# Is anyone who takes up smoking today a friggin' idiot? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2013, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958 "2013-03-25T22:09:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/61 "2013-03-26T15:48:29Z")
You could say the same for eating meat, or being fat, or being sexually active, or having a mental illness. But you don’t, because you probably are one or more of those things. Rage against smoking is just intolerance of something that isn’t acceptable in your social circle, and there’s no justification for it that isn’t hypocrisy. I’ve smoked one cigarette in my life, by the way. Not something I “get.” But I consider myself enlightened because I don’t want to destroy people for enjoying things different than what I enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/62 "2013-03-26T16:06:20Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > You could say the same for eating meat, or being fat, or being sexually active, or having a mental illness. But you don’t, because you probably are one or more of those things. Rage against smoking is just intolerance of something that isn’t acceptable in your social circle, and there’s no justification for it that isn’t hypocrisy. > > I’ve smoked one cigarette in my life, by the way. Not something I “get.” But I consider myself enlightened because I don’t want to destroy people for enjoying things different than what I enjoy. Eating is conducive to life and even the worst overeaters aren’t polluting the ground and the air with toxic chemicals or subjecting kids and other members the household to agents which sicken them. Mental illness is not a choice. The biological imperative is hard-wired, creates social bonds and propogates the species. How could you possibly compare smoking to any of those? ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/63 "2013-03-26T16:09:25Z")
> [@Troppus](#): > > Eating is conducive to life and even the worst overeaters aren’t polluting the ground and the air with toxic chemicals or subjecting kids and other members the household to agents which sicken them. Mental illness is not a choice. The biological imperative is hard-wired, creates social bonds and propogates the species. How could you possibly compare smoking to any of those? +1 I am tired of seeing these idiotic comparisons people make to defend smoking. I have not seen _one_ so far that is sound or makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/64 "2013-03-26T16:19:30Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/65 "2013-03-26T16:37:14Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > This is why anti-smoking warnings aimed at kids are doomed to fail, as well as anti-drug and anti-drinking campaigns. We tell kids there is no upside to smoking, or drinking or drugs, then they take that first puff, or hit or drink and find out _it feels fucking awesome_, and wonder what else we lied to them about. How many people seriously claim that booze or drugs don’t have an upside - don’t make you feel good? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard that claim. Your experience may be that your first hit of a cigarette was great, but that doesn’t match the experience of many - including me, who did the typical idiot teenager thing of smoking for about six months. For the first week or so those things tasted awful. Once I stated to become addicted, that first hit began to feel good, because it satisfied the craving. IOW, a smoker who smokes feels better than a smoker who abstains. That’s the extent of the (physical) upside. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/66 "2013-03-26T16:53:45Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > It has been said uppost, but let me emphasize it. **There is no upside to smoking.** When I started, maybe 60 years ago, the health hazards were not known (not well known, anyway), a pack of cigarettes cost less than a quarter and it was kind of a gateway to adulthood. Now none of those things are true. The cost even in constant dollars has about tripled, the health hazards are all too well known and far fewer adults smoke. And most adult smokers are trying to stop. There is no upside and that makes it pretty stupid. I stopped the day I had a heart attack at age 28. It is ridiculous to say there’s no upside. The main upside is that it’s enjoyable to those who smoke. Also helping weight loss and it’s a social thing if your social circle smokes. Maybe that’s not enough of an upside to counteract the downsides for most people, but there are upsides. I am not a smoker, have never smoked cigarettes in my life, and I have no interest in starting. But I can understand why people do it. I support health initiatives to discourage people from smoking, since it is severely unhealthy. But I don’t think smokers should be called stupid, or claims should be made that there are no upsides, since that’s just silly and counterproductive. > [@Troppus](#): > > Eating is conducive to life and even the worst overeaters aren’t polluting the ground and the air with toxic chemicals or subjecting kids and other members the household to agents which sicken them. Mental illness is not a choice. The biological imperative is hard-wired, creates social bonds and propogates the species. How could you possibly compare smoking to any of those? Well, maybe the Big Mac eater isn’t directly polluting the ground, unless he throws his wrapper out the car window. But don’t big factory farms cause a fair amount of pollution? According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization "[livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation."](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html?pagewanted=all&_r=3&) I’ve read many places how big of an impact people would have on their health and and the environment by cutting back on meat. That’s part of the reason there’s an increasing push various places to have “meatless Mondays,” since cutting meat consumption by 1/7 would help a lot. I’m saying this as an omnivore who does eat fast food sometimes. And I’ve read that pigs are the worst animals for carbon footprints, but I still love bacon and pork belly. Smoking may be bad, both for the individual and for the environment, but it’s not like it’s the only bad habit in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/67 "2013-03-26T16:56:07Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I truly wouldn’t care if they bore the costs of their inevitable health care. I’m so sick of this excuse from folks who just don’t want to mind their own business. How about this: You are a burden to the cost of healthcare too, because you live longer. I mean, come on, man. We have a system in place to work with whatever illness comes up…from smoking to over-eating to old age. Let’s not get judgmental about the ways each person ends up taxing the system. If it bothers you to mind your own biz, and you MUST judge someone else, own that shit. Don’t play the ‘oh, but my healthcare costs’ card. My friends and I used to always say, “Our parents may have used heroine or crack in the 70s/early 80s, but we all know better”. We were smart enough to not give ourselves a pass on those drugs because we had seen what it had done to many of our parents or aunts or older friends. But, I wasn’t as wise about cigarettes; I didn’t know tons of people with cancer the way I knew tons of crackheads who looked like zombies. It was dumb as hell, but I smoked from age 9 to 18 and was at a pack a day when I quit. I think it is dumb to pick up smoking as a child, retarded to pick it up as a teenager and brain dead to pick it up as an adult… but we all do lots of dumb shit all the time. My weight issues will be more of an issue that the cigarettes if I don’t get and keep it under control. I know motorcyclists who ride in states without helmet laws and I know people who are fit and healthy but who may be stupid about all kinds of other shit that makes them a pain in the neck of society…I don’t know, they are just assholes or something. We all have our bullshit with us, I find it hard to look down on the poor idiot smokers. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/68 "2013-03-26T17:52:23Z")
Yeah, it’s incredibly disingenuous to force socialized health care programs on people who don’t want them, do everything you can to make sure YOU aren’t the ones paying for them, and then use the existence of public funding as the excuse to ban smoking, being fat, drinking soda, driving a car, etc. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/69 "2013-03-26T17:56:06Z")
> [@ReticulatingSplines](#): > > It’s not any more stupid than just about everything else people do. They eat fatty food, they pay money to damage their skin with UV rays…all that shit will kill you. Who cares? Let people die as they see fit. Because they kill others while doing so. SHS kills about 600000 innocents a year, 40000 in the USA. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/70 "2013-03-26T17:58:42Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > You could say the same for eating meat, or being fat, or being sexually active, or having a mental illness. But you don’t, because you probably are one or more of those things. Rage against smoking is just intolerance of something that isn’t acceptable in your social circle, and there’s no justification for it that isn’t hypocrisy. > > I’ve smoked one cigarette in my life, by the way. Not something I “get.” But I consider myself enlightened because I don’t want to destroy people for enjoying things different than what I enjoy. Because they “destroy other people” while doing so. SHS kills about \*\*600000 \*\*innocents a year, **40000** in the USA. Rage against smoking is as logical as rage against murderers- _becuase it is._ ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/71 "2013-03-26T18:51:19Z")
Yes, it’s a stupid move. But nobody’s perfect. It certainly has some alluring qualities or people wouldn’t do it. I think the best antidote to preventing smoking is to get kids involved in sports. I was involved in wrestling all throughout high school which made smoking as something that was just out of the question. I could not compete in a physically engaging sport and partake in smoking at the same time. This is coming from someone who’s parents both smoked their whole lives, and who was a regular pot smoker myself. ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/72 "2013-03-26T18:57:44Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Because they kill others while doing so. SHS kills about 600000 innocents a year, 40000 in the USA. Yeah, well alcohol results in lots of innocent deaths too. Sorry, but you’ve got a long way to go before you have successfully established smoking as the Greatest and Stupidest Evil You Can Possibly Do, Ever. Not that either is a particularly meritorious behavior in the grand scheme of things, but I don’t know where this special hatred of smokers comes from. ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/73 "2013-03-26T19:02:30Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > This is why anti-smoking warnings aimed at kids are doomed to fail, as well as anti-drug and anti-drinking campaigns. We tell kids there is no upside to smoking, or drinking or drugs, then they take that first puff, or hit or drink and find out _it feels fucking awesome_, and wonder what else we lied to them about. That is why kids smoke, or drink or do drugs to excess; it feels fucking awesome, contrary to all the warnings from grown ups. Adults haven’t found a way to dissuade kids from taking up destructive habits without lying about the seductive nature of addictive substances, and kids find out soon enough that adults were apparently keeping that a secret. If we want to teach kids not to smoke, or drink or do drugs, we have to figure out a way to warn them that it feels great at first, but becomes destructive later. I don’t know how to do that without planting a seed to try everything, but that doesn’t make telling untruths about addictive substances a better approach. This is very true. If I ever have kids and they ask about drugs, I think I will just tell them, “They’re over-rated.” ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/74 "2013-03-26T19:04:40Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > I don’t think too many people who _aren’t_ addicted to cigarettes, especially those who’d never even smoked at all before, who would take a puff of a cigarette and find the taste enjoyable. It’s kinda an “acquired taste”. And smoking makes you “feel great”? Huh? Damn. I think I was smoking the wrong kind all that time. I liked the first cigar I tried. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/75 "2013-03-26T19:11:58Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > What do you like about it? I like the taste - I puffed some cigars with my Swiss uncle when I was 13 and 14, and I liked it then too. I like all sorts of strange and bitter flavors, always have. I smoked my first cigarette around 16 and liked it right away. Also never coughed from the smoke. I’ve never coughed from smoking marijuana either. Smoking (inhaling) makes me feel pleasantly light headed, tingly, and yes, mildly ‘high’. Maybe this is partially due to how small I am. It also improves my concentration and alertness very noticeably (once I’ve finished the cigarette and no longer feel high) as do all stimulant drugs (I have ADD-PI and spend most of my day ‘spaced out’, lost in thought). I don’t like the lingering smell of old, stale cigarette smoke though. But I never smoked enough, or inside my house, that this was an issue for me (had a boyfriend at the time who hated cigarettes, and he was unaware I was an occasional smoker). Ambivalid, this may be news to you, but everyone is different and there is no ‘right’ way to experience things. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/76 "2013-03-26T19:21:27Z")
> [@ReticulatingSplines](#): > > Yeah, well alcohol results in lots of innocent deaths too. Sorry, but you’ve got a long way to go before you have successfully established smoking as the Greatest and Stupidest Evil You Can Possibly Do, Ever. > > Not that either is a particularly meritorious behavior in the grand scheme of things, but I don’t know where this special hatred of smokers comes from. Drunk driving now kills less than 10000 people a year, and a lot of those are the drunks themselves. Totals deaths related to Alcohol in the USA are about 75K. Smoking kills more than 400,000 Americans a year. Yep, \*Greatest and Stupidest Evil You Can Possibly Do, Ever. \* ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/77 "2013-03-26T19:59:45Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Because they “destroy other people” while doing so. SHS kills about \*\*600000 \*\*innocents a year, **40000** in the USA. This is a made-up number, and even if it were true it would justify only the current extremely harsh laws against exposing other people to smoke, not the ridiculous attempt to ban people from doing it privately and ascribe moral failings to doing so. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/78 "2013-03-26T20:07:52Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > they take that first puff…and find out _it feels fucking awesome_ On what planet? ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/79 "2013-03-26T20:08:44Z")
Damn. You just straight up dismissed that shit as “made up”. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958/80 "2013-03-26T20:11:09Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > [DEL]Fact[/DEL] Opinion: Smoking feels fucking awesome. That’s an opinion, not a fact. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-who-takes-up-smoking-today-a-friggin-idiot/653958.md?page=5)