To say smoking does look cool?

[BeachOrPool]

Yes, I know inhaling thousands upon thousands of cancerous chemicals definitely isn't cool!

But there's something about some people lighting up a cig and looking into the distance that looks rather cool and 'suave' to me

I always picture having a deep conversation with a mysteriously handsome but dark horse of a person, looking far into the distance as they respond to my dilemma "That's life, Soph" or some other talk that included clever sayings that I can never think to use at the right moment.

It looks cool.

My executive assistant aunty use to look very classy sitting with her legs crossed and smoking a cig, whilst listening to my dilemmas
I just want to put it out there that I've never so much as taken a puff of a ciggy

@bizzledrizzle are you sure........?

@lemonshark I don't see myself as selfish at all and I have been honest about the stuff I wrote as well.
It wouldn't affect me any more thinking that a loved 1 had died because they smoked etc that sort of thing doesn't affect my thinking. People die it's a part of life and if they die because they smoked then that's their choice, who am I to deny some1 their choices?
I have no idea if the woman who gave birth to me is dead or not but honestly if she is still alive I wish she would sink an extra bottle of wine and be done with it. I lost my biological mother before I could talk but my mother figure died wen I was 19, again died of a embolism caused by stoke she never smoked and lead a very healthy life style.
I am going to die in a long horrible way infact, I'm dying as we speak, it may not happen for another 20 years (I hope it doesnt) but it IS happening, could happen at any time and has nothing to do with the fact I smoke (granted smoking doesn't help but didn't cause it), but again being completely honest I don't think my kids would begrudge me just a small amount of time each day where I do something I enjoy.

@Jacintajones no idea but twas a joke..

Nah, it's vile and stinks. The smell alone should be enough to put anyone off smoking.

Ok so everybody thinks it looks common

Nothing to do with that for me.

Someone smoking for me has a blatant disregard for their own health and I just couldn’t find that “cool” or attractive.

@BeHappyMummy

"They say the most intelligent in society often often end up with addiction issues"

'Really? Got any evidence for that?

I consider myself intelligent but I don't smoke, or have any addictions for that matter. It's not healthy, end of.'

Being clever and all, have you googled cos its true - Search for 'intelligence and addiction'

I know what you mean. The James Dean type.

But in reality its someone bumming a roll up, leaving it on a shop window sill, while they go in One-Stop to buy Cider.

I find most people's double thinking amazing.

You would never get the same reactions on a thread about prosecco.

And I don't drink alcohol or smoke.

But you would get the same reactions on a thread about people addicted to Prosecco, or alcohol in general.

Most people manage to drink socially occasionally or even daily without becoming addicts. The same absolutely cannot be said of smoking.

And unless you are off your face drunk and causing a public nuisance then drinking a few glasses of Prosecco has no direct unpleasant impact on those sharing your immediate surroundings.

The same cannot be said of smoking. The two things aren't really comparable in that sense. It's the same with people who are addicted to overeating. Of course it's dangerous and unhealthy for them but it's not unpleasant for everybody else.

Exactly. There is no double thinking.

Being clever and all, have you googled cos its true - Search for 'intelligence and addiction'

Being clever and all I did and and the phony sites couldn't even link to the research themselves.

Doesn't look so cool when they're on a ventilator in hospital and drowning in their own sputum, believe me.

Only cool in films. Especially the ones set in olden days (before smoking was bad for you )! Love it in Peaky Blinders. I sometimes think Cillian Murphy looks a bit awkward doing it though, as if he doesn’t really smoke.

If your definition of looking cool, is standing outside, being a feral drug addict, then good for you.

I think it looks sad, not cool

This whole "it's the same as having a glass of wine or two after a tough day" is bollocks. An alcoholic cannot have the odd glass of wine after a hard day. Most wine drinkers are not alcoholics. I know what an alcoholic is. I've lived with one.
Smoking is toxic and addictive. Wine can be toxic and addictive. There is no "in moderation " with fags. There is with wine.

It looks stupid.

Even if the smoker is someone I like & respect enough for me to put up with the smell, it still looks stupid.

It used to be seen as cool because it was presented in the media as glamourous, something done by successful beautiful people, or alternatively the rebellious youth. That has slowly changed over the years.
I'm an ex smoker, and tbh, I still like the smell and still like walking behind someone with a fag on, but common sense tells me it's a stupid dangerous thing to do, not cool in the slightest, and I grew up in the 60's when smoking was seen as a symbol of being grown up, advertising was allowed, and it was everywhere. Thank goodness that has changed now.
Addressing the prosecco 'situation' , I do think a few people on here are in denial, and may live to regret it. I know 2 women who died from alcohol related conditions, from what would be regarded as quite moderate and would probably have been told 'don't worry, have fun, etc' on here.
That doesn't alter the fact that smoking has a potentially harmful effect on peopke around you though, no matter hiw careful the smoker is, in a way that drinking doesn't.

The smell. VOM. End of.

I still don't understand the vitriol aimed at smokers.

It's almost as though people are affected by social norms, or advertising or government campaigns or something?

It's very interesting that something that was seen as benignly pleasurable or indeed desirably attractive is now derided in the most violent terms as an act undertaken by only those who are socially beyond the pale.

Der Untermensch as it were (and don't Godwin's Law me), so many of you are classing smokers as sub-human, as beneath you. Where do you think that paradigm shift came from?

It didn't spontaneously erupt from your bright, clean, shiny mind. I guarantee.

Ilikeyourhairyhands - nail on head!

It's almost as though people are affected by social norms, or advertising or government campaigns or something?

Perhaps it's something to do with the impact it has, not only on smokers' health, but also those around them...?

Everyone used to drive home from the pub after a skinful, too.

'We' don't really do that anymore either.

You've spectacularly missed the point thedowager

blimey, well I always knew I wouldn't smoke. I don't think smokers are subhuman fgs but I just had it clear in my own head that it was pointless, expensive, harmful and when I was 12 in 1982 and my friends all started to smoke I went and found new friends, which was tough at the time. So I'm not directing vitriol at smokers but have always been very clear in my own mind that I couldn't see the point of it. Huge leap from discussing the reasons it's not cool any more to ''considering smokers subhuman'' whaaaat? sensitive!?!?

Care to enlighten me, then?

It just looks ridiculous.. Properly ridiculous.