Study: One in four look down on smokers

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When smokers light up they usually are forced to do so far from human contact. And now the obvious is confirmed: Many Americans hold people who still smoke in lower regard.
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One in four people say they respect a person less when he or she smokes, according to a recent Gallup poll, vs. 14% in the 1990s. Former smokers aren’t more empathetic; even among current smokers, 5% have less respect for tobacco users.
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yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2011-09-07/Study-One-in-four-look-down-on-smokers/50304122/1
 
I’m kind of hypocritical, because every so often, I smoke a kretek, while also being disgusted when I see people smoking.
 
The only smokers I look down on are those who smoke with children in the car. It’s unfair to the child to be put in that environment.
 
I used to smoke heavily, which I guess is gluttony. Then I gave up, and looked down on smokers, which I guess is pride. And all the time I wish I could smoke just like them, which I guess is envy. And of course when I gave up there was a little wrath problem. When I smoked however, the occasions of sin for lust were greatly reduced because I tasted like an ashtray. And as I would drive across town to by a packet if I ran out in the middle of the night, and had to work more hours to support my habit, it was helpful in preventing sloth also.
 
Today, most people are educated to the health risks that smoking poses. Unfortunately, for those who smoke, this fact does not deter them. The reason is that, like alcohol or drugs, the nicotine in cigarettes is like a drug to these people. Smoking is not just a social past time, but an addiction that, like all addictions, is difficult to break.

If more people understood the strong dependence smokers have on nicotine, perhaps there would be more compassion for the smoker. I am not condoning smoking in any way, but in my Christian walk, I have begun to see smokers as people who are bound by overpowering, destructive habits.

What starts off as a harmless act, (in this case, smoking) becomes a lifelong addiction. We ought to have compassion for our brothers and sisters who are in bondage to their smoking. When we are able to love these people beyond their smoking, then maybe they can begin loving themselves to the point of seeing smoking for the addiction that it really is.

God Rocks
 
It doesn’t surprise me that former smokers are among the less empathetic with the still-addicted: There’s no “saint” like a former “sinner!”
 
I quit smoking 35 years ago but I do remember how difficult is was to break the habit. I don’t think I “look down on them” now but they do stink so I try to avoid being around them. It’s not a moral judgment but rather an aesthetic preference.
 
Guess I’ll be the contrarian here. It has long seemed to me that smokers are nicer people than non-smokers, generally. Possibly that’s because anybody who gets dumped on a lot is humbled by it. 🤷
 
Ridgerunner said:
Guess I’ll be the contrarian here. It has long seemed to me that smokers are nicer people than non-smokers, generally. Possibly that’s because anybody who gets dumped on a lot is humbled by it. 🤷
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I agree…at least until they start having a nicotine fit and can’t find a lighter. At that point I think some of them would puncture a gas line and find a spark just to light up.
 
bbarrick8383 said:
I agree…at least until they start having a nicotine fit and can’t find a lighter. At that point I think some of them would puncture a gas line and find a spark just to light up.
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Reminds me of a man I knew, a lawyer, who smoked. He carried those big kitchen matches in his pocket and struck them with his thumbnail to light his cigarette. Pretty dramatic when he did it. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t afford a lighter, so one day I asked him why he used those big kitchen matches, and this was his explanation:

His father was, early in life, an honest-to-goodness cowboy on open range. One of the rules of the time and place was that if you saw a yearling steer or heifer, and if it didn’t already have a brand on it, you could brand it yourself and keep it. At roundup time, then, all cattle would be separated by brand for sale. All cowboys carried their own brands in addition to their employer’s brand for that reason, because sometimes it happened.

One time he was on the range and spied a huge steer with no brand. He chased it for a long way, roped it, bulldogged it, tied its feet (no small task) and searched around for enough wood or manure or something with which to light a fire to heat the brand. Being on the open range and all, it was no easy thing to gather enough fuel for a sizeable fire.

When he did all that, he searched his pockets and his saddlebags and everything, and …no matches. Nothing to do but let the steer go. Forever after, then, his father carried those big matches in his pocket, even long after he stopped being a cowboy. It was his reminder to himself to be prepared for anything.

And so, the lawyer, in honor of his father, always carried those big matches. Since he carried them anyway, he used them to light his cigarettes.

It’s the kind of tale one might be tempted to disbelieve, but since his father really had been a cowboy, and since he was so religious about carrying those matches, one believed it.
 
Ridgerunner said:
Reminds me of a man I knew, a lawyer, who smoked. He carried those big kitchen matches in his pocket and struck them with his thumbnail to light his cigarette. Pretty dramatic when he did it. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t afford a lighter, so one day I asked him why he used those big kitchen matches, and this was his explanation:

His father was, early in life, an honest-to-goodness cowboy on open range. One of the rules of the time and place was that if you saw a yearling steer or heifer, and if it didn’t already have a brand on it, you could brand it yourself and keep it. At roundup time, then, all cattle would be separated by brand for sale. All cowboys carried their own brands in addition to their employer’s brand for that reason, because sometimes it happened.

One time he was on the range and spied a huge steer with no brand. He chased it for a long way, roped it, bulldogged it, tied its feet (no small task) and searched around for enough wood or manure or something with which to light a fire to heat the brand. Being on the open range and all, it was no easy thing to gather enough fuel for a sizeable fire.

When he did all that, he searched his pockets and his saddlebags and everything, and …no matches. Nothing to do but let the steer go. Forever after, then, his father carried those big matches in his pocket, even long after he stopped being a cowboy. It was his reminder to himself to be prepared for anything.

And so, the lawyer, in honor of his father, always carried those big matches. Since he carried them anyway, he used them to light his cigarettes.

It’s the kind of tale one might be tempted to disbelieve, but since his father really had been a cowboy, and since he was so religious about carrying those matches, one believed it.
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👍

Gotta love those old stories.

I was talking to an old man working in his barn just last week who was telling stories about a guy that use to live out his way. He said he would tell stories that you knew were flat out made up but the way he told it, you didn’t really care. He said there was another fella who tried to do the same thing but you always felt like he was just feeding you a line of bull. lol
 
bbarrick8383 said:
I was going to say, at 6’3", I’m probably one of the four.
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I was freshman in high school in 1964 when the first US Surgeon General’s report on smoking and lung cancer came out. I already knew smoking was expensive and that my parents could not afford to pay college tuition for me. I already knew smoking was a fire hazard. I already knew smoking smelled bad.

I never smoked and never understood why anyone else would try it. At 6’2" I am now about 12 feet taller than many of my friends who chose to smoke and now reside at minus 6 ft.
 
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