Complete Hypocrisy? (about smoking) (Portland: appliances, hotels, elementary school)

[Bluesmama]

Originally Posted by TDNY

He only tells women that? Is he afraid of saying that to a man? Does he normally have conversations with other women about their attractiveness?

He sounds like a real prize!

Well, I sure wish I had a dollar for every time I'm around someone who smells of smoke or sweat or garlic or alcohol or dog or even urine. I have co-workers who sometimes smell of sweat, but have never entertained the thought of telling them they stink.

[puerco]

Originally Posted by Bluesmama

Don't know how much "control" you want to hold over people. I'm not an animal person yet more and more dogs are everywhere. I don't like it but I accept it as being just the way it is.

When it comes to smokers their nasty unhealthy habit should be controlled. I, as well as my family members & majority of my friends, choose NOT to smoke because it's detrimental to one's health & it's disgusting. Smokers use our sidewalks as their ashtrays and phlegm receptacles. 2nd hand smoke is not a fable it's a fact. Smokers have no right to pollute the air of people with enough brains not to smoke.

[classicanne]

Originally Posted by BrownRice

I've been here for close to a month now, and I just don't understand this:

How can Oregonians (Portlanders especially) claim they are all into the healthy/vegan/organic/fit and/or nigh socialist lifestyle when almost everyone here SMOKES?

Um, methinks you generalize too much. I've never noticed Oregonians/Portlanders ALL claiming they are into the healthy/vegan/organic/fit/nigh socialist lifestyle; it's just that there are better resources here for such folks, including the availability of great/organic produce at a good price, good weather year-round for walking/hiking, plenty of vegetarian/vegan restaurants and most restaurants have V/V options, so you will find more of those types of folks here. There are plenty of people who don't ascribe to that lifestyle, likely the majority, and it is among those folks that you'll see smokers.

I only know two smokers here, one the son of a neighbor and one the friend of a friend, thankfully both smoke only outside. Neither of these two people would be a poster child for a healthy lifestyle.

[sayulita]

Originally Posted by BrownRice

I've been here for close to a month now, and I just don't understand this:

How can Oregonians (Portlanders especially) claim they are all into the healthy/vegan/organic/fit and/or nigh socialist lifestyle when almost everyone here SMOKES?
.

What the heck is a "nigh socialist lifestyle"?

And, by the way, as a smoker who bends over backwards to not smoke anywhere where it might offend people and who never leaves butts behind, I'm really offended by the snarky comments and stereotyping in this thread. Some of the anti-smokers act like they are going to drop dead if they get so much as a whiff of smoke. It kind of cracks me up seeing joggers running the streets sucking down the fumes from all the cars and then going off on a smoker for lighting up. All I can say is - get some perspective. Yes, I know it's bad for me and anyone around me. I'll be respectful of you if you will return the favor and realize I'm a perfectly nice person with an addiction I can't seem to shake. Smokers are getting to be one of the last groups that it's OK to bash and stereotype with impunity. Please treat us as individuals.

[Nell Plotts]

Smoking offends him very much. His comments are made to teens, probably both sexes but he believes that young women are more likely to change their behavior when made aware. In our youth cigarettes were sold based on sexiness and once a young person is addicted it is difficult to stop. Once it is perceived making it more difficult to get a date usage will continue to decline.

[puerco]

Originally Posted by sayulita

And, by the way, as a smoker who bends over backwards to not smoke anywhere where it might offend people and who never leaves butts behind, I'm really offended by the snarky comments and stereotyping in this thread. Some of the anti-smokers act like they are going to drop dead if they get so much as a whiff of smoke. It kind of cracks me up seeing joggers running the streets sucking down the fumes from all the cars and then going off on a smoker for lighting up. All I can say is - get some perspective. Yes, I know it's bad for me and anyone around me. I'll be respectful of you if you will return the favor and realize I'm a perfectly nice person with an addiction I can't seem to shake. Smokers are getting to be one of the last groups that it's OK to bash and stereotype with impunity. Please treat us as individuals.

You are the exception. There are so many people that light up whenever and where ever they feel like it and could care less about the people around them. I'm an asthmatic so I really don't need to be subjected to their lack of consideration. Walk around any downtown in any city & you'll know what I'm talking about.
Good luck with trying to kick your smoking. I understand it's every bit as hard as kicking heroin.

[strudel42]

Originally Posted by sayulita

What the heck is a "nigh socialist lifestyle"?

And, by the way, as a smoker who bends over backwards to not smoke anywhere where it might offend people and who never leaves butts behind, I'm really offended by the snarky comments and stereotyping in this thread. Some of the anti-smokers act like they are going to drop dead if they get so much as a whiff of smoke. It kind of cracks me up seeing joggers running the streets sucking down the fumes from all the cars and then going off on a smoker for lighting up. All I can say is - get some perspective. Yes, I know it's bad for me and anyone around me. I'll be respectful of you if you will return the favor and realize I'm a perfectly nice person with an addiction I can't seem to shake. Smokers are getting to be one of the last groups that it's OK to bash and stereotype with impunity. Please treat us as individuals.

Very well put. My thoughts exactly -- a person on city streets is breathing such nastiness anyway that walking past a smoker or two is not going to put them six feet under.

OP: You've just moved to a new city and this is what you have found to complain about? Well then, Portland must be even better than I thought.

[sayulita]

I sill want to know what a "nigh socialist lifestyle" is. BrownRice, could you elaborate please?

[Leisesturm]

Originally Posted by sayulita

What the heck is a "nigh socialist lifestyle"?

And, by the way, as a smoker who bends over backwards to not smoke anywhere where it might offend people and who never leaves butts behind, I'm really offended by the snarky comments and stereotyping in this thread. Some of the anti-smokers act like they are going to drop dead if they get so much as a whiff of smoke.It kind of cracks me up seeing joggers running the streets sucking down the fumes from all the carsand then going off on a smoker for lighting up. All I can say is - get some perspective. Yes, I know it's bad for me and anyone around me. I'll be respectful of you if you will return the favor and realize I'm a perfectly nice person with an addiction I can't seem to shake. Smokers are getting to be one of the last groups that it's OK to bash and stereotype with impunity. Please treat us as individuals.

With all due respect, sayulita, where would that leave us? Or you? Car's are vastly less polluting than once ago and I don't know that runners enjoy the contributions that cars make to their bio-load of toxins but that is all the more reason to ride herd (hard) on those smokers close enough to be in ear-shot. Do you know why there are fewer fat people in Europe than in the U.S.? Because mass market clothiers simply don't make anything bigger than a size 16 over there. If you are a 24 or 28 you are seriously SOL. Seems to work at keeping the population HWP. Ashley Stewart and Lane Bryant have a lot to answer for. The women in my family must not smoke. They all die if they do. We are a bit worse for wear after seeing four of them go this way so the younger women coming up will get the tough love with no punches pulled for their own good. Interestingly, there are no overweight women in my family. They are all slamming (even the ones in their senior years) and it is a big family. This is significant because we are from a demographic known for its obese women. A woman from my family who wanted to spread out a bit would be in plenty of company from the community at large, but within the family she would get quite a lot of grief. A live and let live attitude IMO is fine for dealings with neighbors in alternative lifestyle partnerships or who collect controversial lawn sculpture.

I get that you feel non-smokers don't treat you fairly. IMO that is a good thing. You can fix it by becoming 'one of us' and won't that be a wonderful day. If you got what you wanted from non-smokers: respect and that live and let live stuff, there is no telling how much longer it will take for you to reach the crisis point that makes you seriously look into cessation options. I am sorry, I really wish I could be less condemning of the smokers lifestyle but I side with the other non-smokers here. I really don't see how it is possible to be a 'considerate' smoker. Even outdoors I have seen one smoker standing several feet upwind of a bus shelter cause distress for everyone else waiting for a bus. Anywhere, smoking is done there are going to be collateral affected. The mistake, I think, is in focusing less on the smokers and what they are doing to themselves. Smokers, rightly or wrongly, get the message that they can do what they want to themselves but don't hurt the rest of us while you do it. Wrong message, even if true. Bottom line, I don't think many heroin addicts would come it for treatment if it was legal, certainly not as quickly. You would get many more waiting until they were really out of other options. Smoking is legal and you are an adult. No telling how long you could go on if snarky non-smokers didn't make your life miserable. Still that is only of limited usefulness because of the PC, live/let live, c'est la vie type of communities that are prevalent today. We are the worse for it. If you get that somewhere in all that rambling is a sincere shout out for you to do something about your 'addiction' then you would be right.

H

[puerco]

Originally Posted by strudel42

Very well put. My thoughts exactly -- a person on city streets is breathing such nastiness anyway that walking past a smoker or two is not going to put them six feet under.

Nobody is saying it's going to put them 6 feet under. But it's one of the most offensive smells out there & non-smokers should NOT have to breathe it in. Everyone knows how addictive cigarettes are when they decide to take it up. They made that decision. (I guess they feel it makes them look cool?) They're the ones that need to live with it and its consequences not the non-smokers.