Wes Mantooth

The smoking issue is really one of those gray areas when it comes to social etiquette. Wow...that probably makes no sense let me explain. I don't think the OP meant any harm nor do I think anybody that lectures about smoking really means any harm, after all they are only trying in some way to help you kick an unhealthy habit. The problem is a lot of times, from the smokers perspective, it really starts crossing a lot of personal boundaries. For example in this case the OP, innocently enough, tells the smoker to quit so he can afford going to the gym...innocent, harmless...but think about what he's really doing.

He's criticising (for lack of a better word) a grown man over his personal habits and financial choices. If you take smoking out of the equation and instead the OP said something like "If you stopped buying junk food you could afford it", I think most people would find that rather rude. For some reason its become acceptable in today's world to criticise smokers in ways that would be completely unacceptable when dealing with other personal subjects.

I don't know, its just a theory (and maybe I'm overtired and this makes no sense to anybody else), but imagine if every time you engaged in a bad, unhealthy habit (junk food, too much caffeine, alcohol) somebody lectured, questioned or talked down to you about it. I think most people would start blowing their stack after awhile.

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