How are you a non-smoker?
I don’t hate smokers any more than I hate all people, but I strongly hate smoking. Being around it makes me feel sick (asthma, headache, sore throat). I was sooo happy when smoking in public buildings was banned here.
I don’t smoke but I like smokers because they make good talking buddies at parties. Ducking out of the action to enjoy the cold air and talk to people one-on-one is great. If they’re a stranger, I know that telling people how to live their lives is a little obnoxious, so I won’t say anything, but if they’re a friend, I’ll say once that they shouldn’t smoke. I do think it’s important that people know that someone they likes disapproves. But it’s rude to be an ass about it.
On the societal scale, I think our policy is pretty good - tax, tax, restrict, campaign, tax. I would like to see the end of widespread cigarette addiction in my lifetime. I wouldn’t be against a carefully thought out ban of cigarettes.
That’s one of my peeves, too… I have emptied many a can of soda in my day, and not once have I ever thought “Well, I’m done with this” and tossed the empty off into the bushes. I realize that it only takes a few litterbugs to make a mess, and if you’re smoking unfiltered they probably biodegrade faster, but jeez, guys. And when there’s a bunch of butts littering the ground next to the ash/butt receptacle? That’s just sad.
The other big issue for me, personally, is that I’m a diabetic, so I’m even more prone than healthy people to cancer from second-hand smoke. I realize that this takes my chances from “vanishingly small” to “really really small,” but still. We can also add the possibility that, instead of getting cancer from second-hand smoke, I could go blind, or have to have my feet cut off because of it. Again, “really really small” chance, but how big does the chance of that have to be before you just don’t hang around with people who smoke?
That said, I have no sense of smell, so the smell doesn’t bother me.
Well, I’m not in the “mustn’t ever say anything bad about obese people” camp either. I think there’s nothing wrong with the government disqualifying people from receiving publicly-funded healthcare because they are making poor lifestyle choices (or refusing to correct poor choices made in the past). You don’t want the government telling you what to do? Fine. Pay for your own damn healthcare.
That said - there is a difference between smoking and obesity. Eating is necessary for life. Obesity is caused by overdoing on something that is necessary for life. There is no defined line you can draw between “eating a reasonable amount” and “eating too much.” You become obese by overeating over a long period of time, and for a lot of people, it sneaks up on them, because their activity level changes, their metabolism slows, whatever. Also, you can become obese on totally natural, “healthy”, high-quality foods. It’s not like you can tell people “you won’t become obese if you just don’t eat junk food.”
On the other hand - smoking isn’t necessary for life. Smoking doesn’t sneak up on people. It’s really, really easy not to get addicted to cigarettes. Just don’t start smoking. Unlike obesity, there is a very clearly-defined line you must cross in order to become a smoker.
I don’t hate the people; I just don’t understand why they keep it up.
I have gotten hypersensitive to the smoke and can’t be around it for very long or else it makes me feel like I’ve been beaten up.
Non-smoker here.
While hate is a rather severe term, I dislike smokers. Not just the smoke, but the very fact that they would take up something that directly negatively affects their health, while serving as a disturbance to others around.
I never really understood the appeal. We’d have exercises in elementary health class listing reasons why people would take up smoking such as “because it’s cool.” Is that really the case nowadays? Peer pressure? Social activity?
This is basically my view on things, to a lesser degree. I’m going to be rude and somewhat biased here, but those suffering negative consequences from things first hand smoking and obesity completely brought it upon themselves. There is no good reason for them to take such poor care of their bodies and expect sympathy.
Plus, smoking obviously bothers other people. I’m guessing the reason we don’t take car pollution as seriously is because a lot more people are using transportation, and it’s more “necessary” than getting a nice dosage of cancer.
P.S. I’ve heard of stuff such as “involuntary obesity” due to medical conditions or whatnot, and have no idea if that’s actually legitimate.
I honestly don’t hate smokers. Actually I kind of LIKE the way someone who’s been outside smoking smells (probably because I grew up in a smoking family). I empathize with how horrible an addiction is, and the tragic consequences of smoking. Smoking caused my father to die a horrible, painful, prolonged death far too young. There were many times when I felt angry with my dad about his smoking, because I knew it was killing him, but I still loved him very much.
I don’t think smokers are stupid. I know that many smokers want to stop but still find it very hard to stop. It’s called an addiction for a reason. Addictions over-ride intelligence and rational thought.
It’s really all very tragic. There are so many needless illnesses and premature deaths…not just smokers themselves, but their spouses and children as well.
And the death from smoking is generally not a peaceful one. I think most people understand how horrible lung cancer is, but I don’t think as many people appreciate that COPD is not a pleasant way to live or die. I wouldn’t wish that kind of nightmare on anyone.
It’s really sad that so many people know it’s killing them and can’t stop…sometimes even to the point of still smoking when they’re on supplemental oxygen.
Smoking **kills **other people. SHS kills. This is like saying “Firing off guns at random into crowds is a minor annoyance.”.
Makes me wonder if we should gauge sympathy based on their reasons for starting on the life of regular smoking in the first place…
She doesn’t smoke tobacco? clove smokers see a distinction.
He’s in denial about his smoking. It would be like a drinker saying they don’t drink because they only do it at bars.
Bottom line: He’s a smoker, but won’t admit it. 
Cloves cigs are mostly tobacco. And as bad for you as regular cigs.
Yeah, that one kind of :dubious:'d me as well. I’ve known a few people who I wouldn’t consider smokers who occasionally have a cigarette. Maybe once every week or so. Something about the way the poster expressed herself led me to think that wasn’t the case with her, though.
I don’t know why people smoke, though – it’s not that it’s expensive (it is), but that it robs a person of their perception of what they do voluntarily and what they do out of habit. Kind of weakens a person. That’s why I quit, anyway – it was holding me back from doing what I want to do, when I want to do it. It is kind of cool, I guess – if you’re 19 and care about that kind of stuff.
My part of the hijack is winding down, but calling smokers hopeless addicts seems so self-defeating. Kicks a person when they’re trying to kick, and they’re kicking themselves. What, three or four days without nicotine, and you’re pretty much done with that aspect, aren’t you? Then it’s just back to a little tic or habit, like chewing your nails or overeating, isn’t it? That area would seem to be the spot where psychologists probably have some data on the mechanisms of addictive behavior, beyond the merely physical aspects.
For certain. My parents both smoke, as does my sister – ironically, when we were growing up, she was the one who constantly ragged on my parents about smoking. Spending most of her late teens and early 20s hanging around rock bands helped to make her a smoker. 
At any rate, all three of them have tried to quit, again and again. They’ve done the gum, they’ve done the patches, and my sister now uses an e-cig regularly. None of them are, by any rational definition, “dumb”. They’re painfully addicted. At various points, all three of them have managed to quit for months, in some cases years, at a time. My father has lost two of his best friends to lung cancer. Rationally, they know that smoking is bad for them. But, when their lives get stressful, the damned cigarettes show back up. (And, frankly, now that my parents are both in their 70s, and neither of them have yet to have any smoking-related health problems crop up, they may well have decided, “what the hell”.)
So, no,I don’t hate smokers. I don’t like being in a smoky environment; going to visit my parents for the weekend always yields a stuffed-up head for me, and the moment I get home, all of the clothes go in the washing machine. I’m very glad that offices, restaurants and bars, both in the state where I now live (IL) and the state where my family lives (WI) are now smoke-free.
I don’t hate all smokers, but I hate smoking.
My parents have smoked for all of my life. It’s why I have a fricking lung disease now. In addition, both of my parents have accidentally burned me with their cigarettes (once leaving a scar I still have.)
I hate it when people smoke around me. I also hate that the majority of smokers are also litterers, often throwing their cigarette butts on the ground when they’re finished with them. I hate when people smoke inside bus shelters and subway stations here, even though it’s strictly against the law.
So that’s my beef with smokers.
Me too. I despise the smell in my hair and on my clothes and only visit one house with an indoor smoker. I avoid hugging smoking friends and family members, and I’m a hugger. Never dated and wouldn’t consider dating a smoker. Woodsmoke smells like warmth and happiness; cigarette smoke smells like a wet garbage can.
And I HATE seeing kids trapped in a car with smoking adults. That should be forbidden.
I don’t hate smokers at all.
I do wish smokers with children would go outside to smoke, though. I’ve seen a lot of kids pretty much keep ear infections because of their chain smoking parents. Not cool. Keep it away from kids and other people who can’t physically remove themselves from the smoke.
I love the smell of cigarette smoke, actually. I used to smoke (not habitually) and enjoyed it. Probably still would if I knew it wouldn’t kill me and if it didn’t make my hair smell bad.
I don’t care what other people do; if they wanna die gasping for air or on a morphine drip from lung cancer, that’s their business. (I don’t wish that on anyone, of course.) Just throw away your butts in the proper place, don’t flick ashes on others or their property and I’m cool.
That’s another thing I hate about smoking - when people get ashes on me. I’m sure there are those who will say “then don’t stand so close to the smoker!” but if I’m in the line for a bus, and someone directly in front of or behind me is smoking, I can’t really escape.
I heard that they made smoking in bus lines illegal in Ottawa, but I’ll bet people still do it anyway.
Smoking: I hate it so much, you have no idea. It stinks, stinks, stinks.
Littering by smokers: combines the association of unpleasant stench with an unpleasant sight and laziness, which I also hate.
Smokers themselves: well, I don’t hate, but I am judgemental. The younger a smoker is, the more likely they are to have taken up the habit despite all the good reasons not to (stench, expense, damage to health, and anti-social nature of the habit). Seeing someone smoke certainly makes me think less of them, in a different way from seeing obese people or people with other self-destructive habits.
As far as second-hand smoke goes, I dislike it intensely and I resent being forced to breathe it, but I wish anti-smokers would cut back on this point. Working all day in a smoky bar or a smoky airplane is one thing; having to walk by a smoker once every twenty minutes or so in the open air is another. One will harm you, and the other just won’t. Avoid exposing me to second-hand smoke because it’s nasty, not for some ill-argued health reasons.