Study: One in four look down on smokers

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I am surprised that three in four people don’t look down on smokers. I guess the 1/4 is more vocal.
 
Hokomai said:
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.
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Thanks for the laugh.
 
Cryptic1 said:
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
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We can have compassion for the smoker, but we aren’t required to have compassion for the actual activity of smoking. I “look down” on the actual act, take it else where, I shouldn’t have to put up with inhaling your second hand smoke any more than I should have to put up with someone that is intoxicated in public. Compassion for smokers and alcoholics, I’m on board. The actual activities and being forced to put up with the unhealthy results, no thank you.
 
PatriceA said:
We can have compassion for the smoker, but we aren’t required to have compassion for the actual activity of smoking. I “look down” on the actual act, take it else where, I shouldn’t have to put up with inhaling your second hand smoke any more than I should have to put up with someone that is intoxicated in public. Compassion for smokers and alcoholics, I’m on board. The actual activities and being forced to put up with the unhealthy results, no thank you.
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I’ll be a bit of a contrarian here. Get into a new car on a hot day and you’re inhaling unbelievably bad stuff because the plastic is all outgassing. New house, new furniture, new paint, new appliances, your lawn treatment, dioxins leaking from your fireplace, on and on. Certainly, second hand smoke is an addition to that. One may ask oneself, but is all that other stuff voluntary? Well, sometimes, sometimes it is, sometimes it’s not. But I think most would agree that “New Car On A Hot Day” is a more pleasant smell than second-hand smoke, even though the first is probably more toxic than the second.

Sometimes it’s different, though. As a kid, I used to enjoy watching carpenters at work. The smell of fresh wood combined with that cigarette smell. I loved it. Well, field workers smoked too, and I used to work in the fields myself. For some reason, there is a difference when somebody is smoking outside versus smoking inside, particularly when it is combined with other smells like fresh-cut wood, new-mown hay, even the smell of fresh earth. Outside, and to this day, it smells sweet to me. I recall reading that during WWII, the Germans could tell whether Americans were nearby because they could smell the sweet smoke of American cigarettes.

Inside, it’s different. I don’t know why.
🤷
 
Ridgerunner said:
I’ll be a bit of a contrarian here. Get into a new car on a hot day and you’re inhaling unbelievably bad stuff because the plastic is all outgassing. New house, new furniture, new paint, new appliances, your lawn treatment, dioxins leaking from your fireplace, on and on. Certainly, second hand smoke is an addition to that. One may ask oneself, but is all that other stuff voluntary? Well, sometimes, sometimes it is, sometimes it’s not. But I think most would agree that “New Car On A Hot Day” is a more pleasant smell than second-hand smoke, even though the first is probably more toxic than the second.

Sometimes it’s different, though. As a kid, I used to enjoy watching carpenters at work. The smell of fresh wood combined with that cigarette smell. I loved it. Well, field workers smoked too, and I used to work in the fields myself. For some reason, there is a difference when somebody is smoking outside versus smoking inside, particularly when it is combined with other smells like fresh-cut wood, new-mown hay, even the smell of fresh earth. Outside, and to this day, it smells sweet to me. I recall reading that during WWII, the Germans could tell whether Americans were nearby because they could smell the sweet smoke of American cigarettes.

Inside, it’s different. I don’t know why.
🤷
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Sounds like a good reason to buy a convertable. 👍
 
Perhaps “look down” on smokers is too strong, but I do have a hard time feeling sympathetic for anone who smokes, especally people who are poor and cannot buy food.

I’d say it this way. I would care for a fellow human who chose to smoke cigarrates constanly but I wouldn’t be sympathetic to them having a bad cough, or no money or not being able to buy food.

Many times people would be short a few cents to a dollar. We kept money at the store for this. If two guys walked in and baught a coffee and donught and one baught a flashling and the other cigarrets and they were both a $1 short I’d give to the non-smoker beucase smoker spent his money foolishly.
 
purplesunshine said:
Perhaps “look down” on smokers is too strong, but I do have a hard time feeling sympathetic for anone who smokes, especally people who are poor and cannot buy food.

I’d say it this way. I would care for a fellow human who chose to smoke cigarrates constanly but I wouldn’t be sympathetic to them having a bad cough, or no money or not being able to buy food.

Many times people would be short a few cents to a dollar. We kept money at the store for this. If two guys walked in and baught a coffee and donught and one baught a flashling and the other cigarrets and they were both a $1 short I’d give to the non-smoker beucase smoker spent his money foolishly.
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One time my son, as a teenager, was “short” in buying some items at the counter of a local store. One of the worst “town drunks” you ever saw heard it at another counter, and made up the difference of a few dollars. The drunk was buying cigarettes for himself at the time. His income could not have been much more than a VA disability pension or SSI. My son would now do the same for him even if it was to buy cigarettes or whiskey.

Sometimes there is no particular moral justification in treating a weaker person worse than a stronger one just because we regard strength more highly.
 
I have an aunt that has smoked as long as I can remember. She and my uncle host Easter. A few years ago, I got exposed to her 2nd hand smoke and within a day, I was SICK with a bad cold and had a hard time breathing and everything.

Smoking is a filthy habit. You get premature wrinkles. Your clothes smell bad. You are also going to have a harder time healing after breaking bones. You also cost more in health insurance because you are more likely to get lung cancer or emphysema.

My parents were assigned hosting thanksgiving. This year we had it at my family’s home away from home in the country. After everyone left, I went to the side porch where my mom had conveniently provided a container with sand for the smokers to deposit their cancer sticks in. There were at least 30 cigarettes total between the two containers.

Smoking is an addiction that we should NOT encourage…just like binge drinking, dangerous stunts, etc.
 
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