Then they came for the smokers and I was mightily pissed at them for that.
It's kinda off of me to compare the smoking ban with the persecution of an entire ethnic group. But, the proposed ban on smoking in public that is to take place next march has really got my goat.
Who are these do-good fuckwits who deem that I shouldn't be able to choose an early death? The same people who allow massive companies to spoil our atmosphere by polluting it with barrels of toxic poison and smile happily, as their share prices rocket skywards.
And while we're on the subject of body poisoning... Would all you people who stand in the pub throwing back bottles of Becks Beer, Brandy and Burgundy & harp on about how my cigarette smoke is killing you, please... Fuck off. You are a hypocrite and a moron.
And to all of you who drive a car of any kind... You my toxin producing friends are making a bigger mess of this planet than I ever will with my cigarettes.
3 comments:
You're opening yourself up on this one Cuzz... ;-) You said it yourself, it's all about choice and that choice is still freely available to you even with smoking restriction laws. How you choose to poison your body is your choice, but as a non-smoker it can be really annoying and damaging to my health standing in an area with smokers all around (granted, some smokers are considerate to those that don't, but there are those that just don't give a fuck and will blow smoke in your face). What the laws are trying to do is protect the choice of non-smokers to not smoke. We've had non-smoking laws in SA for a couple of years and IMO it benefits everybody in the long run, except maybe the tobacco companies who are losing sales cos some smokers either give up or cos they couldn't be bothered going to a designated smoking area (and they are in every bar or restaurant, even if the smokers have to go outside).
The laws don't take away your choice to smoke, they just protect the choice (and right) of non-smokers to not have to. I for one, drinker of note (on the odd occasion) prefer things the way they are now. I don't stand in pubs or restaurants with my eyes watering anymore, choking to get a breath and I don't go home with my clothes smelling of smoke and there's an altogether better atmosphere in the places.
As much resistance as there was before the laws came into effect in SA, smokers here actually see things differently now and accept that their smoke bothers other people.
The choice to smoke is still there, but there's the added choice of smoke in a designated area, or not smoke at all. I don't begrudge smokers their choices, I just choose not to.
Since last summer you're not allowed to smoke in any public houses/offices in Norway neither - and I'll sure have to admit it's made life a lot better for us non-smokers. That being said, I have never smoked, at all, and therefore I'm not very fanatic about it either. I used to argue before the law came that as long as smoking is allowed in Norway there should also be places where people be allowed to do just that. I do find that the pubs have become so much nicer now when there's no smoking, my eyes and throat don't hurt, and my hear and clothes don't stink the morning after I've been to a pub. I am still sort of thinking that the law in Norway is a bit extreme as the restaurants and pubs aren't allowed to have any kind of indoor smokingareas at all - but I do get the argument about how this actually is a big health risk to those working in the pubs and restaurants because they will at some point have to go into these rooms to clean them. A lot of people were really upset about this last summer, but now I think most are getting used to it - and even some of my friends who smokes admits that the air in the pubs and so on is much better now - and some of my friends even stopped smoking because they just couldn't be bottered any more - and that surely is a good thing!
I will however also add this: smoking areas in pubs and restaurants are forbidden in Norway, that is, if you want to smoke you have to do it out on the street and not indoor. At the same time, here in Oslo there are designated needle-rooms, places where drug-adicts can go to get clean needles and do their injections - and drugs are actually forbidden. So, when you do something legal, you have to stand outside on the street, but when you do something illegal, the government will provide a room for you where you can do this!! It surely is a strange world, isn't it?
California is like one giant smokers no-man's land. I used to smoke here, and I kind of liked being discriminated against, although I have no idea why.
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