Why do non-smokers often display hostility towards smokers?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bratticus
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
The discussion highlights the polarized attitudes toward smoking, with anti-tobacco advocates often expressing hostility towards smokers, while smokers themselves tend to be less confrontational about their habits. Participants question why non-smokers feel the need to react strongly against smoking, suggesting that there are more constructive causes for their energy. The conversation also touches on the role of anti-smoking propaganda in fostering negative perceptions and hostility. Some argue that smokers are unfairly judged, while others emphasize the health risks and societal costs associated with smoking. Overall, the debate reflects deep-seated tensions between smokers and non-smokers, driven by personal experiences and broader societal attitudes.
Bratticus
It never ceases to amaze me. Mention tobacco and all the anti-tobacco gurus line up to crucify you. Just ask about the history of tobacco, and boom, here come the preachers. The interesting thing is that actual smokers appear to be far less hostile. Never saw any smokers go off an a tirade if someone asked about quitting. It makes me wonder why pople get so hostile about decisions of people they do not even know. Don't you all think there are better ways and better causes to unleash all that energy?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
It *stinks*.
 
Bratticus said:
It never ceases to amaze me. Mention tobacco and all the anti-tobacco gurus line up to crucify you. Just ask about the history of tobacco, and boom, here come the preachers. The interesting thing is that actual smokers appear to be far less hostile. Never saw any smokers go off an a tirade if someone asked about quitting. It makes me wonder why pople get so hostile about decisions of people they do not even know. Don't you all think there are better ways and better causes to unleash all that energy?

You live in California, right?
 
Bratticus said:
It never ceases to amaze me. Mention tobacco and all the anti-tobacco gurus line up to crucify you. Just ask about the history of tobacco, and boom, here come the preachers. The interesting thing is that actual smokers appear to be far less hostile. Never saw any smokers go off an a tirade if someone asked about quitting. It makes me wonder why pople get so hostile about decisions of people they do not even know. Don't you all think there are better ways and better causes to unleash all that energy?

I found an example of a hostile attitude toward non-smokers. See above.
 
lisab: a lot of things "stink". Do you have a drivers license? How sweet does exhaust gas smell?

Equate: I do not live in California

Chi Mason: No hostility intended... I personally do not care what people do in the privacy of their homes or cars if they do not break any laws or infringe on the rights of others.
 
Chi Meson said:
I found an example of a hostile attitude toward non-smokers. See above.

You have an extremely bizarre personal definition of hostile.
 
Bratticus said:
Never saw any smokers go off an a tirade if someone asked about quitting.

Of course. They just excuse themselves to have a smoke :biggrin: .
 
1.
Bratticus said:
Mention tobacco and all the anti-tobacco gurus line up to crucify you. Just ask about the history of tobacco, and boom, here come the preachers.

2.
The interesting thing is that actual smokers appear to be far less hostile.

Nonsense.
 
I do not live in California
 
  • #10
negitron said:
You have an extremely bizarre personal definition of hostile.

Yes. I am unhinged.
 
  • #11
so sorry, currently short on monetary gifts
 
  • #12
Bratticus, if this is the hottest conflict in your life...you have a really, really easy life.
 
  • #13
lisab said:
Bratticus, if this is the hottest conflict in your life...you have a really, really easy life.
Really! This ranks right up there with whether the end of the toilet paper should hang over the roll, or behind it, nearer the wall.

Our ferrets resolved that about 25 years ago. If the end was against the wall, they would reach up and treat the paper like a "treadmill" and strip it off the roll in no time, making a nice soft pile of paper that they could play in. They always looked guilty when caught in the act, but that wouldn't stop them from doing it again when you weren't watching.
 
  • #14
It is not a conflict, it is an observation. If you see a conflict in this, perhaps you need to redefine conflict.
 
  • #15
Bratticus said:
It is not a conflict, it is an observation. If you see a conflict in this, perhaps you need to redefine conflict.
You posed the situation as a conflict in which all non-smokers are meddling jerks who want to give you a hard time.

This non-smoker spent many years playing blues in smoky bars, and at least I was well-paid for putting up with the smoke. It may come back to bite me eventually, but I never gave any smoker any crap for his or her habit.
 
Last edited:
  • #16
Bratticus said:
Equate: I do not live in California

I truly hope you don't live in El Paso, TX, because it really sucks down here... :wink:

Anyway, I agree with your opinion in the OP.
 
  • #17
No I do not live in Texas either Equate.
 
  • #18
You must be from the blue planet... right?
 
  • #19
rootX, 3rd dirtball from the sun
 
  • #20
Second-hand smoke.
 
  • #21
I like to give cartons of cigarettes to the children of non-smokers as christmas gifts. HO HO HO!
 
  • #22
I am a smoker who regularly tries to give it up and I don't like to be around other people when they smoke.I find that smoke from other cigarettes does stink.When I spark up I make sure I am outside and away from other people.
 
  • #23
lisab: a lot of things "stink". Do you have a drivers license? How sweet does exhaust gas smell?
Yeah, and so do my farts. Luckily, people haven't told me to stop doing that too.

I agree with and have made the same observations as Bratticus. I think what creates the most young anti-smoking "hostiles" though is the anti-smoking propaganda on our television networks. "HEY! Don't cha' know that's bad for you?"
 
  • #24
Lets see, smoking is prohibited in public buildings, at the workplace, stores, restaurants and bars. So basically, smokers are limited to their own residence, their car, and the great outdoors. Considering the amount of industrial polution in the air one breathes, why has no one raised a ruckus about that? If people are afraid of second hand smoke, simple solution... don't go to a smokers house, and don't ride in his/her car. That should elimit your exposure to second hand smoke.
 
  • #25
Imo, the notion of using social pressure to help reduce smoking was adulterated to mean that it is acceptable to be rude and insulting. The internet probably helped to make things worse by making rudeness the new norm generally.

I think a lot of the problem was that smokers were previously entitled to vicitimize everyone around them who didn't smoke, so when attitudes began to change, you suddenly found a lot of non-smokers who were downright hostile. It is also true that many former smokers become the biggest anti-smoking whiners because of the attitude change that they needed to quit. For example, many cessation programs that I've heard about essentially teach a person to be intolerant of anything tobacco. My sister was like this. She was a smoker for years and then quit. Suddenly she couldn't tolerate the smell of smoke.

There is also a bit of a yuppy element to this as well. Some non-smokers clearly see themselves as being superior to smokers. This notion is reinforced with the mapping between smoking and poverty.
 
  • #26
Ivan Seeking said:
Some non-smokers clearly see themselves as being superior to smokers.
One only has to skim the threads here regarding smoking to see smokers being described as idiots and jerks who go around all day blowing smoke right into people's faces.
 
  • #27
There is some commercial running right now that made me laugh. Some guy from Alabama who quit smoking says that his parents smoked; "all of them"!

Just how many parents did he have? :smile:

For those non-US, there are demographic overtones in that statement.
 
  • #28
Perhaps people need to differentiate between smoking and rudeness. Granted, when smoking was permitted anywhere and everywhere, smokers were seen as rude by non-smokers. However, now that smoking is prohibited in all public establishments, is that supposed to excuse rudeness and hostility. Two wrongs do not add up to right. Personally, I think that government officials have bigger issues to worry about than smoking. I do not like having my taxes spent on silly commercials no one really pays attention to. Should it not be up to parents to advise their children of the health risks associated with smoking. Never mind the minor detail that being a non-smoker does not automatically obligate a person to change other peoples habits. The last time government and one social group ganged up on the general population was called prohibition. And just what did they accomplish? Bootlegging, tax evasion on a grand scale, oh yes, and a nice boost to organized crime.
 
  • #29
Bratticus said:
Lets see, smoking is prohibited in public buildings, at the workplace, stores, restaurants and bars. So basically, smokers are limited to their own residence, their car, and the great outdoors. Considering the amount of industrial polution in the air one breathes, why has no one raised a ruckus about that? If people are afraid of second hand smoke, simple solution... don't go to a smokers house, and don't ride in his/her car. That should elimit your exposure to second hand smoke.
Smokers cost the American public an estimated $96 billion dollars a year in health care and an additional $97 billion dollars a year in lost productivity.

The cost per smoker
24-year-old smokers in the United States there is an additional $204 billion of lifetime costs.

http://www.jci.org/articles/view/26421

Smokers are a financial blight on society.

So it doesn't matter if you only smoke in your own home and nowhere else. If you smoke anywhere near another person, SHAME ON YOU! You're disgusting to non-smokers. How would you like it if every time you went out in public people around you started spraying you with noxious, foul smelling and carcinogenic chemicals? Smoking is exactly that. If you haven't figured that out yet, get a clue.

Ignorance of what you are doing is no excuse.

If you promise to never smoke near other people and promise to never use medical insurance or medicare or medicaid, go ahead kill yourself, you have my blessing.
 
  • #30
Now that's a hostile nonsmoker. Makes me almost want to take up smoking again, and I quit 6 years ago.
 
  • #31
#1 OP is making big generalizations about smokers and non-smokers. That's why I said it is nonsense.
#2 OP implies that smokers don't have anything to refute the arguments made by non-smokers
#3 He is subtly insulting the non-smokers instead of providing arguments

Considering his generalizations are correct, he is still arguing against smoking if you agree with #2 which I think he doesn't wanted.
 
  • #32
negitron said:
Now that's a hostile nonsmoker. Makes me almost want to take up smoking again, and I quit 6 years ago.
Nothing hostile about it, I have asthma, people smoking around me cause me physical pain and breathing problems. You think stating the truth is hostile? :rolleyes:

I realize now that they have no right to make me sick and inflict pain on me, nor do they have the right to make me pay for them through my hard earned money (tax dollars).
 
  • #33
Evo said:
If you promise to never smoke near other people and promise to never use medical insurance or medicare or medicaid, go ahead kill yourself, you have my blessing.

Add to that, if you also promise not to take extra breaks at work to go burn one. Smokers I work with take more breaks than their non-smoking coworkers.
 
  • #34
lisab said:
Add to that, if you also promise not to take extra breaks at work to go burn one. Smokers I work with take more breaks than their non-smoking coworkers.
No kidding, the people I work with that smoke go out for 20 minutes every 1-2 hours. They also are out sick more.
 
  • #35
Evo said:
You think stating the truth is hostile? :rolleyes:

It is when it's done in a hostile tone..

Evo said:
I realize now that they have no right to make me sick and inflict pain on me, nor do they have the right to make me pay for them through my hard earned money (tax dollars).

They have a right to smoke; you have a right to avoid them. They're already prohibited from smoking inside public buildings, bars and restaurants in many areas. They've been prohibited on aircraft for years. There's just no pleasing some people.
 
  • #36
negitron said:
It is when it's done in a hostile tone..
What? "Shame on them"? Double shame on them. They are abusing people with their smoke.

You think it would be ok for people to spray you with noxious chemicals? You would just allow it?

They have a right to smoke; you have a right to avoid them.
Wrong, they do not have a right to smoke if it is in the presense of people that don't wish to be abused by it. No one has a right to assault another person in this manner.
 
  • #37
Evo said:
You think it would be ok for people to spray you with noxious chemicals? You would just allow it?

Do you drive a car?

Also, can you point me to the relevant statute(s) which remove a persons right to smoke in non-prohibited areas? If not, you need to stop using that word. Thanks.
 
  • #38
negitron said:
Do you drive a car?

Also, can you point me to the relevant statute(s) which remove a persons right to smoke in non-prohibited areas? If not, you need to stop using that word. Thanks.
As you yourself stated smoking is banned in more and more places. There is a reason for this. People are starting to assert their rights to not be physically assaulted by another person's vices. In my town I don't know of a publicly accessible building where smoking is allowed anymore. It is finally being recognized that smoking is an assault on non-smokers and smokers do not have the right to inflict pain and suffering on innocent people. That's just the way it is.

Oh, and I don't drive a car inside of a closed room. If they make driving illegal, that's not a problem, my office is 4 miles from my home and all of my shopping can be done with 1-2 miles of my house. I very rarely drive.
 
Last edited:
  • #39
negitron said:
It is when it's done in a hostile tone..



They have a right to smoke; you have a right to avoid them. They're already prohibited from smoking inside public buildings, bars and restaurants in many areas. They've been prohibited on aircraft for years. There's just no pleasing some people.
NOPE! a non smoker does not have the right to avoid smoke. I also have asthma and live in a big city. I can NOT walk down to the corner without breathing in someones smoke. I even walk in the street to avoid the sidewalk smokers. Which is more dangerous for me? A cab in a hurry or an asthma attack?
 
  • #40
Lacy33 said:
I can NOT walk down to the corner without breathing in someones smoke. I even walk in the street to avoid the sidewalk smokers. Which is more dangerous for me? A cab in a hurry or an asthma attack?
Advocates for smoking don't seem to understand or care that their smoke causes pain and even serious side affects for people that have to inhale it. It is inexcusable that they they remain ignorant of this. I say if they want to smoke that they should complete a course that makes them suffer through what they inflict on others. Like they say, ignorance is no excuse. Smokers need to get a clue. I have no sympathy for someone with a vile addiction that hurts people they come into contact with. Why should I? I can't believe that they would even expect to be tolerated in public.
 
  • #41
negitron said:
It is when it's done in a hostile tone..

I understand exactly what you mean, and I agree with you completely.
 
  • #42
Chi Meson said:
I understand exactly what you mean, and I agree with you completely.
It's not hostile to protect your rights to not be hurt in a common area by another person and point that out. It would be hostile to walk into a cigar bar and threaten the people smoking there.

God forbid I try to protect my health in common public areas.
 
Last edited:
  • #43
Me and my buddy like to have the occasional smoke when we're stressed. We'll go outside away from anyone that doesn't want to smoke and enjoy our smokes in peace. No harm no foul.
 
  • #44
What is the difference between the pollutants of an idling Toyota Prius and those of a lit cigarette?

Cigarette butts seem to be the only form of litter tolerated by many smokers.
 
Last edited:
  • #45
I do not have asthma... why pay for people who do? If you have no mental health issues, why pay for treatment of people who do? If you have no children, why pay for schools and healthcare for children? If you never used cocain, meth, or other illegal drugs, why pay for the treatment of people who do? No one lives in a bubble, everyone pays for something they themselves do not need.
 
  • #46
Bratticus said:
I do not have asthma... why pay for people who do?
My asthma only bothers me when I come into contact with someone that smokes.
 
  • #47
Evo said:
If they make driving illegal, that's not a problem, my office is 4 miles from my home and all of my shopping can be done with 1-2 miles of my house.


I see, and to hell with all the fools that do not live in walking distance to work or stores... suffer... apparently those people do not matter either
 
  • #48
Bratticus said:
I see, and to hell with all the fools that do not live in walking distance to work or stores... suffer... apparently those people do not matter either
Take that up with negitron, he's against driving. My reply was that it wouldn't affect me.
 
  • #49
Evo said:
Take that up with negitron, he's against driving. My reply was that it wouldn't affect me.

Of course not, and if it bothers someone else, what's it to you, eh? So long as people accommodate you, you are fine
 
  • #50
Bratticus said:
Of course not, and if it bothers someone else, what's it to you, eh? So long as people accommodate you, you are fine
Now you're not even making sense. Are you out of coherent debate? It wouldn't affect me because I don't need to drive, or did you completely miss that?
 

Similar threads

Why do women often misinterpret signals from men?
Replies
2
Views
3K
Why do so many people hate science?
Replies
28
Views
11K
Focus all of your ire on me, if you would
Replies
4
Views
2K
Are you an "intuitive" or a "reflective"? Quiz sorts us out
Replies
8
Views
3K
Studying Why am I not doing well in physics?
Replies
16
Views
2K
Studying Why do Walter Rudin's proofs in real analysis often seem so elusive and clever?
Replies
2
Views
3K
Why is it such a boom to see a bum?
Replies
36
Views
6K
Why Do Physicists Face Such Persistent Stereotypes and Misconceptions?
Replies
31
Views
9K
What are you supposed to do in these situations?
Replies
47
Views
9K
Meet Ryan_m_b: A Lifelong Love of Science & Nanomedicine
Replies
17
Views
4K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top