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Exactly. It’s no different than berating an overweight person every time you see her reach for something to eat. People don’t do that though, will smoke or seem to be fair game for rudeness. When I was smoking, complete strangers would say to me “you smell like an ashtray”. It’s one of the last groups you can harrass, It doesn’t help the person and serves no real purpose except expressing self righteousness.
My favorite example of the hypocrisy of otherwise PC people to attack smokers is a South Park episode, Where a guide at the Museum of Tolerance is giving a speech about how we have to tolerate each other’s differences, but then leads the crowd in a vicious attack on Randy when he lights up a cigarette. I think it’s pretty accurate!
I think smoking is different, though. People HAVE to eat, they don't have to smoke. And if someone eats a Twinkie in their car, it's not going to affect me 5 minutes later when they walk into a store. Someone who smokes in their car (or anywhere, really), will stink to high heaven when they are standing in front of me in line.
It's one think to tolerate someone's differences, but that's not the same as tolerating an unpleasant behavior that affects other people. I like to use the comparison of blasting loud music. If someone stood outside a store and did that, it would be considered terribly rude, because you don't want to hear that. Well, people don't want to have to smell your smoke when they're walking into the store or down the street or whatever. And before someone says it, yes, people still blast their music. But it is illegal in most places.
When I smoked (quit in October) I carry small bottles of a very light but inexpensive fragrance, one of my scrub pocket and one in my car. After I smoked I’d give myself a quick spritz to cover it up. I think it helped.
I doubt it. And this comes from a former smoker myself. But when people do this, it just smells like smoke and perfume. I really, truly had no idea how horrible and permeating the smell was until I quit.
I think smoking is different, though. People HAVE to eat, they don't have to smoke. And if someone eats a Twinkie in their car, it's not going to affect me 5 minutes later when they walk into a store. Someone who smokes in their car (or anywhere, really), will stink to high heaven when they are standing in front of me in line.
It's one think to tolerate someone's differences, but that's not the same as tolerating an unpleasant behavior that affects other people. I like to use the comparison of blasting loud music. If someone stood outside a store and did that, it would be considered terribly rude, because you don't want to hear that. Well, people don't want to have to smell your smoke when they're walking into the store or down the street or whatever. And before someone says it, yes, people still blast their music. But it is illegal in most places.
So would you say to a stranger who had B.O. that they stink? '
I really don't think what OP was doing was any different than berating someone who is obese. She wasn't telling the person their smoke affects her, she was simply telling them all the awful things it will do to him/her and that they need to stop for their own good. And actually arguing with them about it, then coming here to ask why smokers are in denial. How is that different than berating someone 100 pounds overweight about all the bad health effects of being obese? Do you think that kind of thing will help that person change their ways? I think it'd send them running to ice cream to comfort themselves.
"Is there a pattern with many nicotine addicted cigarette smokers (not all, but a number of them), to desperately try to defend their habit in a militant way that borders on belligerent?"
When I smoked (quit in October) I carry small bottles of a very light but inexpensive fragrance, one of my scrub pocket and one in my car. After I smoked I’d give myself a quick spritz to cover it up. I think it helped.
Congrats on quitting!
All that said, my hair stylist smokes. I noticed that when I would get my hair washed, she would slip out for a break. When she got to me, she had spritzed some cologne on herself but, it didn't mask the smell. At least she tried...
All that said, my hair stylist smokes. I noticed that when I would get my hair washed, she would slip out for a break. When she got to me, she had spritzed some cologne on herself but, it didn't mask the smell. At least she tried...
I doubt it. And this comes from a former smoker myself. But when people do this, it just smells like smoke and perfume. I really, truly had no idea how horrible and permeating the smell was until I quit.
Same here. When we smoke, we can't really smell it.
A couple of years ago, I was asked to go to a black tie business thing a couple of days before the event. I panicked about what to wear, because at six feet tall, I can't just saunter down to the mall and buy a formal dress that doesn't have a hem that stops mid-calf, and there was not enough time to search online. I do have a long, plain dressy black skirt, and I remembered I once had a sparkly camisole and jacket set that I'd stuck in the attic.
I dug the pieces out, but they smelled musty and I wondered why. My attic is dry. Then I realized it wasn't a musty smell, but the smell of old stale cigarette smoke. I was still a smoker when I'd last worn them. The smell was faint but still in the clothes.
I washed them and then hung them outside to dry and air out. It got the smell out to the point where only I wearing the clothing would be able to notice the remaining hint of it.
But still, it made me realize just how permeating the cigarette smoke smell was.
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