# Smoking in Europe **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 2, 2001, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-in-europe/60507 "2001-04-02T16:47:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-in-europe/60507/21 "2001-04-03T14:44:48Z")
There’s an entirely different mindset from America in most of Europe (duh). When presented with the choice of “I can have a sensual pleasure NOW, and possibly pay for it with agonizing death several years down the road,” many decide to go for it. As opposed to Americans, who somehow feel that if they lay off the sensual pleasures (and sneer at other who don’t) they may possibly live forever. People in France and Italy and Germany don’t microwave their dinner and wolf it down in front of the teevee set, either. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-in-europe/60507/22 "2001-04-03T14:55:14Z")
Then why the hell don’t you move to Europe, watch Jerry Lewis movies, blow smoke in everyone’s face and leave us good clean-cut Americans the hell alone? Though I should feel sorry for someone who doesn’t know the difference between a “sensual pleasure” and “drug addiction,” I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![zwaldd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a9adbd/32.png) [@zwaldd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zwaldd)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-in-europe/60507/23 "2001-04-03T15:48:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Floater \* > > **My old philosophy teacher in high school, BTW, put it like this: “Let’s say that smoking is not allowed in public places. Are my shoes a public place? No. Thus I should be allowed to smoke anywhere whenever I wear my shoes”.** your **philosophy teacher** said that? well i guess she won’t be getting that college professor job anytime soon. i think the logic there is that if her shoes are not a public place, she can smoke inside her shoes, not anywhere she wears her shoes. and since you can’t smoke inside your shoes, it’s a pointless analogy. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-in-europe/60507/24 "2001-04-03T16:09:33Z")
There’s also the mechanizations of Sen. Jesse Helms, who manipulates foreign trade agreements so that other countries will buy up tobacco products that are losing their market in the US. Frankly, he’s a pretty big drug dealer. Bigger than the ambassodor-candidate he shot down 4 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-in-europe/60507/25 "2001-04-03T16:17:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zwaldd \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Floater \* > > > > **My old philosophy teacher in high school, BTW, put it like this: “Let’s say that smoking is not allowed in public places. Are my shoes a public place? No. Thus I should be allowed to smoke anywhere whenever I wear my shoes”.** > > your **philosophy teacher** said that? well i guess she won’t be getting that college professor job anytime soon. i think the logic there is that if her shoes are not a public place, she can smoke inside her shoes, not anywhere she wears her shoes. and since you can’t smoke inside your shoes, it’s a pointless analogy. \*\* Give us a break, **Zwaldd**. I’m sure that’s exactly the point his teacher was _trying_ to make. ---
**Author:** ![Threadkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-in-europe/60507/26 "2001-04-03T17:10:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Attrayant \* > 4. More than a few friends of mine who have emigrated from contries in Europe & Asia tell me that a major influencing force in getting kids to smoke was that of roll models in popular American-made movies. Kids wanted to be like John Wayne or Norma Desmond, so they smoked to emulate their heroes. Any truth to that? When I lived in Korea in the late '80s smoking was, and I assume still is, rampant. The starting method was the army in which all males (exemptions were rare) served 30 months. I was told that in the army cigarettes were heavily subsidized if not free and the peer pressure was intense to start. One friend reported that he was beaten for not smoking. I was also told that the government had major financial stake in the cigarette business and so made out like bandits when the men left the army addicted. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by javaman_ > Give us a break, Zwaldd. I’m sure that’s exactly the point his teacher was trying to make. Based on some of the smoker’s rights retoric that gets spewed forth I’m not so sure about **Floater’s** teacher. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-in-europe/60507/27 "2001-04-03T18:49:20Z")
So far as I can tell, 90% of this thread is either: Smokers ranting about the evil nonsmokers in the USA and Canada, or Nonsmokers ranting about the evil smokers in Europe. The key word here is “rant”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-in-europe/60507.md?page=1)