholes.
Nice try. When a sizeable percentage of the population wants a singing section, then maybe it becomes reasonable. (About 20-25% of the American population smokes.) But for every person in our society to demand a separate section to exercise their proclivities for an unusual obnoxious behavior is unreasonable, and different from the smoking situation (in that those things are not traditional and not popular enough to warrant accommodation) and you know it.
Furthermore, establishments that provide a smoking atmosphere do it because it’s good for business. They choose to do it. You can demand a singing section all you like, but they’re not obligated to provide you with one. And they can toss you out on your ass for annoying other patrons in their restaurant if they so choose.
Evil. Right up there with terrorism, rape, and Pauly Shore. Ninth Level of Hell Filter 100s, that’s my brand.
Come on.
No one? You sure you want to commit to that assertion? PLENTY of people have suggested banning it. In fact, in many places it has been banned. And people are proposing to ban it in yet more places.
A few people are still rude with it, but for the most part we have been courteous. You asked us to step outside. We stepped outside. You asked us not to smoke in restaurants. We stopped smoking in restaurants. And elevators. And workplaces. And in 95% of all indoor places. But do you acknowledge this? Fuck no.
Is this a poorly punctuated question or a poorly worded order? Either way, no, I don’t, and neither do my buddies. You’re welcome.
Part of the problem is that establishments put ashtrays right in front of entrances. If they put them 10 feet from the door, that’s where smokers will hang out. Perhaps you should take it up with those establishments.
This is more than reasonable. Which is why I don’t do it.
What would you have us do? I can only control my own actions, not those of others.
