# On Asking Smokers Not To **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 25, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709 "2010-05-25T15:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/161 "2010-05-30T06:17:11Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Except that you posted an example showing how inconsiderate you were: Except I didn’t. I posted an example showing that I was following the rules imposed by my host. You might think yourself considerate for attempting to define the rules on someone else’s private property. I consider that bloody rude. > [@Yookeroo](#): > > Hint: just because the owners allow you to smoke doesn’t magically make it not rude to be smoking indoors where non-smokers are. It’s this sort of casual rudeness that’s led to the smoking bans. Hint: absolutely it does. The sort of casual rudeness that annoys me is the sort of arrogant person who thinks he has a right to assume that his preferences matter over and above the owner of a particular building. The sort of person who thinks he has a right to dictate to a person how he should use his property. Get a Goddamned clue. You want a no smoking casino, open one up. Convince a casino to go non-smoking. But if you don’t want to sit next to someone smoking in a casino, then sit at one of the hundreds of seats at a non-smoking table that are open. If you sit at a smoking table and bitch when someone smokes, it makes you look like a complete idiot. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/162 "2010-05-30T12:25:01Z")
If there is no where, that you are comfortable, with smokers smoking, then lobby to make tobacco illegal. As long as it’s legal, and smokers are not smoking in specifically prohibited areas, you may ask but they need not oblige. Their likelihood of accommodating you is related to your politeness. It’s that easy. What you can smell on them, your clothes, etc, not really pertinent. If you want your way to be the law then act to make it so and quit harping on people are doing something perfectly legal. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/163 "2010-05-30T16:58:46Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Icky faces? It may surprise you to learn that cigarette smoke doesn’t smell like roses - I grimace because it _stinks_. And that cough? It’s my body actually physically rejecting the foul air. You know, like when anybody who doesn’t have a cold coughs. Is a man who just caught a faceful of chalk dust being rude? > > It’s all well and good that you’ve eroded your sensitivity to cigarette smoke, but it _is_ still smoke. I can appreciate that you don’t want to be sworn at for your status as a voluntary walking pollutant, but am I required to suppress my physical reactions in order to aid you in your pretence that you’re not emitting smoke into the air? Talk about feeling entitled… You seem to be deliberately ignoring my comments regarding courtesy and politeness. I guess it’s all part of some sort of “entitlement”. Look, I don’t know you, so therefore, I would have no clue that the slightest whiff of smoke in the air will quickly kill you in the most painful and horrifying way possible. Not a clue. So, if I was in some designated smoking area, or was otherwise outside, where I had no reasonable expectation that I would be killing someone, and was there before you got there … Wouldn’t it then be reasonable for you to either avoid my deadly clouds, or ask me politely to put it out? After all, I didn’t know I was killing you, and for this “exercise” had chosen a spot to be in, before you arrived. Go around. Go somewhere else. Hold your breath. Whatever. You can always be a rude jerk about it, but don’t think for a second that your rudeness and “entitlement” will get anything remotely close to a pleasant response. People can be “sensitive” to anything and everything. How are we supposed to know your particular “poison”? P.S. I quit smoking about a month and a half ago. It’s tough for me too, because when I get a whiff, I want real bad. But, I keep my mouth shut. I deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/164 "2010-05-30T23:11:07Z")
> [@villa](#): > > Except I didn’t. I posted an example showing that I was following the rules imposed by my host. Again, this doesn’t mean it isn’t rude. > [@villa](#): > > Hint: absolutely it does. The sort of casual rudeness that annoys me is the sort of arrogant person who thinks he has a right to assume that his preferences matter over and above the owner of a particular building. The sort of person who thinks he has a right to dictate to a person how he should use his property. I’m not dictating anything to the owner. I’m just pointing out rude behavior. Lots and lots of rude behavior is allowed. Doesn’t keep it from being rude. If I’m in a large, close crowd farting up a storm, that would be completely allowed. And yet, that would be rude behavior. I could go without bathing for a week and hang out in a crewed casino. Allowed? Probably. Rude? Absolutely. Just because something is within the rules doesn’t prevent it from being rude. It’s not a difficult concept. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/165 "2010-05-30T23:14:39Z")
I **was** (as in ex-smoker) a pretty conscientious smoker that made an effort not to get my bad habit in peoples faces or lungs. i.e. If standing at a bus stop will stand down wind of everyone unless other smokers are around. Stay away from the entrances of buildings, respected other peoples property if it was a non smoking environment. But If I’m in a park and a person decides to sit on the bench next to me event though they saw that I was smoking prior and asked me to butt out or move, I’d tell that pink lung bastard to get bent. It’s akin to going to an all day musical festival in your lawn chair park your ass there all day and when the headlining rock band plays their slot you ask people to get out of the way because their blocking your view of the stage, free up the 10 square feet of real estate your taking up and get off your ass and enjoy the show. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/166 "2010-05-31T01:55:14Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Again, this doesn’t mean it isn’t rude. You have a very interesting, but fundamentally flawed idea of what is rude. > [@Yookeroo](#): > > I’m not dictating anything to the owner. I’m just pointing out rude behavior. Lots and lots of rude behavior is allowed. Doesn’t keep it from being rude. If I’m in a large, close crowd farting up a storm, that would be completely allowed. And yet, that would be rude behavior. I could go without bathing for a week and hang out in a crewed casino. Allowed? Probably. Rude? Absolutely. > > Just because something is within the rules doesn’t prevent it from being rude. It’s not a difficult concept. No, a comparable situation would be if the casino set up a “farting up a storm” section, and a “no farting up a storm section.” In that instance, it would not be rude to fart up a storm in the section the owner had decided to set aside for those who wished to fart, but would be rude to fart in the no-farting section. Similarly, with the not washing situation. Now, if the casino owner has these sections, and you chose to go into them anyway, and bitch and moan because people haven’t washed or are farting, it is you who is being rude. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/167 "2010-05-31T03:36:34Z")
> [@villa](#): > > You have a very interesting, but fundamentally flawed idea of what is rude. Sharing my drug choice with people who don’t with to partake is the very definition of rude. > [@villa](#): > > No, a comparable situation would be if the casino set up a “farting up a storm” section, and a “no farting up a storm section.” In that instance, it would not be rude to fart up a storm in the section the owner had decided to set aside for those who wished to fart, but would be rude to fart in the no-farting section. Similarly, with the not washing situation. No, farting around people who don’t want to smell you is rude. These sorts of rules outline the bare minimum in considerate behavior. Another delusion smokers have is that their smoke magically stays in the smoking section. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/168 "2010-05-31T14:27:08Z")
Look what exactly do you people want ? I gave up smoking some years ago because of being constantly harrassed by busy bodies with time on their hands asking (HuhTelling more like) me not to smoke. And what do I get now ? Constant whining by people who should mind their own business, as in "Can you please stop masturbating, this is a public bus stop "and all of the other frankly intrusive requests FROM, I might add perfect strangers who feel that they have some sort of god given right to order me around. Saying that I’m angry aint in it. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/169 "2010-05-31T14:58:49Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > No, farting around people who don’t want to smell you is rude. These sorts of rules outline the bare minimum in considerate behavior. > > Another delusion smokers have is that their smoke magically stays in the smoking section. No, we don’t. We simply expect that people who don’t want to deal with smoke will stay away from the vanishingly small number of areas where it’s allowed. Look at it this way… an outdoor stadium doesn’t fully contain the music from a concert or the noise of a screaming crowd. The people who live around that stadium may not be especially interested in hearing it. That doesn’t mean that the band or the team or the audience are being rude. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/170 "2010-05-31T15:13:57Z")
Are there any _other_ addictions that deserve a special “Leave Me Alone!” section? ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/171 "2010-05-31T15:21:38Z")
Smugness, apparently? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/172 "2010-05-31T15:26:27Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Smugness, apparently? Not addicted to it-I only use it when it is required. I still don’t understand why this particular addiction requires special treatment. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/173 "2010-05-31T15:31:42Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Sharing my drug choice with people who don’t with to partake is the very definition of rude. Not if I put up a huge sign saying “Warning: those who enter this premises may be exposed to my patrons drug of choice.” Then what becomes rude is the puritan, self centered attitude that **your** wish to not breath cigarette smoke is more important than the wishes of the people smoking **and** the wishes of the property owner who wants to let the people smoke. > [@Yookeroo](#): > > No, farting around people who don’t want to smell you is rude. These sorts of rules outline the bare minimum in considerate behavior. Actually, it really isn’t if it is in an area designated as a farting area. The fact that **you** don’t want there to be a farting area doesn’t mean that others don’t. But there you go again, showing your self centered nature, assuming that your wishes trump others and define politeness. > [@Yookeroo](#): > > Another delusion smokers have is that their smoke magically stays in the smoking section. I am finding it more than a little annoying that in responding to me, you repeatedly talk about what smokers think in general, when it doesn’t apply to me. It is a completely dishonest technique. I don’t think smoke magically stays in the smoking section. It doesn’t matter to my argument. The casino owner, within the law, decided to allow a smoking section. If you don’t like a casino with a smoking section, don’t go to one. If the tobacco companies start forcing you in at gunpoint, I’ll be on the barricades with you. (But you’ll have to put up with me smoking on them). But stop being so unbelievably self-centered in your assumption that you have some kind of right to dictate to someone else’s business. The anti-smoking movement at least got smart and based their campaigns on worker safety once they realized your line of argument was flawed. You will look less conceited if you do the same. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/174 "2010-05-31T15:32:32Z")
Smugness is about as necessary as smoke, and I know which one I’d prefer to surround myself with. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/175 "2010-05-31T15:35:23Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Smugness is about as necessary as smoke, and I know which one I’d prefer to surround myself with. Then it’s lucky for you you don’t have to choose. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/176 "2010-05-31T15:37:06Z")
As cancer goes, better the lungs than the soul. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/177 "2010-05-31T15:42:38Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > As cancer goes, better the lungs than the soul. Wow. I quit-you win. Considering what you’ve “won”, though…I really don’t mind so much. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/178 "2010-05-31T15:45:22Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Look what exactly do you people want ? > > I gave up smoking some years ago because of being constantly harrassed by busy bodies with time on their hands asking (HuhTelling more like) me not to smoke. > > And what do I get now ? > > Constant whining by people who should mind their own business, as in "Can you please stop masturbating, this is a public bus stop "and all of the other frankly intrusive requests FROM, I might add perfect strangers who feel that they have some sort of god given right to order me around. > > Saying that I’m angry aint in it. [start rant] I suspect it all really doesn’t have a damn thing to do with smoking, except for the sense of entitlement and some sort of “control issues”. “They” want people to not smoke, anywhere, period. Not inside (which was reasonable), not in the smoking section , not outside, not outside in a smoking area, not in their own home, not anywhere. Here in California, entire towns have tried to “outlaw” smoking. It extends even to places where the “delicate flowers” will never even go, places where it is definitely none of their business. There are other “they” types who want to control how and what we eat. It’s none of their damn business. I don’t need anyone telling me I can’t have my meat stuffed meat sandwich wrapped in more meat and a side of meat. Another “they” wants to say what people can wear - various types of clothing upset them(?) - looks too gangsta(?) or “50s greaser”, stinkin hippies, goth or emo or too something (it’s always been something, every generation), and fur upsets them, etc. Some (another “they”) is the type that used to burn Elvis records etc. Another group of “they” wants to try Prohibition AGAIN, even though it failed so miserably the first time. Everyone should just shut up and tend to their own business. No one is special or entitled, or has any right to dictate to anyone else in so many ways that are so intrusive on others. Strangers think they have the right to dictate? Too many people want to dictate what someone else can do. Good luck with that. So the bottom line of this semi rant is, if you guys are so frail, so sickly, so damaged, stay home. Get to a hospital. Get a big plastic bubble. You guys don’t want to be reasonable or reach a concensus both sides can live with, you want it all your way, all the time, even when it doesn’t even affect you. And, these are the type who, using the example of the rock concert, would plop that chair right in front of the stage, and then cry that they hate the music and it’s too loud etc. Np matter what you stop doing, no matter what you quit altogether, there will always be someone who wants to stop something else. It will never end. [end rant] ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/179 "2010-05-31T15:45:47Z")
That’s the problem with smugness, it fills up the part of you where a sense of humor is supposed to live. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/180 "2010-05-31T16:32:32Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > [start rant] > I suspect it all really doesn’t have a damn thing to do with smoking, except for the sense of entitlement and some sort of “control issues”. > > “They” want people to not smoke, anywhere, period. Not inside (which was reasonable), not in the smoking section , not outside, not outside in a smoking area, not in their own home, not anywhere. Here in California, entire towns have tried to “outlaw” smoking. It extends even to places where the “delicate flowers” will never even go, places where it is definitely none of their business. > > There are other “they” types who want to control how and what we eat. It’s none of their damn business. I don’t need anyone telling me I can’t have my meat stuffed meat sandwich wrapped in more meat and a side of meat. > > Another “they” wants to say what people can wear - various types of clothing upset them(?) - looks too gangsta(?) or “50s greaser”, stinkin hippies, goth or emo or too something (it’s always been something, every generation), and fur upsets them, etc. > > Some (another “they”) is the type that used to burn Elvis records etc. > > Another group of “they” wants to try Prohibition AGAIN, even though it failed so miserably the first time. > > Everyone should just shut up and tend to their own business. No one is special or entitled, or has any right to dictate to anyone else in so many ways that are so intrusive on others. > > Strangers think they have the right to dictate? Too many people want to dictate what someone else can do. Good luck with that. > > So the bottom line of this semi rant is, if you guys are so frail, so sickly, so damaged, stay home. Get to a hospital. Get a big plastic bubble. You guys don’t want to be reasonable or reach a concensus both sides can live with, you want it all your way, all the time, even when it doesn’t even affect you. > > And, these are the type who, using the example of the rock concert, would plop that chair right in front of the stage, and then cry that they hate the music and it’s too loud etc. > > Np matter what you stop doing, no matter what you quit altogether, there will always be someone who wants to stop something else. It will never end. > [end rant] Totally lost me mate, I was joking. If you look at another thread,which I can’t recall right now as I’ve been drinking, but its totally current , I posted as an ex smoker that I’m not one of these holier then thou ex smokers and that I believe that no one should use government to stop smokers enjoying their past time. Actually check my posts. But as to people trying to stop me masturbating in bus stops while I’m waiting for the fucking bus!for hour after hour ? Boris fuck off bring back Ken Livingstone! Yep still drunk. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709.md?page=10)