Quote:
Originally Posted by Katti's Cat
I have to disagree on that. It is not anti-social, quite the opposite. As smoker (yep I failed a few times giving up) I always meet people from the building I work in and chat. I always know what's going on in the building and with other companies - I love gathering information.
I have also never heard a smoker abuse a non-smoker. Might be the company I keep but nevertheless. I did get abused my non-smokers who joined a group in the smoking department, telling us all to stop smoking because she was there now!!!!
Most smokers I know are considerate enough to acknowledge non-smokers and move aside or even leave the room to smoke. Funny, how the parties in our house always end up outdoors including the majority of people that are non-smokers. And sorry, I can't move further outside than outside.
Yes, there are smokers who are dropping the butts on the ground - SHAME ON THEM. Neither me nor my husband belong to that category, we have pocket ashtrays.
Lets not forget the amount of extra taxes smokers contribute. And the jobs. You might all not like smokers, and yes, smoking might kill you one day, but why do you think smoking hasn't been outlawed yet? Because of the taxes and attached infrastructure. No country can yet afford to do that. Sick smokers are a drain on the health system you say? Yes sure, but only because the tobacco taxes we are paying is used elsewhere. If Australia would have used those taxes and put them into the healthsystem, it would be the best in the world. And I am sure that goes for other countries as well.
To combat the changed smoking rules / laws here in Australia we now have GST. And there is already a whisper of increasing those (admittedly it's only a pathetic 10% atm) due to so many people stopping.
So, while you and I applaud Happy with trying and so far succeeding to quit (and I hope you make it) I am getting rather over the 'Smoker bashing' here.
I don't call non-smokers names nor say they are anti-social (well I kind of just have). I accept their choices and applaud their wisdom to stop or never have started. I just wish, non-smokers would show me the same tolerance.
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That's exactly the same reaction I had when I was smoking. And I wasn't any kind of social smoker, that's just a lie we all tell ourselves. It's an addiction, plain and simple. A stupid habit that we take up because we're lacking something else in our lives. If you were in a leprosy ward because you had rotting sores would you think it social because you were meeting other people with leprosy? No, no way. The addiction makes us defensive, it makes us irrational. By the time I quit I was chain-smoking 100 a day. One...hundred...cigarettes....a....day. There's nothing social about visibly killing yourself in front of everyone who loves you. What there is, is plenty of stupidity, plenty of stubbornness, and plenty of irrationality. Just like the heroin addict and the crack fiend, the meth sniffer and all the rest, we tell ourselves lies to get through, to ignore the fact that we're being used and abused by the corporate schmucks who convince us to pay for the privileged of killing ourselves.
Telling ourselves lies or getting defensive is no use. From one smoker to another, get rid of the monkey on your back before you end up watching someone you love using one of their last breaths to take in nicotine.