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I like to think I'm not a judgmental person.
At the same time, I'm aware that in specific respects, I judge certain things quite severely.
I realised something the other day, though.
Subiaco Oval now forbids smoking within the stadium. This, to me, is a brilliant and wonderful thing - I breathed clean air throughout the match I watched, despite the guy in front of me being a smoker (I could smell it on his clothes as he arrived), and it was glorious.
Of course, the result of this is that as soon as the match ended, as people were walking out, all the addicts lit up as soon as they got out of the gates.
And I realised something, as I dodged and held my breath at strategic moments until I was out of the press of the crowd:
I think less of someone if I see them smoking in a public place.
The absolute kindest interpretation I can think of for someone doing that is that they're thoughtless; realistically, they're being inconsiderate, which is still putting a pretty kind spin on the fact that what they're actually doing is risking harm to the health of others for their own enjoyment.
Yeah, yeah, occasional exposure doesn't cause lung cancer. Shut up. More of an issue than omg lung cancer, to me, is oh hey asthma - some people are allergic to cigarette smoke, and it can cause mild to severe immediate symptoms.
Also? It smells disgusting, which is just antisocial and rude.
Smokers whine about how it's totally unfair that the "health fascists" are curtailing their freedom to smoke - I once conversed online with a guy who was determined never to visit Australia because of how the health fascists had overrun the place.
And it's true, smoking is banned in an awful lot of places, here, but sadly, outdoor public spaces aren't one of them, and people still smoke even where it's not actually permitted.
The problem is the smokers' complaints about how their right to smoke is blocked.
To which I say: shut up. Your right to smoke stops dead where it infringes my right not to smoke - mine and everyone else's, including the children about whom none of you seem to give a shit. I honestly believe that smoking in the presence of children should be classed as child abuse, because children have less agency than adults, and less capacity to stand up to adults, and less awareness that yes, smoking is actually very bad for you.
Smoking in the presence of others is an incredibly selfish thing to do, in my view. It's a declaration that the smoker thinks that their doing something they want to do - something which is harmful to them, but hey, that's addicts for you - matters more than their not inflicting foul smells and potentially severe harm on other people.
I have trouble not being disgusted by them. It's possible for me to like someone a lot even if they're a smoker, even if they smoke in public (but not if they are dicks about requests not to smoke in someone's presence), but I will think less of them than I would if they smoked.
And yes, I do view smokers as drug addicts - with the disgust I feel for anyone who chooses their addiction over the interests of their families and society at large, because resources to help people quit smoking are not thin on the ground in Australia. I don't know what the first step would be to overcome an addiction to heroin or alcohol, but I can't help knowing about the services to help quit smoking because we're bombarded with information about them.
There are no excuses - everyone knows they're bad for you, they're expensive, they make you smell terrible, they cause hideous health problems, and secondary smoke is literally toxic to everyone around you.
So if someone's worth as a human being was graded numerically, I take off ten points for smoking - thirty for smoking around children - and that's that.
If you smoke, stop it. And if you can't manage to do that, despite the manifest reasons why you should, don't even think about lighting up around me, fucko.Current Mood: critical spoons deficit
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