Smokers are selfish and clearly not very clever

[forever390]

Today I tried to enjoy the sun but everywhere I went there were smokers puffing away in front of my kids and their own children. It was at the cafe, ice cream store, restaurants, park. Absolutely disgusting. It's hot and my family want to enjoy outside spaces too.

I dont know anyone that smokes. Smokers must have pretty low levels of intelligence if they are willing to slowly kill their bodies even though there is loads of information out there regarding the harms. Why do people smoke still? And do they just not give a damn about smoking in front of children? What goes through their head when they light up in front of a baby in a pram?

Well OP, I have an extremely High IQ, I'm in Mensa, and I have a PhD. (I also have no common sense! Am useless with money! Try my best at parenting but am human and therefore make mistakes! I'm good at some things, terribly bad at others. I'm completely average and a little dull. But anyway - just trying to make the point that intelligence is somewhat irrelevant!! - but you raised it so...)

I smoked for about 15 years. I started at 13 when I was young and teenage enough to think it was cool! there was also peer pressure and looking for ways to escape my life and hang out with people that gave me comfort (and sadly also cigarettes and alcohol)

I got hooked pretty easily.

I haven't really smoked for about 10 years now, but do still have the occasional one when I'm very stressed. TBH I think im still addicted but I don't face too many triggers these days so can abstain.

People don't smoke to harm you or anyone else. People know it's bad for them. But people started smoking for all kinds of complex reasons and it can be extremely hard to stop, even though you know it might kill you.

I feel sad you have had to breathe in other people's smoke and it's great you don't smoke. However, please be less judgemental and more accepting of your fellow humans.

Solving the smoking problem requires policy and culture change and a supportive community. Not judgement.

Great that you don't smoke though :)

I think you have a point. You try to find a spot where you can enjoy a bit of fresh air (not just cafes) and someone plonks themselves down and lights up.

It is irritating! Especially if you have children with you and have to move.

Yeah, that Barack Obama, he's clearly stupid and selfish.

I've seen more than a few pics of him with a fag on.

At least normal cigs only produce small amounts of smoke, those people with the vapes that make huge clouds of sickly sweet stench big me more.

Because they're 'healthy' people vape all over the place, even in school play ground. It stinks and makes people around you choke you inconsiderate cunt.. < that's to chucklefuck in my kids playground...

I watched every member of a multi-generational family vaping away as they had a picnic by a riverbank yesterday and it occurred to me that life would be more boring if I didn't have so many reasons to feel superior to other people [GRIN]

Yes smoking is antisocial, highly unattractive and smells awful (yes vaping smells terrible as well) but it's also a useful signal as to what sort of person they are, so you can proceed accordingly.

I smoked for 15 years and quit over 10 years ago. I have sympathy for those addicted, I don't like people smoking infront of my children but actually their pariah status (hived off to huddle in uncomfortable groups) is probably a good example of why we should smoke. I think it's social appeal is now broken and therfore seeing others smoke is not likely to impact the young. The smoke outside disperses quickly so I don't see it as harmful, again it's unpleasantness could even be seen as another way to put youngsters off starting. What annoys me more is vaping pipes that create ridiculous clouds being used in close proximity. So overall I think you are somewhat unreasonable both in your reaction to smokers and the assertion regarding inteligence.

Preaching is an ugly trait.

She's not preaching, she's complaining.

I also think smoking should be banned in public places.

All these super considerate, responsible smokers saying they don't do a,b,or c : whether you do or don't, shitloads of smokers are not considerate and do, so it's a bit if a pointless argument.

I can't stand at bus shelters in my town with my child in a buggy (a shelter with a no smoking sign on it) without being smoked over, every single time.

The smoke outside disperses quickly so I don't see it as harmful

Not doesn't. You can mm I've around trying to get up wind of someone smoking, but it still seems to get you, and walking behind z smoker on a pavement (where you have no option but to walk in a line behind them) means walking in s metre wide stream of constant cigarette smoke.

• No it doesn't.

My point was that the smoke has widely dispersed, hence you can smell it but it's rather dilute and nolonger harmful. I'm not fan of smokers but I think some people are overly precious... probably the same ones that go home and light a wood burner or bonfire!

I see this thread is still going.

We are arguing about the intelligence of smokers vs non-smokers, and the non-smokers are just having a moan. It's a bit of a non-argument in the first place surely, as it's such a ridiculously stupid comment in the first place?

I smoke

The reason I started was after working in a Smokey pub. Then I went to work for the NHS. Do you know how many people were taking up smoking when working in a hospital? A lot of my work mates. The reason why?

Because at the time it was the only way to get off the ward for five minutes. Awful isn’t it. That at that time, the only way you could get a break was to be a smoker.

Same as when I became an agency cater and went to work in nursing homes. A lot of the staff smokes because it was the only way to get five minutes. Now this was a very long time ago, 16 years but I haven’t broken the habit. I know the risks, but you know what? The same as some people like to drink to excess every weekend or those that want to drive around in their cars speeding it’s a risk I want to take.

OP you asked if people read the papers - I do but they are notoriously scaremongering. Passive smoking is dangerous when people are repeatedly exposed, usually indoors, and in cars.

An occasional waft of cigarette smoke a few days a year is not going to harm your children. Walking down Marylebone Road however is apparently the equivalent of breathing in 4 cigarettes per minute...

Maybe use your implied superior intellect and look at the bigger picture. Yes, smoking is dangerous as is secondary smoking. It is anti-social, expensive and offers no meaningful benefits to offset the various downsides. In short, it makes no logical sense. However, barely a generation or 2 ago, 50%+ of the adult population were smokers, people smoked on planes, trains and buses, in restaurants and pubs and in the workplace. Hell, when I was a kid, school teachers smoked whilst taking classes and they had smoking wards in hospitals. You cannot eradicate what was such a popular, pervasive, socially acceptable habit overnight. I think rather than being a whiny ass, maybe you should be grateful for the good progress that has been made and will continue to be made until eventually we get the smoke-free world you long for. I suspect you'll still find something to be a goady twat about though.

I agree MyMumDimensionJumps I just think forever was being a moany cow and likes to cut off others heads to make herself feel taller, I'd still love that donut

Find a large field, sit in the middle.

As a smoker you can do just that and I can almost guarantee that a non-smoker will feel compelled to sit right next to you just so they can flap their hands.

TooTrueToBeGood Here here

smoking is very moreish ooh i miss smoking and love the whiff of a real fag. not those awful vape fugs though

on a recent trip to london i was not surprised to see french school trip kids still sucking on fags

AlexaAmbidextra I just think this while post is gone up in smoke

Ok I'll stop now

I've never smoked, but I still think you are being very unreasonable. Firstly, some of the most intelligent and well-educated people I know are smokers. Being intelligent does not protect against substance use.

Secondly, EVERYBODY behaves in ways that are harmful to themselves and/or others. The extent varies, but nobody avoids harm altogether. Therefore, while you could say smoking around others is selfish in some circumstances; you could not say that smokers are significantly more selfish than non-smokers as a result of this factor alone.

If you want to concentrate on calculating human selfishness, I'd advise you to start with yourself and work outwards. What haven't you done today while you've been here, for example? Could you have helped a neighbour instead of complaining about other peoples' selfishness and offending people online?

@Mummyshark2018 Also research now says that obesity is (will be) a bigger killer than smoking, as will loneliness. Are people who don't have a bmi between 18-30 also 'low intelligence'?

But the difference is that an obese person isn’t affecting anyone else’s health, only their own. If I sit at the next table to you and eat a big cream cake, the calories won’t somehow go onto your hips. So it’s not a valid comparison.

I have to say I think it's daft that people still smoke in this day and age, and when vaping etc is readily available. I smoked like a chimney in the 90s early 2000s. Came from a family of smokers and it just seemed normal as everyone around me smoked. It's not easy to give up but I did it at age of 25. You have to really want to though. Maybe some people that smoke are depressed and not caring about themselves deep down..

Agree it's not a sign of low intelligence that's for sure..I know so many successful smart people that smoke.