I feel sad for smokers

Thanks for sharing? I don't smoke, but I don't really care if others do. I drink, and don't exercise enough, so who am I to judge.

You doing ok, OP? You seem fragile.

Is OP the "anti-smoking troll" of DL yesteryear?

Maybe you should start, OP. You could go join them and then you'd have someone to talk to in real life.

I could care less. They no longer impose their habit and carcinogens on the rest of us.

Did you get up early this morning to be a judgmental asshole, OP?

Or did you get up early this morning to be a judgmental asshole, OP, and wanted to make sure we knew?

Some of them likely have more money than you, OP. Still feel sad for them?

I think they look cool AF. The "cool kids" looking alll ostracized and antisocial. God, I miss it.

Sorry, OP. I'll get back to you after I return from my smoke break.

Same reason alcoholics drink beer OP. It's not too hard to understand.

R5 disgusting smoker with wrinkles, grey complexion, yellow teeth, and off-putting odor

R10 with six different prescriptions just to cope with life and put in his order at Applebees.

I get it, OP. The smokers I work with always seem to have a lingering cloud of smoke around them, like Pig Pen from Peanuts.

I've been around family members who have missed things in life because they couldn't be away from cigarettes for one single minute, so yes, that seems a bit sad to me.

I do feel bad for them. It is an addiction. No judgment, it's not about me or my preferences. Just wish they weren't caught up in that net.

Just look at how popular smokers and smoking was at one time. One of the most popular activities in the country. Just look at the movies at TCM if in doubt. Smokers were hot and cool and seemingly everywhere. No plce including an elevator or an airplane where you could not smoke..

Then smokers become hounded hunted hated. Almost overnight it started to change, The activists and the scientists came together to deliver a crushing defeat.

The once popular now the new hated. Can this sort of thing ever happen again ? Just watch how BB sex pigs are looked at if we have another serious STD outbreak,

Hounded Hunted Hated

[quote] Hounded Hunted Hated

MARY!

I see them as people with a colorful past. They also tend to not be judgmental and sanctimonious. Just don’t smoke in my house or car.

I agree and also feel that way about people who eat garbage. Was just on a plane next to an overweight young woman who was shoveling down the most disgusting food. Large package of candy that she devoured. Full fat chips that she put to her mouth to finish the crumbs. Truly vile.

The biggest thing Americans can take from the cultural turn against smokers is how a major industry that lined the pockets of Washington with millions through lobbyist was brought down. The tobacco industry was one of the biggest lobbies in history and seemed untouchable, yet they were brought down. It would be a good case study for future reference.

And yet people get trashed all the time with alcohol.

Let me know how many smokers cause car crashes vs drunk drivers!

The alcohol comparison is a feeble-minded argument

we like the exclusivity and alone time

Why are people like r16 so judgy and cuntish?

R18 comparing the two actually makes a lot of sense. In 1958 smoking and smokers were popular and drunk driving was just something people did. Something people often did.

In 1958 you could be drunk underage and caught with open cans of beer while driving like gang busters on Woodward ave and get off with a verbal warning from the police,

Today that same activity is a career killer.

Smoking and drunk or impaired driving how society looks on them now vs how they were they were looked on then is like night and day.

Public heath at work

R17 Its wasn't brought down as much as it successfully rebranded through vaping. And the sickly sweer smell of giant clouds its users output, also pretty nasty.

R18 there is data comparing tobacco smoking drivers vs non smoking drivers and accidents ( controlled for age, drugs, booze, Etc)

2 to 1 more accidents with the tobacco smoking drivers vs the non smoking drivers. If anyone wonders why I assure you they never spent decades driving and smoking.

Because the American diet is the reason why people are so unhealthy, r21. No overweight person should be downing two full-size, chemical laden snacks in the span of one two hour flight. In fact, more people should speak out about this.

I find people obsessed with other people smoking more offensive than smokers. I remember back when smoking was still allowed in bars and designated sections a large group of people were at a table in the bar, smoking, chatting and drinking merrily and some guy came in with a date and sat immediately behind the large group. He immediately started loudly bitching about them smoking and making a scene. Everyone else in the bar sided with the smokers and asked why he chose to sit in the bar knowing it was a smoking area. He finally left with his date.

Didn't DL have a poster some years back ask how he could force his neighbors to stop smoking on their own property? A suburban house separated by a large fence? He got laughed off the board. The rabid anti-smokers sound like whiny little kids. I don't particularly like it but, as an adult, I know I can't force my personal choices onto others.

Wasn't there a documentary (or two?) about how the cigarette manufacturers purposely increased the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to make them more addictive? It's interesting to see older movies or tv shows where they're openly smoking in their office or the hospital. Oh the '70s (sigh).

[quote] No person should be downing two full-size, chemical laden snacks in the span of one two hour flight.

I fixed that for you. NO ONE should be downing full-size, chemical-laden snacks. No one. That shit is fucking nasty, and the people that eat Tacquis, Doritos, Cheeetos regularly (or even worse, buy them for their KIDS) are unbelievably naive about what they are putting into their bodies.

Very true, R28. It’s no surprise that colorectal cancer rates are exploding in young people.

R26 now there are no worries for you that you will be in a bar and run into a loud anti smoker demanding that the smokers in the bar stop smoking.

The state already took that issue off the table . It’s now a non smoking world even for you types that do not find smoking offensive,

[quote]When I see smokers outside their places of business, furiously sucking down a cigarette, I just feel sad.

I saw people smoking outside like that in the winter of 1986, and I told myself I didn't want to do that, so I quit in August, 1987 (after two unsuccessful tries).

[quote] R4: I could care less.

SMDH.

I grew up with hippy parents who didn't allow us to eat snacks, cold boxed cereal, sodas, candy, sugar-laden shit, etc. Every so often, they allowed us to bake chocolate chip cookies, or in summer, we might make homemade ice cream, but these were rare treats. Homegrown (or in some cases) store-bought fruit was allowed for snacking, but their focus was on whole foods as much as possible, and very little in the way of refined foods. This was back in the very late 70s through the 80s.

I, of course, hated that and them at the time, at the time time. But now I see how progressive and forward-thinking they were, and how much worse my health might have been had they succumbed to all the shitty snack and breakfast foods that exploded upon us in the 80s. I thank them now that I didn't grow up with a predilection for sweets, and in fact, tend to favor more savory foods. I will have something sweet every now and then, but it's not a need or every day occurrence like many people who have a need for cookies, chips, snacks, etc.

My state goes by county and allows the individual business to decide R30. There are still bars here with smoking allowed.

What's your issue, Gladys?

This thread’s title should’ve been: “Humble Bragging 101.”

OP, you should feel sorry for I was an abused gayling with shittyparents who were highly sensitive to all second/third hand smoke.

It was a defense mechanism that works.

People like R30 are like the peanut allergy moms demanding ALL nuts be banned in stadiums/planes because her special child is allergic. An entitled narcissist who wants the world to cater to them. Judging by his activity on this thread though, I'd say a common shit-stirring troll is more likely.

[quote] furiously sucking down a cigarette

FAGS!

(That’s what they call them in England)

Many years ago (my first job in 2003) I worked with a lovely woman- She was probably around 45- my age now- Same thing- I do know that she had MASSIVE anxiety issues, and she would be out front smoking in the freezing cold and just looking utterly miserable.

Even sadder, her mother was a life long smoker who died of lung cancer during this time period.

She was very pretty too-

We are all victims of our shitty society, corporate interests, and our own willpower. So while I do feel bad for people addicted to smoking or shit food or whatever, it’s definitely not moral judgment. I get it. We make it much harder in this country to be healthy.

Unless they are VERY old, there was no excuse for them to start smoking in the first place. Health risks of smoking were well known when they started smoking.

Yet you’ll let a stranger spit on his cock and stick it in your ass with no condom, OP.

R34 a nice way to say you live in a state that voted for Donald Trump. There are a few southern states and maybe a few out west but smoking inside virtually anywhere in the US is dying off quicker than smokers are today. Good ir bad is not the issue it’s just an —-us kind of thing, like water is wet.

No issue for me but It’s a thread about smokers and feeling bad or not for smokers. You would rather discuss baseball?

I've been around family members who have missed things in life because they couldn't be away from cigarettes for one single minute, so yes, that seems a bit sad to me.

Do you know that smoking isn't a 24 hour a day habit? Smokers don't miss out on anything. It takes a few minutes to smoke a cigarette. Shocking. You didn't know that.

[quote] crushing defeat

You do know that smoking is still legal? RIGHT?

I don't even smoke. But DAMN, you are dumb. Other people smoking doesn't have any impact on me. I'm able to live my life without trying to tell other people what to do. I don't seek approval from others, like you do. You have the mental age of a 14 yr old. That's pathetic

I do live in a red state due mainly to gerrymandering. My point to OP and the rabidly, nosy trolls is maybe just myob and don't expect the world to cater to you. Almost everyone I know smokes weed. I don't but I don't scold and judge when someone walks by reeking like a skunk.

I feel sorry for people covered in ugly tattoos and piercings.

R44 of course it’s a crushing defeat for smokers. That’s fact not a judgement,

They were once very popular and very date-able and more hirable. Now they are found standing in the rain like leppers, feet away from a building with an overhang, because the law forbids them standing any closer, and they smoke in the cold rain and wind,

This is what a crushing defeat looks like going from being a part of a popularity majority to now a hated sorrowful tiny minority paying $10 or more for a pack of cigs

That’s what a crushing fucking defeat looks like.

R47, what's your obsession with defeat? You act like you won some personal victory. You are realky weird and immature. No one looks at this issue in that light. Tobacco is still bought and sold. Smokers still date, etc. Most smokers these days don't smoke in homes or in cars. Most I know can go all day at work without a break. My co-worker has one cig at lunch. The rest of the day, no biggie.

The days of smoking in offices, hospitals and planes are long over.

Really, not realky.

What non-smokers may not know is that smoking allows me to light something on fire, stick it in my mouth, take a lovely bong hit off the cigarette, and then exhale smoke like I’m Dirty Dragon.

And that is worse for non-smokers around me than it is for me, but I am willing to hurt you. Love ya!

R47 eats the dirty assholes of strangers while smoking ditch weed.

When I see and smell smokers, I'm so damn glad I was able to quit 15 years ago. I loved the nicotine buzz, especially in the morning. I thought I'd be smoking until the day I died. Once I got through the withdrawal period using Chantix, I've never a desire to smoke again.

R47 is a disturbed weirdo. Smoking outside = "crushing defeat"? Perhaps it's an opportunity to get outside and away from the desk. Hell, I don't smoke but often join my co-worker outside. I found the cold air refreshing and bracing in the winter. Helped defeat the mid-afternoon slump.

R48 what happened to smokers is fascinating. And historical, it’s interesting from a public heath and public policy persecpective..

From nearly 50% of the country daily addicted , a serious hard to break addiction, to now where it is close to 10%. An amazing and an interesting public health success story . And done as you point out without having to make the product illegal.

Sorry you find my interest in this story so upsetting :-)

The by law min price for a pack of cigs in NYC is $13.00 the average price is closer to $15 a pack.

That price is more important to the decrease in smoking than PSAs with people talking out of the surgically made holes in their throat.

R54, you're weird as fuck. Not particularly upsetting, just weird. No normal person spends that time obsessing and analyzing things like this.

Are you Matt A? As in autistic?

Is r54 RFK Jr?

A56 Hey I did not start the thread. I am like you just shooting the shit You seem to be quite invested.

unlike you I am not the one found standing outside in the rain with co workers who are smoking as you claim you often are. You think that is not weird?

Are there other despised groups you find yourself standing out in the cold with or just the smokers?

Why did your language skills and syntax just change so drastically R58? Are you upset?

I don't smoke but I wish I could smoke a whole cigarette in one drag and then blow it into OP's face.

How specifically did my language skills and syntax change? :-) no one has ever pointed that out before.

I can see that my interest in a topic I was once paid a fair amount of money to be interested in professional has upset you for some reason.

I don’t like being called names in what should be a civil discussion so to you good night and good luck on the rest of your day.

I don't care who complains about my smoking, including my ex-wives. I will continue to light them up and fuck anyone who doesn't like it!

I don’t care if others do as long as they don’t do it in my face but it does seem to age. A lot of them horribly

I come from a family of smokers and surprisingly only one of them died prematurely from smoking related illness. My grandpa died from emphysema in his 40s. I’ve never smoked I tried a few times when I was young and there was no appeal there.

r19 is on his second 30 pack case of Coors this morning.

I used to smoke socially when I drank, maybe 4-5 per evening or after I'd had people over and was feeling ennui from the stress of hosting, I'd sit out on my balcony and smoke. Or sometimes smoke one at work on a break when stressed in the 90s. God I do NOT miss the nicotine hangovers. Worse... palpitations... ever.

I'm glad I kicked this habit around when I turned 40. Smokers are hurting themselves. I don't like the smell but as long as they're not blowing it in my face, whatever.