Socially Acceptable vs. Not Acceptable?

Question

How come its ok for people to condem others for smoking ciggarrettes? you know the people who go around reminded you of how smoking gives you lung cancer but how come its not cool to tell fat people to stop eating? When ever I go in a fast food resturaunt and see obese people eating more then one cheeseburger I want to tell them that if they get heart disease they have no one to blame but themselves...but if I say this then im a jerk, yet its ok to tell a smoker they are gonna get lung cancer...whats up with that?

No im not a Ciggarette smoker

Answer 1

yeah i hear you. i dont get it either! if we tell some1 not to smoke cuz it causes cancer, its good, but if we tell an overweight person that they will get heart disease, its rude? u r so right. i think thats not rude, i think that shows u care about somebody. well, atleast u know someones on ur side! ME!

Answer 2

There are a few things that smokers just don't seem to get...

1) You stink. You are unpleasant to be around. It's about as much fun as being around a person with vomit stuck to the front of their shirt, or someone with uncontrollable flatulence. No, on second thought, I'll take either of the latter, because it's not a healt risk to ME.

2) You're stupid. This is not MY original thought, but that of author Larry Winget in the great book, "Shut up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life". The fact is that medical science has PROVEN that cigarettes will make you sick in all sorts of ways, and the people around you as well. So, in Larry's tell-it-like-it-is style, he says if you smoke, you're stupid.

I wonder if this would help get it through people's heads that it's OTHER people's health you're risking... you know what I would like to see? A law that said that shooting a smoker is okay, perfectly legal, because it's self-defense.
3)

Answer 3

I disagree with him. It is still (unfortunately) very much accepted to make fun of or criticize people who are overweight. Just take movies as an example, it is perfectly ok to diss overweight people, or even base entire films on someone being fat and call it comedy whereas smoking is still portrayed as being cool. There are medical reasons a person can be overweight but smoking is completely voluntary. I think smokers should be criticized more but that is not the way things are.

Answer 4

I smoke and do my best to not annoy others with the actual smoke. The only person who ever whines about my smoking is my husband who smoked when we were married but quit a couple of years ago. He doesn't want me to die and leave him with the three kids :) 1 in 5 people who smoke get lung cancer (I think that's the correct ratio) so not everyone who smokes gets cancer and dies. It does increase your chance by quite a lot but it won't necessarily kill you. Quiting is always better for your health but people are generally to addicted to quit easily. Some people actually care about your health and others are just being jerks. That's life those same people probably would tell an over weight person not to eat junk food and embarrass them.

Answer 5

Firstly, cigarette smoke affects everyone in their vicinity, so it affects the health of others, giving others some leeway to comment on it.

Secondly, I don't know if it's ok to tell a smoker that if they get lung cancer they have no one to blame but themselves. So equally so, it would be inappropriate to tell an overweight person that they have no one to blame but themselves if they get heart disease.

Thirdly, there are often many reasons someone is obese, none of which are related to their food consumption. Many thin people eat more than one hamburger at a sitting. So you can't automatically correlate obesity with the amount a person is eating - you don't know the person's medical history or the cause of their obesity. So you're actually sticking your own foot in your mouth by making a comment about something you know nothing about.

Finally, if YOU are in the fast food restaurant watching someone else eat more than one cheeseburger, you're there pretty long yourself... what are YOU eating? Would you want someone coming up to YOU to tell you the dangers of eating all that fat and greasy food?

We are allowed personal freedoms here. Maybe you should focus more on improving YOURSELF than focusing on what YOU think other people need to change about themselves. It's kinda judgmental, dontcha think?

Answer 6

Many obese people are NOT that way because of the way they eat. Some have thyroid problems or other health issues that you can't see. How would you feel if you walked up to an obese person and said, "You really shouln't be eating that because you are fat and it will give you heart disease" only to find out the person HAS heart disease, cancer, thyroid problems or other things?

Smoking is a choice, obesity isn't! Do some research on obesity before putting a question like that out on the net. People who are obese are people and things like this hurt them.

Answer 7

Neither is acceptable but obesity is seen as not always a choice but can be down to genes or whatever there is always an excuse for obesity but for smokers it's considered a choice to smoke so it's your fault if you get lung cancer but at the same time if you smoke around non-smokers then it is affecting their health too so they complain b/c it's their health on the line aswell but with obese ppl it is only themselves who they are affecting.

Answer 8

simple. all people eat food. therefore eating excessive food is not often caught by people all the time.

if you really wanted to compare apples to apples, you would need to ask ursel fsoemthing like.

assuming the entire world smoked 5 cigarettes a day, would the rest of the world condemn you for smoking 100 cigaretts a day. Its the same with excessive eating.

Having said that, I'd recommend a lifestyle where you dun smoke nor u eat excessively. I'd even go as far to say be a vegetariand and dont wallop those poor animals to satiate the needs of your tongue and belly.

Answer 9

It's a social thing...people who don't smoke feel that they are right and can tell smokers how wrong they are. Most of them are x smokers and should just keep their mouth shut! It's not their business what other people do. Everyone knows the risks of smoking and it's their right to do it!

Answer 10

My mother-in-law is obese and a smoker. I refuse to stay at her house because of the cigarette smoke, not because of the food.

We've gotten gifts for our daughter from her that reek like cigarettes and we have to wash them (sometimes twice) before we can even stand to let her try them on. We've never gotten a gift for her that reeked like bacon, or cheeseburgers, however.

Cigarette smoke hurts those around you as well as yourself. Snarffing 5 cheeseburgers only hurts the eater.

Answer 11

I dont think anyone can answer this question, much less yahoo answers lol. Its a really good question though, maybe you should write an essay about it /article. and why do people always get angry when I tell them to relax, its not like they have to do what I say