Why do smokers feel they have inalienable rights to smoke?

Question

whereever and whenever they please?

Why do smokers feel angry that people dont want to breath their first and second hand smoke?

Why shouldnt smokers pay more for insurance...oh wait, they do. Does this also prove something considering they still smoke?

Should any smoker sign a waiver saying they will 100% pay for their own medical and not put a strain on health insurance or HMO?

Should smokers be forced to own air purification helmets that recycle the smoke into their body so that none escapes into the air?

I enjoy making smokers mad and rationalizing their actions and behaviors. I also think your arrogance and "it cant kill me" attitudes are mind bogglingly amazing. I give smokers zero credit for being intelligent.

lol @ jen and insane rationalizing, you guys do it SO well. its part of your sickness, isnt it, to be able to justify killing yourself and others?

MARK J? How proud of your "right to smoke" will you be when your family is standing by your side in the ICU as you fight for your last breaths and you realize you threw away years of your life with your family? How arrogant will you be then? How omniscient and all seeing will you be as your family watches you die a slow, painful, stupid and unnecessary death of lung cancer, emphyzema, heart attack...

oh well, one less smoker!

By the way, calling me ignorant or naive isnt going to help any of you smokers when you are dieing because your lungs wont allow your body to absorb any more oxygen, but hey, thats ok. You knew the risks! Besides, its easier to rationalize your behaviors if you call someone else naive, right?

Answer 1

Cause they don't have the willpower to quit, so they need to justify their actions, or just project onto non-smokers. Makes them feel better about themselves, or somehow superior.

I like your idea of a helmet. lol

If smokers don't think that second hand smoke is so bad, why in winter do they open their car windows and hang the cigarette outside? Is smoke is so great, why not close all the windows and inhale deeply??

Answer 2

It's "unalienable rights" and people who smoke should not have any more or any less rights than people who don't smoke. I don't think you realize the arguement. I assume you are talking about public smoking bans. Which is fine but the government does not have the right, in my opinion, to tell private business owners that they can not allow smoking on their private property. And as a non-smoker, I still believe that the general public should never put any kind of tax burden on a specific population. Should we make all people with genetic predispositions to certain cancers pay more for health insurance too? How about we charge all the people who eat too much an extra tax because they have more health complictaions than even smokers. Should all people who drive cars breath in their own car exhaust too? It pollutes the environment more so than second-hand cigarette smoke. I just think thatn people who don't like smokers should stay away from places that have smoke in them. If you don't like it complain to the bar owner, after all they're catering to their patrons and if most of their patrons are non-smokers, I'm sure they would be more than willing to accomodate that.

Answer 3

I am a smoker. I am not angry that you do not want to breathe in my second hand smoke. I am mad that the government is trying to tell me, and you, what we can and cannot breathe in. I understand non-smokers hate the smell and affects, but since when did they start controlling what we do? You know who I think should start paying health insurance 100%? Those on medicaid that keep poping out babies for a free ride or those that are here illegally that have no social security numbers. As far as paying 100% for our health insurance... what about fat people? How is it my fault that there are a bunch of fat asses walking around. Number one killer in America is OBESITY! Lastly, about the helmets, maybe you should wear one because driving a car emits gases that could harm you as well. Everything we breath in is bad. Mind your own business and don't worry about what I'm smoking.

Answer 4

best thing i saw was some comdey show thats on at like 3 am on fox...some guy was making fun of smokers and then compared second hand smoke to something else...he took a sip of his water and then sprayed/spat it out and said sorry about my second hand beverage....it really is the same thing...i was a former smoker, and now that im on the other side, its really offensive, inconvenient, and physically intrusive when a smoker is around you...maybe smokers need to step in other peoples shoes for a day

Answer 5

I smoke and I respect people's rights to not have to breathe second hand smoke. That's why I step off to the side somewhere to smoke. What pisses me off is when I'm minding my own business by myself and someone walks up next to me and then complains about having to breathe smoke. I don't know how many people I have told, if they don't like it, then don't stand next to me, there is plenty of space.

Smokers are unintelligent? I've been smoking since I was 15. I am an engineer who graduated as valedictorian from my college. I have my own successful business. I own a home, and have a wife and 3 healthy kids in which I do not smoke around. What smoker told you that it won't kill them? Because all the smokers I know, including myself, are well aware of the risks. Sounds to me like you are very naive about life in general. Here's a tip for you. No one can make a smoker quit. they have to quit on their own terms. Get that through your head.

Answer 6

Too bad no one complains about the diesel soot or coal fired air pollution we are forced to breathe every day - this is more of a health risk to the US than someone smoking a cigarette.

How many tons of pollution do trucks, planes and power plants put inot the air compared to what smokers exhale?

Why not focus on cleaning up the biggest polluters first?

Why do smokers pay these tobacco taxes if the states just put it in the general fund and not use it for what it was inteneded to be used for?

You need to find another red herring to chase my friend.

Answer 7

I don't feel like I have an inalienable right to smoke. I try very hard to be considerate of other people and respect their wishes, whether I'm smoking or not. All I ask in return is for people to be considerate of me. And you are not by lumping me into a catagory with other people that you've never met and trying to define me by terms of which you have no idea you speak.
You speak of "inalienable" rights, well I do have "inalienable" rights given to me by the Constitution of America to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". Of those rights I have the right to smoke if I choose and smoke around my children if I choose and I am willing to pay the price for those actions.
If I meet you walking down the street and I'm smoking, I still have the right to smoke. And you have the right to cross the street to get away from my smoke if you so please.

Since you are apparently NOT a medical doctor, you wouldn't know that smoking does NOT equal lung cancer or any of the other diseases out there that are linked to smoking. LINKED, mind you. Linked just like speeding does not equal a car crash, it just raises the probability of it. Just like other risk factors raise the probability of other things in our lives.

I also have the right defined by the Constitution to be an A** about it if I so choose, but I don't. I choose to ask others around me if they care if I smoke around them or THEIR children. I also take care not to smoke in certain places and I don't break the law when I smoke. Unlike you who is trying to restrain my Constitutional rights by restricting my "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

Oh by the way you are fulfilling your right, by being an A** about it. So congrads on getting that part right.

Answer 8

Strain on an HMO, are you insane or just uneducated? Should all cars have air purification helmets to keep the pollutants from spilling out to the environment? Airplanes? Smoke stacks? Volcanoes?

Move over here to CA. No smoking inside any public buildings and we just banned smoking in parks and on beaches.

Answer 9

They feel angry because they cant help it and people asking them to stop only makes it worse. Its like if people told you to stop doing some annoying bad habbit that you have a compulsion to do.

Its not like they want to piss people off or anything, its just something they are used to doing.

They know its bad for them they dont need us telling them what to do. Although I do agree that sometimes it is just to much.

I think the only way that cigarettes will ever be wiped out is

smoking bans similar to the ones in NY

Or they want to quit.

Answer 10

Ever wonder why do the non-smokers spend so much time in focussing and concentrating when others were smoking instead of doing their own work out there.
Look around and wonder why the non-smoker ended up in their early graves in worrying to death about the smokes out there.
While the smoking man were still smoking out there.