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The Disappearance of the Ashtray

clivethompson.medium.com

251–260 of 668 posts

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too high or low? It sounds about right to me, if you include the casual smokers in the 35%.

Too high. I do not and did not know any smokers of my age in high school, college, or after. Seriously zero, which would be odd if it was really one-third. And I'm from Oklahoma which has a high rate of smoking, but I associate it with my friends' grandparents.

Also in the Midwest, I'd say 10% of both my high school and college classes smoked, maybe slightly higher if you count those that smoked while drinking, but about half of my friends in my age group that did not go to college smoked.

I'd honestly guess you either didn't notice them or forgot that they smoked. As a former smoker the bars were filled with people smoking until the indoor bans when you could always find some outside.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#253

"It reeks." "Toxic fumes." Same's true of ICE automobile exhausts. In far more voluminous quantities. The whole "great outdoors" is their ashtray. When will they be banned?

2035 in EU: https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/eu-approves-effective...

Ok, not quite, and the motivation is different, but the days of ICE are numbered.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You disregard diabetes rather lightly there. Diabetes can result in amputations, blindness, heart attacks, strokes and other fun things. Sure there are other food choices that lead to obesity, but sugar is certainly high on the list. One thing in common though is that telling a smoker to "just quit" is about the same as telling someone who likes sugar to "just stop". Personally I'm working to "reduce my intake", slow…

> there's no such thing as second-hand-sugar Which makes this a truly personal choice. “Smoking is a choice, don’t ban it” always irks me because it’s a choice smokers make for themselves and everyone else in a 30m radius around them from forcing others to breathe in their polluted air.

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Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to ban smokers to ban smoking on a sub. Smokers don't have to smoke, they merely choose to do so.

As an ex-smoker, I'd ask you to consider it as about the most addictive thing going. Think of something you really, really like doing. Something that calms or pleases you every time you do it. Like, playing a game, or reading a book, or eating your favourite food. Now imagine someone telling you that you don't have to do that, it's just a choice. Imagine being deprived of it and being guilt-tripped into it. Sure you…

I mean, unless as a child you had abusive parents who forced you to smoke, it’s absolutely a choice.

There are people who can’t stop doing stupid stuff for attention (like breaking electronics for YouTube views or whatever), and we don’t blame “idiots” commenting online for their habits. There are people who refuse to eat vegetables and only eat junk food and we also don’t blame “idiots.”

Yes. It’s addictive. But personal responsibility is admitting you made bad choices that led to bad habits and only you, through your own effort, can fix it.

Countless people never smoked. Countless people stopped. Some people act like quitting smoking is some insufferable thing that others will never understand. Everyone has bad stuff they do that’s just as hard to quit. There are loads of people who are glued to chairs all day and make bad food and exercise decisions and it becomes a lifelong habit that’s borderline impossible to break (doubly so if you face health consequences before you can change), but they don’t get sympathy. People tell them to simply make an effort to change if they actually want to change.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoking on planes is absolutely something I can't wrap my head around in any possible way. How the hell someone EVER thought it would be a good idea to let people smoke while packed inside a flying metal cylinder?

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Stop for a minute and think about the psychology of what you’ve just written. Instead of getting angry at aviation corporations who save money and maximize profits by degrading the quality of the very air you breath, you direct your anger towards other passengers and their kids. As they would against you. That said, you shouldn’t be allowed to smoke and masks should be mandatory on planes still in my opinion.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#257

Smoking is divine. Eh, sorry, I mean Cigarettes are Sublime https://www.dukeupress.edu/cigarettes-are-sublime Ashtrays may go along into the dark arts of secret knowledge, along with hooking up a modem, coding your own BBS, repairing your own leather boots, starting a fire to cook dinner over, etc. But something human, something tactile, something that carries with it dangers and pleasures and the competence to deter…

It would be a lot easier to agree with you if the tobacco companies hadn't spent decades of time and millions of dollars trying to gaslight the world about the consequences of smoking, aiming advertising at children, and generally making comic-book villains of themselves. Unfortunately they fought so uncompromisingly to avoid having to cede even the slightest of their market that they made complete ostracization the only feasible path forward for public policymakers. Nearly half of adult America smoked in the 1960s; ten years ago that number was at 20%, and today that number is below 13% and dropping -- and unlike the drinking age, smoking wasn't used as a bludgeon by the federal government for forcing its will on the states. It's pure PR and a little urban taxation.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#258
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For 20 years we’ve been eating fewer carbs and getting fatter (on average) http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0OuoFyJtZuI/VkofY-qgeOI/AAAAAAAAbb...

I don't think your data is accurate. Where did that chart come from? And not all carbs are created equal. From an obesity perspective, 100 kcal of sugar in soda pop appears to be far worse than the same amount of sugar in fruit. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab270

Mostly likely here: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-p...

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#259
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have heard of people using nicotine gum, patch, or lozenge for situations like this.

You can vape up your sleeve on a plane, but snus is the best way.

Snus isn't actually legal in a lot of places. As in - it's legal to have, but you can't buy it anywhere(most of EU and UK I believe).

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoking on planes is absolutely something I can't wrap my head around in any possible way. How the hell someone EVER thought it would be a good idea to let people smoke while packed inside a flying metal cylinder?

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> If I lit a cigarette as I'd like to, their parents might attack me for shaving a few theoretical seconds off their lives.

Many things are not harmful if just done one, but you are not alone. I understand that if you are allowed to smoke many other people would also, and it would have a noticeable detriment in peoples live quality.

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