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Originally Posted by Master_Shake
Look no further, smoking is a filthy habit that is fundamentally selfish. But:
1. Smoking is cool. If you claim it's not, it's because you're not cool. It's also relaxing and enjoyable. The coolness, relaxingness and enjoyableness outweigh the smell for those of us who smoke.
2. Are you telling me that you have no selfish activities? Do you have cable television? Why aren't you putting that money to good use by saving the poor children in Africa who die from lack of food instead of watching the food channel while eating a whole Turkey for Christmas?
Pick a reason for the banning of smoking and stick with it. Every reason you present can be shot down, one at at time.
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When i see someone smoking, i imagine that, instead of them smoking, they are sucking on really small expensive carcinogenic penises. Doesn't seem that cool to me.
I do selfish things all of the time, i just don't pretend that it is my right to force others to do them right along with me because i'm too addicted/self righteous to go outside.
There are many reasons to ban smoking, and i don't think you've succesfully shot down any of them.
You do seem to live up to your namesake quite well though.
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Originally Posted by asaris
You keep claiming that smoking affects those who don't choose to smoke. How, other than being an annoyance?
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Well, if i have asthma, or any number of other respiratory diseases, a whiff of smoke can have far reaching consequences. Plus, cigarette smoke has been directly linked with a wide assortment of adverse medical conditions. Maybe there isn't a study directly linking secondhand smoke and cancer, but you'd be a fool to point to this fact and claim that longterm exposure to secondhand smoke causes no adverse health effects. There are many chemicals in cigarette smoke that are known to cause health problems after longterm exposure. Furthermore, the thickheaded insistance that longterm secondhand exposure to a known carcinogen is harmless sounds to me suspicously analgous to every tobacco exec who still staunchly denies that tobacco even causes cancer. That is to say, it sounds like a whole lotta self serving bullshit.
How does not being able to smoke indoors affect smokers, other than being a mild annoyance?
As for letting businesses decide, the free market doesn't care about your health, it cares about money. If all you're concerned with is the free market, you're living in the wrong country. I trust all of you free marketeers never fly, since the airline industry is propped up by federal funds, rather than market forces. I trust all you free marketeers are making concerted efforts to remove "big government's" prohibition of the consumption of alcohol by minors.
The "antiregulatory" angle is bullshit unless you are the most hardcore of libertarians. Government regulation is often a good thing, to claim that you don't favor the government telling people what to do shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be a citizen of any country. Hello laws? Hello OSHA? Hello Bill of Rights?