Although I've set my new year's resolution to quit smoking by the end of next year (no set date, it just won't happen lol), I'm *still* a smoker, and I need to back up Jerico here...
Very, very few of the anti-smoking people are saints themselves. Everyone has their vice... and some of them are just as bad, if not worse, than smoking. If I knew as many people who'd died from cancer who were also smokers as I've known people who've died in drunken driving accidents (including my High School girlfriend and two of my best friends), Maybe I'd view it a bit differently. But after a friend died in a car accident in 2003, a friend I'd known since the second grade, I quit drinking and haven't had a drop since. When cigarettes kill someone I actually know and care about, maybe I'll change my opinion of how dangerous they are... all I know is that when I'm cranking out a dozen functions an hour, nothing keeps me focused quite like a nic stick
.
Again, anti-smoking people always go about it the wrong way, especially the people who've never smoked (not suggesting anyone in this thread, just saying it generally). They're always quick to say "it's dangerous, you're going to die!" and start shoving facts down your throat. If someone prefers that I don't smoke around them, I'm cool with that, but if someone demands I don't smoke around them, it makes me smoke more, and blow it in their direction, because there's nothing even remotely that arrogant or rediculous. And I REALLY hate it when people say "Put that out, it smells bad." Really? Well, I don't like looking at fat people, so let's ban cake (that joke's been around since my old MRO website, not quite as funny as it used to be lol). The worst people of them all though is the organization who calls themselves "The Truth." They fill television with false information day in, day out, but no one ever comes down on them... and if you attack them, you're the bad guy
. The best thing about this group is, they're actually
making young smokers. Go figure!
Seriously, introduce me to the person who doesn't inhale, via their lungs or their skin, carcinogens every single day. Please, one person in the civilized world. They're litterally
all around you (and
here's a list from CDC in case you don't think my source was credible). From car pollutants to red meat to drinking water, you can't escape them... they're a fact of life. What simply isn't a fact: smoking cigarettes ALWAYS leads to cancer. This isn't remotely true, but most anti-smoking lobbies want you to think that, regardless of not having any degree of proof whatsoever.
The only concrete "fact" about smoking: there are very few actual facts. If you don't think lobbyists for or against smoking pay off government officials left and right and dish money toward research groups for favoritism, you're naive... whether you're for smoking or against it. But to think cigarettes aren't harmful or that they don't cause cancer is equally naive. So here's a final "fact" that everyone can take to the bank: yes, cigarettes are dangeous, but not even remotely as dangerous as a few thousand other things that can kill you every time you leave the house (and quite a few that can kill you when you stay indoors, too). And in case you haven't seen the movie SiCKO (and you seriously need to if you live in the US, regardless of your political affiliation), going to the hospital can be just as dangerous as any of the other things on the list.
So here's my proposition: anti-smoking people, just shut up and let people have the vices they choose to have. If you don't like smokers, don't talk to them. And smokers, try to be courteous of the people around you who might not approve of your habit. As I always tell friends, I won't smoke around them if they won't drink around me
EDIT:
Quote: "Are you saying the judges get money in a settlement? Not likely Lawyers, yes."
Again, don't forget about the power of lobbyists, in the US anyway.
