Why do people who go out smoking despite being educated beforehand on why they shouldn’t

[Chinchou1984]

Don’t deserve whatever health problems they get afterwards?

It’d be one thing entirely to start because you didn’t know it harms you (especially if you had very bad parents who didn’t educate you), it’d be another thing entirely for you to start despite everyone educating you why it harms your body or the money you spend on cigarettes was obtained by you exploiting the kindness of other people (most likely by begging for money under false pretenses).

Don’t you deserve stupid prizes if you choose to play stupid games?

 

[BP]

No.

Most people who start smoking are younger and this has almost always been the case. Moreover even if they do know the associated negative health implications they do it because of pressure from peers. The people you are friends with and find yourself around influence your actions whether you know it or not. This develops into addiction which young adults and teens are more likely to experience.

Source: I teach teens about Drugs Sex and Alcohol in the public school setting.

 

[Teh]

because smoking is fucking awesome. people who smoke are 40% cooler than people who don't smoke on average. smoking also gives you this cool new ability called "lung cancer" that makes your voice all deep and cool-sounding. its awesome!

 

[earl]

because smoking is fucking awesome. people who smoke are 40% cooler than people who don't smoke on average. smoking also gives you this cool new ability called "lung cancer" that makes your voice all deep and cool-sounding. its awesome!

the 40% modifier only applies if you are already at the cool threshold, unfortunately. Cool people smoking=cool af, normal people smoking=broadcasting your struggles

 

[Chinchou1984]

No.

Most people who start smoking are younger and this has almost always been the case. Moreover even if they do know the associated negative health benefits they do it because of pressure from peers. The people you are friends with and find yourself around influence your actions whether you know it or not. This develops into addiction which young adults and teens are more likely to experience.

Source: I teach teens about Drugs Sex and Alcohol in the public school setting.

if those friends would do things such as driving recklessly or jumping off a bridge, would those people do it?

 

[BP]

if those friends would do things such as driving recklessly or jumping off a bridge, would those people do it?

You're profile says you're 22. One would think that at your age you've experienced peer pressure. The old jumping off a bridge saying is dumb and means absolutely nothing when talking about peer pressure. When you're a teenager you aren't thinking about dying of lung cancer. You're thinking about school, who's doing what, who's cool and who's not, etc. Additionally adults experience peer pressure as well. This isn't just a teen issue. Do you have any friends? If you do then you've more than likely experienced some form of peer pressure.

If you're going to try and tell me people deserve to get lung cancer and die 20 years early from becoming addicted to a substance at an early age from peer pressure or lack of knowledge then at least make a good rebuttal to support your horrendous opinion.

 

[faint]

assuming this is a serious question and you're just very naive, perhaps you should read more about addiction, advertising, and the tobacco industry as a whole. a single cigarette isn't going to kill you. likewise, living the healthiest lifestyle possible does not guarantee that you'll live longer. life is stressful and people seek to offset those stresses through vices such as drugs and alcohol. my late father began smoking when he was 14 and smoked for over 40 years before quitting 8 years ago, only to pass away from brain cancer.

by your logic, should he have died from it? did he play the game for too long or should his good deed have reversed its course?

 

[boo836]

this is the type of guy who would go his entire life without smoking but instead get hooked on gum and dermal patches

 

[earl]

I have only smoked cigs in situations that felt fitting. In order:

• Midnight in February. Was just sent flying by a punch from a very drunk friend. Walked it off, came back to the group, was offered a cig. Because I was bleeding under one eye and in a cool jacket, when offered a cig I took it for the 40% cool boost
• Cowboy themed party. Very drunk and a guy in cowboy hat offered me a cig. Hard to refuse a cowboy
• Clubbing in Japan. Because I was gonna be out until 7am that night (on account of the train schedule), when a stranger offered I felt it would A. keep me going B. be rude to refuse C. be a great chance to practice my Japanese, so i accepted and took a little drag

never got addicted so i consider it a w

edit: why is OP formatted like a quora question lmao

 

[Ironmage]

if those friends would do things such as driving recklessly or jumping off a bridge, would those people do it?

Well, since this is the meme subforum, might as well.

 

[Chinchou1984]

You're profile says you're 22. One would think that at your age you've experienced peer pressure. The old jumping off a bridge saying is dumb and means absolutely nothing when talking about peer pressure. When you're a teenager you aren't thinking about dying of lung cancer. You're thinking about school, who's doing what, who's cool and who's not, etc. Additionally adults experience peer pressure as well. This isn't just a teen issue. Do you have any friends? If you do then you've more than likely experienced some form of peer pressure.

If you're going to try and tell me people deserve to get lung cancer and die 20 years early from becoming addicted to a substance at an early age from peer pressure or lack of knowledge then at least make a good rebuttal to support your horrendous opinion.

the jumping off a bridge thing is due to peer pressure, your friends are doing it and you think it’s cool (or they will ditch you if you don’t) so you must do it too

I do have friends who I admire, but I wouldn’t do things that I know in advance harm me just to be with them.

I think that people who weren’t educated beforehand don’t deserve their health problems, but people who WERE told beforehand shouldn’t be forced to die either, but they probably did it because YOLO

assuming this is a serious question and you're just very naive, perhaps you should read more about addiction, advertising, and the tobacco industry as a whole. a single cigarette isn't going to kill you. likewise, living the healthiest lifestyle possible does not guarantee that you'll live longer. life is stressful and people seek to offset those stresses through vices such as drugs and alcohol. my late father began smoking when he was 14 and smoked for over 40 years before quitting 8 years ago, only to pass away from brain cancer.

by your logic, should he have died from it? did he play the game for too long or should his good deed have reversed its course?

a single cigarette isn't going to kill you, but there’s no benefit to doing it and you’ll only risk being addicted so why start to begin with.

No one should die from smoking (they especially shouldn’t be forced to die) but while i doubt your dad is this kind of person, many people who go out smoking truly don’t make any kind of effort to quit and they are truly bad people.

 

[Blizihguh]

No one should die from smoking (they especially shouldn’t be forced to die) but while i doubt your dad is this kind of person, many people who go out smoking truly don’t make any kind of effort to quit and they are truly bad people.

You seem like you're posting in earnest, so I'll try to meet you where you're at. For what it's worth, I find smoking viscerally disgusting, so I am somewhat sympathetic. I genuinely cannot stand being around people who are smoking, and I figure the world would be a million times better without tobacco in particular. So I get it.

Saying that people who smoke and don't try to quit are "bad people" is just deeply cruel. Saying that someone is a bad person is one of the harshest moral judgments you can make about them, not something to throw out because you think they're making a bad decision. Everybody makes bad decisions -- some more than others, but nobody gets through life without fucking up a lot. That doesn't mean everyone is a bad person.

Why does smoking make someone bad? Is it because they're hurting themselves for no benefit? I doubt that's what you mean, just because it's kind of a weird position. Eating french fries is bad for you, but I've never heard anyone say that you're a bad person if you go to Five Guys and order a 5,000 calorie bag of fries. Sure, they taste good, but lots of people who smoke like the way smoking feels, too.

So I guess the idea is that smoking is bad for other people. Which is true. Being a non smoker around people who smoke sucks and is bad for you longterm. But again, everyone does things that are bad for the world longterm. You buy products that have more plastic than they strictly need to. You support businesses that directly and indirectly hurt people. I guarantee that manufacturing whatever device you're posting on involved copious child labor. Does that make you a bad person? You can argue that your computer would have been built anyway, but you chose to give money to the business that built it. And yeah, if you want to live a "normal" life, you have to engage with these aspects of society, but you don't really have to. You could go live off the grid, but you don't. I don't think that makes you a bad person, but only for the same reasons I don't think people who smoke are bad for doing it.

Obviously it's easier to not start smoking than it is to opt out of modern society. But starting smoking is a single decision people make, usually at a young age. Once you start, it's genuinely very hard to quit. Your lifelong moral worth is not determined by a mistake you make in high school.

 

[BIG ASHLEY]

yooooo i just realised it's chinchou1984. what's up dawg. i missed you

 

[BIG ASHLEY]

CaffeineBoost do you want to say the line or shall i?

 

[CaffeineBoost]

CaffeineBoost do you want to say the line or shall i?

THIS IS LI-

 

[Chinchou1984]

Why does smoking make someone bad? Is it because they're hurting themselves for no benefit?

I do not believe that every smoker is this kind of person, but it’s more they are purposely doing it to disobey everyone who tells them to quit, and they often go as far to doing wicked things such as begging for money under false pretenses and pretending to be homeless or disabled to fraud everyone. Or if the government is providing resources to help people quit, those “bad people” REFUSE to quit BECAUSE they know they can purposely misuse the help and resources.

Smoking by itself doesn’t make people bad, it’s more of WHY they wanted to do it.

 

[TheDraugr]

Cigarettes are particular insidious as not only are they harmful, but are designed to be as addictive as possible. As for the first cigarette, I really don't think people understand this. Distant consequences are very difficult for humans to conceptualize. Idk if you have ever smoked (I haven't but they helped kill my father), but most just want the high of the nicotine hit.

To answer the post above, my aforementioned father used cigarettes to help treat his alcoholism after his negligence left me (mildly) disfigured. Did he need cigarettes to quit, probably not. Do my mother and I wish he hadn't used as tobacco product, yes. He had an addictive personality, something which a person has little control over, meaning it is different from an issue from:

Don’t you deserve stupid prizes if you choose to play stupid games?

It is a far more complex question of neurobiology and the diabolical nature of tobacco companies. As a (semi) teacher and someone with a background in neuroscience, I am uniquely qualified to say that a simple lecture cannot be compared of engineered "bliss." Granted, DARE in the U.S. has been a complete failure, but even the best educators can't rival the impact of a cigarette on an acetylcholine receptor. People with backgrounds in neuroscience/psychology are still susceptible. After all, it took my former professor and director of my alma mater's neuroscience program seven tries to quit which he stated was much harder than earning his Ph.D.

I am not sure if you have trauma related to this as I do, but try to remain empathetic to those struggling with addiction. I remember feeling angry about him refusing to quit and later realizing he was somewhat helpless. Addiction is a complex issue; however, this does not absolve users (smokers) from responsibility. If you want an approach to assist your understanding of addiction, I would look into Responsibility without Blame. Better that than a drunk asshole on a Pokémon forum.

 

[BP]

Is it because they're hurting themselves for no benefit?

okay listen, not to derail this gripping thread or anything, but like I wouldn't say there's absolutely 0 benefits to smoking.

 

[Liz Angeles]

I think this thread shows that what people often fail to understand about smoking is that forming an addiction that slowly kills you is fucking cool and an incredibly attractive prospect for depressed teenagers

 

[Myzozoa]

'when u quit smoking u don't live longer, it just feels longer'

 

[Shinto7654]

Are we gonna get a combo post of the peer pressure of people giving money to the gross dirty po- sorry "panhandlers"?

 

[Chinchou1984]

Are we gonna get a combo post of the peer pressure of people giving money to the gross dirty po- sorry "panhandlers"?

are you saying that i consider beggars pos? Not all of them are bogus beggars gaming the system but there’s probably enough bogus ones that everyone has a severe distrust for them

 

[Wigglytuff]

the money you spend on cigarettes was obtained by you exploiting the kindness of other people (most likely by begging for money under false pretenses).

go fuck yourself. i work 20 hours a day to be able to buy myself a nice 5 mg rechargable pomegranate ice flavored airbar. my boss isnt under false pretenses because we go to the same smokeshop.

 

[BestDatrix]

Most people who start smoking are younger and this has almost always been the case. Moreover even if they do know the associated negative health implications they do it because of pressure from peers. The people you are friends with and find yourself around influence your actions whether you know it or not. This develops into addiction which young adults and teens are more likely to experience.

Following up on these incredibly wise words, younger people have usually not properly developed their pre-frontal cortex, the rationalisation part of the brain, until about 25. They probably aren't thinking rationally and aren't thinking about later
they're thinking about now.
I'd say most young people think a lot more in the now than in the later, consquences don't seem as prevelant because "you'll deal with them later"
Fortunately, Smoking these days has essentially been painted as Cancer and after extreme amounts of anti-advertising, it's finally shown as a problem.

 

[awyp]

My dads been smoking cigs for 30 years he recently stopped 5 years ago and transferred to vapes, but after years of me trying to convince to stop or he’ll die same with his drinking habits I realized that both are addicting and he’ll never stop doing it.

this has affected me later in life where I don’t drink alcohol / smoke cigarettes when offered because there’s trauma associated with it, I just don’t want to end up like my dad in that sense.