[Q: I am severely allergic to cigarette smoke. being near people who are smoking makes me sick. why is their "right" to smoke more important than my health?]
Oh please. There has never been a proper study showing that people have been able to be allergic to cigarette smoke. You’re supplying misinformation to everyone, including potential smokers who will be too scarred to engage in a perfectly okay hobby.
Not sure why you put “right” like that. Damn straight it is a right.
Even if you didn’t like cigarette smoke, you still benefit massively from non-smoker privilege. Your children won’t be at increased risks of developing obesity, skin rashes etc etc.
Ugh some people.
19 comments
Even if you didn’t like cigarette smoke, you still benefit massively from non-smoker privilege. Your children won’t be at increased risks of developing obesity, skin rashes etc etc.
There's nothing you're born with that makes you pass the increased risks of cancer and heart disease onto others. People of color, women, people with disabilities and LGBTQ people can't do anything instantly to gain the privileges they are denied, so that they can live longer, happier, healthier and more prosperous lives. You can; give up smoking.
While I'm opposed to anti-smoking legislation, this idiot isn't helping. As far as I'm concerned, it's not the governments place to tell a business that they can't allow people to smoke. While I'm a non-smoker and don't like the smell of tobacco smoke, I understand that occasionally dealing with shit I don't like is the price of going out my front door.
You're absolutely correct; you have every right to be an ignorant dumbfuck, and kill yourself with cigarettes.
You don't, however, have the right to harm the health of anyone else.
@ Miles
If your neighbour makes too much noise at night, you can tell him to shut up and if he continues, you can call the cops.
People may smoke if they want, they just don't get to impose their smoke on others.
@Miles Gloriosus:
While I'm a non-smoker and don't like the smell of tobacco smoke, I understand that occasionally dealing with shit I don't like is the price of going out my front door.
As a customer it is your own choice if you want to go in a room with smokers. But how about the people working in places with heavy smoking? They have to endure it for 8 hours or so, and they cannot simply go elsewhere if it gets too much.
And before anyone will say that they could get another job, ask yourself if you would say the same about other jobs that have health and safety standards they have to keep.
When the smoking ban in bars and restaurants came here in Germany, everyone was wailing and gnashing their teeth, how it will keep people from going out, that most of the bars will have to close, etc., etc.
None of it happened. Now if Germans go to Austria (which doesn’t have a smoking ban in restaurants), they are utterly baffled to see ash trays on restaurant tables...
Is it normal that every time I hear someone self-righteously spout about this or that 'privilege', I have a reflexive desire to dismiss their argument? Key being the self-righteous or sanctimonious tone added to the word. Usually comes with a round of misery poker, with 'privilege' used as a trump card should a player with more 'privilege' happen to be winning that round.
i.e.
A)"I was homeless, having to bum money off strangers to survive. Didn't have anywhere to turn. It was miserable."
B) *thinking* I have nothing to top that... ah ha! "That's nothing compared to being (insert group here) in today's world! People (insert stereotypical bias that the speaker has likely never personally experienced [if they have experienced said bias, they would be telling the story here to continue the game]). Check your privilege!"
A)*decides that maybe the internet isn't the place for them, leaves public library*
On smoking... Well, am a bit annoyed that the hookah (which I've been known to enjoy) and e-cigs (which I haven't) seem to be next on the target list (unless they want to declare second hand water vapor a health risk, I really don't see the problem), but a health issue is a health issue. I don't have a problem with it, and believe that you can kill yourself however you see fit (I'll take slowly with alcohol, thanks). But getting up in arms over non-smokers not wanting to inhale smoke (I don't smoke, other than the rare social hookah) is... well, dumb.
I don't know if people can be allergic to cigarette smoke or not (I don't see why not, since all other foreign materials can irritate sinuses), but there's ample evidence that cigarette smoking is very harmful to people's bodies.
Don't smoke if, where, and when other people don't want you to.
Try to quit or something.
There has never been a proper study showing that people have been able to be allergic to cigarette smoke
Bullshit, you lying fuckwad.
@ Azereaux:
I'm a convert to ecigs (eighteen months since my last analogue) and we're not taking this lying down. Here, we're actually fighting back and challenging the anti ecig laws. Not to have the right to use them in pubs and cafes but to have the right to use them in our own homes.
I have been a smoker for like 15 years now and I completely agree with this guy's complaint... it's not him who is being the asshole. If I can't have a smoke somewhere, no problem, I'll go somewhere else, like around the corner of a building, or across the street where no one else is
"non-smoker privilege"... does it still count as privilege if everybody has it to begin with, regaining it once lost is likely to improve your health, and losing it involves actively and continuously paying money to keep it gone? that's not how i usually think of privilege...
@Ebon: i'm a pretty rabid anti-smoker, but even i support ecigs. they're not perfect, far from it, but since prohibition is known to not work then ecigs seem like a less harmful (to non-smokers like me) way to regulate and administer this drug. ecig vapor likely isn't healthy for bystanders like myself either, but at least it doesn't stink as bad.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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