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I seriously doubt that you are "constantly" exposed to cigarette smoke from people smoking outdoors. If you are, then you are living somewhere very strange these days.
I also suspect that being exposed to cigarette smoke once would feel like "constantly" to you because you don't like it and therefore shouldn't ever have to be exposed to it. Based solely on your posts about it, of course, which is all I have to go on.
Either that, or that really is the tippy tappy of goat hooves crossing a bridge I seem to hear, and we are the goats.
I seriously doubt that you are "constantly" exposed to cigarette smoke from people smoking outdoors. If you are, then you are living somewhere very strange these days.
I also suspect that being exposed to cigarette smoke once would feel like "constantly" to you because you don't like it and therefore shouldn't ever have to be exposed to it. Based solely on your posts about it, of course, which is all I have to go on.
Either that, or that really is the tippy tappy of goat hooves crossing a bridge I seem to hear, and we are the goats.
Whenever I am
1. Waiting for the bus
2. Walking through downtown Vancouver
Yes, I'd say about 80% of the time, I am breathing cig smoke from more than one person. No hyperbole. If it weren't as much of a problem, I wouldn't bother raising a fuss. But it is.
It's nasty. It smells gross and is nasty, but smokers blowing smoke at bystanders as they walk down the street isn't going to change, so I just hold my breath as I walk past them or fan the air with my hand to fan away the smoke (it might offend them that I'm indicating they smell, but the smoke does). I'm just so happy there are tons of smoke free indoor establishments now.
Sadly, holding breath, covering my face with my sleeve, and fanning away the smoke does NOT work efficiently. More serious measures need to be taken to ameliorate the problem.
Yes, I am well aware that pot is very prevalent in Vancouver. My knowledge of the effects of marijuana is limited. Perhaps there are quite a few carcinogens in cannabis, but walking around the city, I very, very rarely detect marijuana smoke. There is a place in Gastown/East Hastings area called Amsterdam Cafe, where I know people can go and legally smoke with their own pot. Or at least legally in the sense that police do nothing. I do not smoke or enjoy the feeling of being high for that matter.
Seriously, how long have you lived in Vancouver? The pot users outnumber the smokers here. Smoking hasn't been allowed in restaurants and bars for years now. Smoking in parks and beaches have been banned. You are giving a false perception of Vancouver.
While pot hasn't been legalized yet, one shouldn't have any problem buying some. It's everywhere here. Especially downtown, you can smell the weed. It's damn awful. Tokers everywhere. Smokers have become a minority.
I suspect second-hand smoke is a fallacy manufactured by those that want to ban smoking. I spent my youth in cafes in France with my parents who both smoked. Never hurt me one bit. I just recently spent two years in the Balkans where everyone over five years old smoke...yes I exaggerate, but only slightly. In comparison smokers in the states are becoming a rarity, I bet that is the case in BC as well. I smoke from time to time and enjoy it. I smoke pot from time to time and enjoy it and only feel violent when the effects wear off and there is a knob proselytizing in my face about the ill effects of the afore mentioned. I drink as well and enjoy pornography and eat bacon. Supersavina, the arguments may be trite and lame but getting over yourself is a greater problem than the smokers you encounter. Your life has no less and no more value than those whose values and habits you find abhorrent.
I want you all to imagine a scenario for a few moments.
Let's just imagine there is a hyper-intelligent alien colony we discover.
They communicate with us, and find out that roughly a third of Earth's human population engages in ingesting something that contributes to not only their death, but which they spend a lot of time working to obtain, in full awareness that the substance is harming them with each use, as well as their friends, family, and even despite having personally experienced the death of humans closely connected with them that was mainly attributed to this substance.
They discover that when a small handful of the human population communicates with the rest and assert that they care about their existence, and feel that this pointless and harmful practice should at the very least be practiced in such a way that it brings no harm to those humans who actually desire to maintain their existence, the result is that the majority of humans:
1. Communicate in such a way that trivializes the harmfulness of that substance
2. Call them controlling because they desire to protect their life
3. Ignore the matter of the substance itself, and bring up various unrelated substances which also cause harm, but many of which actually serve a purpose
What do you all think that hyper-intelligent alien species would think of humans?
I think they would think we are daft fools.
And sadly, that is the case.
Like I said before, I think human-dominated Earth does resemble the picture illustrated in "Idiocracy" too closely.
I'm from California myself, and would have to say it's just as common there. What part of California are you referring to? Even if you are correct that smoking is less common there, California, particularly central and southern, has some of the worst air pollution in the country.
I'm in the Bay Area, where smoking is uncommon and air quality is generally quite good.
What do you all think that hyper-intelligent alien species would think of humans?
I think they would think we are daft fools.
And sadly, that is the case.
Like I said before, I think human-dominated Earth does resemble the picture illustrated in "Idiocracy" too closely.
I'd guess the aliens probably have their own vices, and do things that aren't 100% good for them too... they'd also probably understand the debate, and most would agree that humans/aliens don't like being overly controlled. These are all common human traits, so I don't see why they wouldn't also be alien traits! If I were one of them, I'd ask you why this ONE unhealthy habit bothers you more than any others, and why you refuse to admit the hypocrisy in your stance. If a fellow martian told me he thought smoking in public should be banned, but was fine with other forms of air pollution, didn't care about other people's allergies/sensitivities, and enjoyed drinking poisonous martian juice - I'd call him inconsistent and self-serving.
I'd guess the aliens probably have their own vices, and do things that aren't 100% good for them too... they'd also probably understand the debate, and most would agree that humans/aliens don't like being overly controlled. These are all common human traits, so I don't see why they wouldn't also be alien traits! If I were one of them, I'd ask you why this ONE unhealthy habit bothers you more than any others, and why you refuse to admit the hypocrisy in your stance. If a fellow martian told me he thought smoking in public should be banned, but was fine with other forms of air pollution, didn't care about other people's allergies/sensitivities, and enjoyed drinking poisonous martian juice - I'd call him inconsistent and self-serving.
I highly doubt that a hyper-intelligent alien species would prefer to kill each other via inhaling and emitting a toxic substance--that serves no beneficial or useful purpose whatsoever--and allow themselves to be killed without stopping to think, hey, this isn't such a hyper-intelligent idea. Think about how ludicrous that sounds!
For me, the funniest argument anyone gave me for smoking is, "I pay taxes, I can do whatever I want!"
I pay taxes too! I also have the right to not only breathe fresh air but to be at the same places everyone else is. It's much less harmful for anyone to sit next to someone eating red meat giving themselves heart disease but no one else around them can get it from them than for a non-smoker to have to sit next to a smoker inhaling harmful fumes risking lung cancer for something they did not choose to do themselves.
What about asthmatics? People who have asthma have the right to be in a restaurant and be able to eat without having to fear getting an attack. SOmeone who had heart disease or high cholesterol isn't going to have to worry about sitting next to another person eating meat and getting a heart attack themselves. I think you get what I'm saying.
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