Before I begin this rant, I want to be clear about something: It’s not just the act of smoking I find revolting, it is the people who smoke that I really hate.
Some may say “they are helpless victims under the spell of a powerful and addictive drug”.
To that I say:
- “Do we all get to make choices in our lives?” Yes.
- “Do we all have the power to change?” Yes.
- “Are we all therefore choosing (through action or inaction) to be smokers or non-smokers?” Yes.
One more thing, I wanted to tell you that it took me a long time to write this headline:
- I started with “12 Reasons I Hate Smoking” but I realised that that headline suggested I was a smoker and I hated the fact I smoked. I am not.
- I also considered “12 Reasons I Hate Smokers” but even though it’s true, I do actually hate smokers, most of the reasons in my list weren’t about the smokers, they were mostly about the act of smoking.
- I also considered “12 Reasons I Hate Cigarettes” but the word cigarettes is hard to spell. Are there two “g’s” or just one? Two “t’s” or just one?
12 Reasons I Am Anti-Smoking
#1: Smoking Kills Fresh Air
When it’s a beautiful sunny day and I want to go to a cafe and sit outside, I can’t, because smokers are defiling the fresh air.
So I sit just inside the door so at least I can see the sunny day from there, but smoke blows in the open door. grrr
#2 Cigarette Butts Kill Seahorses
Why don’t smokers think that throwing cigarette butts onto the street or into gardens is ok? It’s not ok. It’s littering.
Littering is a crime against the community. Some poor sod will have to pick up a soggy butt that has been in a smokers mouth.
Furthermore, many of those butts flush out to sea, just think of cute little sea horses choking to death on them! Poor little buggers, why should they suffer?
#3 Smoking Employees in Uniform Kills Brands
Employees who loiter around the front door (or back door) of their work place wearing their uniforms sucking in their cheeks and blowing out toxic clouds looks nasty.
And have you seen the tin cans that are often used for collecting cigarette butts but are seldom emptied? And sometimes they get kicked over and the butts spill out everywhere? Gross.
#4 Smoking Kills the Hotness of Smoking Hot Chicks
There’s nothing worse then spotting a smoking hot chick at a distance, taking a moment to have a perve (as you do), and then seeing her bring a cigarette up to her mouth. Yuck.
It just ruins the whole perving experience.
It makes super hot chicks in movies look old. It makes hot chicks look barely better than average. It makes average looking chicks look ugly. It makes ugly chicks look…
Along those lines, I’m sure we all fantasise about kissing hot chicks, but the thought of kissing an ashtray mouth shatters that fantasy.
#5 Smoke Gives Killer Headaches
Perhaps I am more sensitive to smoke than most people because if I am unfortunate to be engulfed in a cloud of smoke I get an instant headache.
#6 Smoking Kills Family Members
Smoking killed my grandmother. She died of breast cancer, which is very close to the lungs so I think her many years of smoking is to blame.
She lived a shorter life on this planet because of smoking. My family would have liked to have her around longer.
#7 Smoking Kills Poor Peoples Financial Priorities
I hate to see people on the unemployment benefit (who get paid with my taxes) buy a $18 packet of cigarettes and then realise after that purchase that they can’t afford bread and milk for their kids for breakfast so the kids either get nothing or get to share $3 worth of hot chips.
#8 Stop Smoking TV Ads Kill The Mood
You’re sitting there enjoying your favourite TV sitcom when the TV ads start with a stop smoking “shock” campaign. Images of diseased lungs and hearts fill the screen. I don’t even smoke and yet these images are in my face. Not fair.
#9 Smoking Breaks Kill Productivity
Have you noticed that smokers take more breaks at work? They are happy to leave us non-smokers to keep working while they go outside for some “fresh air”.
#10 Smoking Kills A Positive Image
A smoker’s clothes stink, their breath stinks, hair, house, car, pets, you name it. And their own sense of smell is so deadened they don’t even realise!
In a job interview situation do you think smelling like smoke decreases your chances of getting hired? I’m sure it does.
Doctors who smoke are the worst. How could you trust a Doctor to look after you when they can’t even look after themselves?
I love meeting new people, but if I catch a whiff that tells me they are a smoker I can’t help but think less of them. I think I perceive them as weak because they are addicted and can’t control themselves. It’s unfair to them, but I can’t help it.
Furthermore, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been asked by a smoker “do you mind if I smoke?” (to which I reply “actually yes, please refrain, thank you”). Why do so few ask this question? Are they so addicted that they can’t be courteous?
#11 Smokers Don’t Care That Smoking is Killing Them
If you give a smoker a list of 100 reasons to quit, present them with irrefutable medical evidence that smoking does indeed kill, impose ever increasing restrictions on where they can smoke, even after all that they keep smoking. That’s just annoying.
#12 The Best Alternatives To Smoking Are Killer Clever
Have you noticed that the most popular “smoking alternatives” contain nicotine and they are therefore just as addictive as smoking?
This is no co-incidence. Why are companies legally allowed to create products that are chemically addictive to their customers?
From a business point of view this is a licence to print money.
Governments not only tolerate these products, they endorse them.
Okay, some of the stuff you said was quite right if I’m honest but I don’t see how you get like … annoyed at other people who smoke. It’s their choice. I understand that because of your gran you might be a bit annoyed at people for smoking but from my point of view you are being a bit controlling and ‘close – minded’ (is that the right word ? the opposte of open minded)
if i offended you then i’m sorry bu you have NOT convinced me to quit smoking.
Thanks for your thoughts on this Ruby. People are entitled to make choices for their lives, for sure. But my problem is the impact that those choice have on me. Pretty selfish I spose but that’s my only perspective.
I think it’s great you are out there looking for articles like mine. I would be very happy if you do eventually quit. All the best to you. 🙂
I have hated smoking all my life. Father smoked and brothers too, but I disliked even being in the house with them. I have never permitted anyone to smoke in my home or automobile and when I see a pretty woman or handsome man (they don’t even have to
be handsome!) SMOKING, it takes away all their good looks.
Yes, it is a “smoker’s choice.” Does not mean I have to be near them or be friends with them. My choice.
Hello Sheltron,
Happy New 2012!
In 2010 I commented on your post about alcohol and I must say this post is just as spot on. I received a mail that somebody had replied on the alcohol post, so I found your blog again.
I´ve actually start writing my own thoughts on http://planyourjourney.wordpress.com You´re welcome to stop by and check it out:)
Yes, the choices the smokers make is their own choice; if they want to inhale it´s fine with me (except if it´s a family member or friend…I would really get in their face and let them know that they are literally killing themselves, which is not fine…I need them around and second it´s suicide which is not OK either..) but when it affects our wellbeing it really makes me furious.
IT happens all the time-I stand and wait for the train minding my own business when one after another shows up and start to make up a fire. I have no where to go. I´m trapped! Then the bombarding starts; puffs of smoke starts to make its way up my nostrils. I look around and I can tell that I´m not alone. Others are being attacked too! “The others” stand there, like it´s their human right, puffing away. I get so furious that I ask them to “piss off, go kill yourself someplace else!” I scream at the top of my lungs, ´cause I still have 100% lung capacity so I can do that…but I don´t. The furious scream echoes in my head while I walk over to the other side of the platform regretting that I didn’t, with authority, make my inner scream heard. “Well, maybe next time I will…well I dont know. I have my opinion and they have fire and smoke…hmm. A few more jujitsu lessons and then maybe.”
Yes! I hate it as much as you but I also burn inside without unleashing my anger on them. Why am I so polite? Damn them!
1: So does everything, including you. Hope you are hating on the traffic making fumes, too.
2: That is what personal ash trays are for, not as many people use these as they should, but i do.
3: I dont judge a company or brand by what employees of it do in there off time.. unless its something evil like beating up old ladies.
4: Oh yeah, im totally with you. How dare hot people do something that i dont like. Grr, dont they realise they only exist for my viewing pleasure?!?!
5: If you are a sensitive bitch, then yes, this is probably true.
6: So do cars, so do beaches. Lets all stop having road trips to the beach, infact lets write a big blog about how dangerous that shit is.
7: Yeah i hate seeing people buy what they choose to aswell. How dare they decide what they spend there money on, dont they realise the ipad 3 is out now?
8: These ads a product of retards like you, thank you.
9: Smokers are entitled to just as many breaks as everyone else, you are just so concious about it because you have so little to think about, due to being a retard.
10: It kills YOUR perception of a positive image, maybe. I have more respect for people who smoke.
11: I dont care smoke kills me just like you dont care that mcdonalds kills you. Its enjoyable, and its at my own peril.. or am I not entitled to chose how I live anymore? Is that a new law somewhere?
12: Hey, idiot, thats because nicotine while being a poison is not actually a carcinogen, it does not KILL you anymore than alcohol does, only in excessive amounts in a quick period of time. It is the tar and other stuff created by burning tobacco leaves that creates cancer. So yes, the government endorses an option for people to avoid getting cancer.. those fucking cunts
Thanks Jesse. You sound a bit stressed. Instead of using a cigarette to deal with your stress I suggest a swim in the sea or a bike ride.
I’m going to tell you all a dirty secret. I stalk rude male smokers (I’m a male) and violently attack them outside of their home. I never kill anyone, nor would I, but I beat them severely with whatever choice of weapon I decide to use on them. Sometimes I just spray them with pepper spray. Sometimes I beat them very badly. It is the least I can do for their 2nd hand smoke. They do not care about themselves or others so I will also not care about them. This is how I spend my weekends, sometimes attacking 3 or 4 over the course of a weekend.
A miss-placed punch could be fatal so maybe you could think of another way to get your message across. Perhaps, hand out a pamphlet.
I hate smoking and always have. I avoid smokers. Never would have a person smoke in my car or home. Have no friends who are smokers. I simply stay away from them — do not confront – – unless they are “in my space.” Clothes smell of smoke. Old saying: “Kissing a smoker is like
licking an ash tray.” Ah, too true.
Years ago my husband worked for Philip Morris Company. He received free cartons of cigarettes. We used them for “barter.” We got firewood,
a turkey, free home raised chickens for dinner, etc. Once some kids in a car rescued me when I ran out of gas. I gave them all (in the car) cigarettes by the carton. In those days they did not cost what they do now. When I met my husband he smoked through the week but not on weekends. After a couple of dates I asked him if he would just NOT SMOKE. He quit on the spot and it has been “a lifetime” since that day.
Never once missed cigarettes. He has great will power.
You know what? I never hated smokers 1/100th as much as I do now, before I came to the city (a city in Somerset, England). I used to be in a village, and the rarity of smokers’ presence or the ease of avoiding them was so delightful I didn’t realize how wonderful my circumstances were at the time.
Now I hate smokers. Why? Because they now affect my life, my health and my senses. They stink worse than shit (the actual smoke, duh), harm my/the smoker’s/other people’s health and make me so angry. Why do I have to tolerate the stench of smoke on the way to school/back from school? I walk half an hour to get there. Only to be greeted by the scent of a druggie. I have to, I repeat, have to pass this area where the majority of smokers I see on the way to/back from school stay, in order to get to my school. This area is a supermarket. The smokers frequent their gatherings in their car parks and at the skate-park beside it. On the way to school sometimes (up to a dozen times in a month) there are smokers too. A couple of them are adults, and many are youngsters. Quite a few old people smoking too. No wonder the teens are so…urgh…
Even 10 mins after the majority of people have left school (at the end of school) they are still there, God knows how long they stay there. Mindlessly smoking.
Cigarette butts are littered on the path (last 10 mins before I reach school) to school and in the supermarket/skatepark area. What an eyesore.
Did I forget to tell you, that there is a sixth form connected, no, right beside my school? Well that justifies everything right? They are adults. Nope. Right next to this car park and supermarket, just a few minutes away is a preschool. That’s right a preschool. How can these smokers so arrogantly smoke their poisonous fumes in front of children as young as that?! Children and teens are getting horribly exposed to this nasty habit, and getting all the wrong vibes about it. Did I say that a reasonable amount of secondhand smoke would eventually lead to a nicotine addiction?Look it up yourself.
Children as young as that and tweens and teens are exposed to this devastating habit. Oh, and dozens of teens themselves (14-16 I’m talking about here) smoke in the company of the sixth formers, possibly in romantic relationships as well (some).
Given all this info, the point I want to make is; enforce the law of banning smoking in public places. I do not want to tolerate this injustice and witness this disgusting activity without any power whatsoever. It only further aggravates me.
I see your point, and I don’t like rude smokers who don’t care about the people around them, but I do have a question for you. I am a smoker, but I almost always smoke at night away from other people, because I understand the effects of secondhand smoke. If someone comes by while I’m smoking I will leave and go to another place where I am hopefully not bothering anyone. I always throw my cigarette butts in the trash. I also change my clothes if I am going out so people do not have to smell the smoke on my clothes, and again I usually smoke at night so it’s not a problem. Also I never smoke in an enclosed space. Smoking for me is a solitary activity that I can do to relax. I am very mindful of non-smokers and do things to make my habit less annoying to them. So my question is that okay? I know you hate smoking in general but I am careful with it, would you hate me?
good day fine sir. you have written your article on an electronic device am i correct? most likely powered by burning fossil fuels, which emit dangerous fumes into the air. Do you drive? if so i would stop because you’re killing yourself every day! good god i hope you don’t live in a large metropolitan area…..because your probably dead already what with all the dangerous chemicals you ingest daily. You sound like a fucking idiot and i don’t even smoke! oh and if i were you I’d check your facts before making assumptions like second hand smoke kills or waaaa passive smoking causes cancer……because science has proved it….DOES NOT! here you go let me do your investigative work for you. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2013/12/16/is-it-safe-yet-to-have-an-honest-conversation-about-secondhand-smoke-and-lung-cancer/
Have a nice day you ding-bat!
P.S hate is a strong word to throw around about members of society who don’t actively seek to cause you harm, but because of this article i now hate you 🙂
I didn’t hate smokers. There were two types of smokers. The ones who smoked in people’s faces and while they were eating and then there we the smokers who were “considerate” smokers. They would always be mindful of the effect their smoke might have on others.
What happened to the “considerate” smoker? A whole group of people disappeared like the AnaSazi never to be heard of again.
Now I hate smokers. Hate is a strong word but they are so busy feeding their addiction to hell with anyone who asks them to not smoke on them. It’s almost a matter of pride that it is not illegal so I will smoke where I like and when I like to hell about anyone else. If they don’t like it they can go back to where they came from.
Smokers are forcing their “right” to smoke on everyone else. I have not met a more self centred group of addicts.
Smokers I now hate you with a passion. I have a right to breath normal air. Where have the considerate smokers gone?
You left out so many things! The Marlboro man ads were so effective that they are still working in 2015.
1.Smokers are the worst neighbors. My neighbors chain smoke 24/7 on their front porch and yap loudly the entire time. We used to have a nice quiet street and now we have a disgusting smoker lounge. From 10 am to 12 am I now hear smoker babies. Their view is of my house so when I’m in my house they are now looking in my windows. They have a yard, yet smokers want everyone to see how cool they look being nasty. They use their addiction as an excuse to be horrible neighbors.
2. They are entitled. We all have addictions yet what addiction is enabled like smoking? I’m a coffee addict but I don’t get to take a coffee break every ten minutes. That is why smokers are so addicted- we allow it. I think lazy people are attracted to smoking as a means to be more lazy.
3. They want to look cool. Ask a smoker and he will tell you that he isn’t trying to be cool. Now watch him light his little pacifier I mean butt. Watch him inhale and knock the ash onto the ground. He thinks he is James Dean! Smokers are the kids who wanted to fit in so badly in school
that they started smoking. I remember thinking ewww I’m not going to smoke to look cool smoking is the nastiest shit.My weak friends were so susceptible. Most smokers share that attention whore trait. If they didn’t they’d be doing it where no one can see them. They are always doing it in full view. They think it makes them look more “metal”, as if tattoos and butts made one tough.
4. Smokers form annoying peanut galleries. They stand around in groups and talk shit so normal people have to feel all ackward when they pass them by. I used to hate coming in and out of my old work building. The lazy smokers who took three breaks per hour would stand around yapping and you’d have to pass by their little eigth grade possee to get in. They are the peanut gallery of life. They would talk shit as people came in and use their gang as protection. If a pretty girl walked by they would make little comments like the eternal teenagers that they are. Omg protect the precious smokers! They need those cigarettes! Screw all the peoole who have to pass by their little club on the way into their workplace.
5. Smokers are concerned with talking to “cool” people and that is why they LIKE smoking. They “meet” people smoking. They hang with the reall cool guitar players outside. There is no facet of the party that they are left out of. They care about being cool. Smokers will deny all of this but every smoker I know cares about being cool. The smoker personality is akin to the barfly personality. When a really cool guy goes out to smoke all of the wanna be smokers will follow him. Just watch for it the next time you are at the bar. They consider it a networking tool! I can’t quit- it would change my whole cool lifestyle! Smoking is a trait of the wanna be.
6. They are territorial. Smokers move in and declare the entire street and sidewalk as a part of their little douche smoker territory. They use their nasty smoker gang to shut down any (God forbid) opposition. They throw their butts everywhere.
7. They are so white trash that they hang out at gas stations. They hit up gas stations every day and it becomes a part of their idenity. I would never smoke because I hate gas stations. I pay more money at the pump to avoid trashy self centered gas station regulars who hold up the line buying lotto tickets.
8. They have no self control in general. Smokers are indulgent people. I want something I get it no matter how ridiculous. They can’t quit because they think getting their way is what life is all about. Their entire life is built around not giving a shit about making the world disgusting for other people. They are often just spoiled types who have an “I do what I want mentatlty”. Most of the smokers that I know never heard no as a child so they think that no is bad and wanting something is good. They have a “I want it so I get it” philosophy. It’s addictive they will say. Lots of things are addictive. Sugar is more addictive but I can admit that I shouldn’t be eating it all day every day.
9. They are retarded about money. They spend a ton of money on looking cool. They waste money left and right. They are financial two year olds who borrow to the hilt in an ever increasing need to indulge their every whim.
10. They are followers. They are the kids that started smoking to fit in after all. I am thinking right now of every smoker I know and most of them are the kind of people who do whatever everyone else is doing. They don’t go against the grain. In fact most of them
think that the most rebellious thing they do is smoking itself! They think it makes them a rebel without a cause but please find me a bar or a party without a cool smoking area.
Everyone who parties all the time is hanging out in the smoke area. I know a creepy guy who uses “can I get a cigarette” as his pick up line. He says it works!
You sound like a crazy person.
Sure, you’re right. Smoking litters and dirties the air. Butts are gross and don’t smell nice. But fuck you! Unless you’re living off the land, not driving a car, not using hot water, in general not living in current day society, you too are doing things to hurt environment. You say you hate people who smoke. What about people who drive gas guzzlers? Are they terrible? Or people who eat processed foods? That’s killing them, and there’s lots of information about how terrible processed foods are. Hate them too? And what you never do things you know aren’t good for you but oh well? But really, all of those points are irrelevant compared to my closing statement: if you spend time writing a 13 point blog thing about how much you hate other people over what they do in their spare time, you need a fucking hobby. Next time you want to open your stupid thoughts to the public, i suggest you have a smoke and think it over first.
Very entertaining discussion. While most of you sound like Brits, let me give you a Canadian perspective. Most of your anti-smoking rants are correct. I didn’t, however, see any arguments about the cost of health care. Our health care system in Canada is taxpayer funded, like yours’. That means when a smoker (or nicotine addict which is the proper terminology for them) eventually gets sick, it is we, the hard-working taxpayers who foot the bill for the expensive treatments these morons require to remove their cancerous tumours. I know this would never happen, but I would like to see a law put on the books where if you start smoking, must sign a declaration that says you will be financially responsible for some of health care treatment you will require as a result of your stupidity.
I encourage everyone to join the Facebook movement against smokers and smoking at “the Unaddicted 85%”.
Wow, cool Leo 🙂
I think the biggest issue for people is HOW MUCH smoking affects OTHER PEOPLE.
Look, if you drink a glass of alcohol next to me, it doesn’t hurt my liver at all. But if you smoke near me, you’re actively hurting my lungs.
This isn’t about “destroying the planet”. Our planet is fucked. Mainly because of the general selfish assholery of the human species and the inability to check behaviors that cause problems (i.e. runaway procreation when there are 7 billion people on this planet already). We are an invasive species.
All that is fine… but probably the reason the author of this post (and I) hate smokers… is because they are fucking affecting OUR lives individually inconsiderately blowing their smoke near us.
And getting breaks non-smokers don’t get at work… which isn’t fair. All to feed their fucking pathetic addiction.
Smokers (and now vapers too), are pathetic addicts who think the world revolves around them and that they get to choose for ME whether or not I’m going to be exposed to their toxic shit.
If I eat processed foods, it doesn’t affect you. If I smoke in public, it affects you. See the difference?
Also, society has gone out of its way to stigmatize and ostracize smoking and smokers and smokers still KEEP GOING. “It’s addictive, it’s impossible to quit” whaaaaaaa. And yet… When a smoker has whooping cough or gets pneumonia or has a freaking oxygen tank, miraculously they quit because they HAVE to. So they are suffering through a health crisis AND withdrawal, yet they STILL quit. So it’s possible.
People who are addicted to processed foods and sugar… yeah that’s a problem… for those people… but… if the govt. regulated sugar and processed foods like it regulated cigarettes, I bet a lot more people would eat a lot healthier because at the end of the day part of why people eat like shit is because you haven’t go GO OUT OF YOUR WAY to eat healthy. Almost everything in the grocery store now is a non-food masquerading as a food. Or a food that has been severely fucked with with chemicals and hormones.
And if you DO go out of your way to avoid all that crap… people think you have an “eating disorder” called orthorexia. I’m not even fucking kidding. YOu try to eat like NORMAL people have evolved to eat for thousands of years and you have a mental illness.
All humans are pathetic addicts.
The big difference is smoking affects non-smokers and in general on an individual basis your other pathetic addictions don’t have as far-reaching consequences to those who make better choices in life.
Thanks Susan. You made some good points.
hey i’m not really a fan of tobacco either, but i was wondering what your view on weed is, since it has a lot less bad side effects than tobacco.
Great post and interesting discussion!
The point that ticks me off the most is their indifference, and how much smoking has become socially acceptable. A person who lights up a cigarette doesn’t even think for a second about his surroundings, while a non-smoker has to think so many times before asking him not to do so; most people just walk away.
Comparing smoking with cars, junk food, guns, etc. is ridiculous. If it is an individual’s right, what about about his/ her child/ pet, are they also bound to his/ her rights? Are they also collateral damage to an individual’s whims?
People are offended when you say you hate smokers, they ask what did we do to you. They have made the choice for us, to run away from each smoker, while they walk undisturbed on the road. It is good for the society that there are still people who have not accepted them.