Is anything more despised in America than cigarette smoking?

As it should be.

MAGATs are more despised, I would venture to guess.

Fags cigarette smoking.

Equality

Intellectualism is more despised, OP.

[quote]MAGATs are more despised, I would venture to guess.

How? Half the country is MAGA and the rest are MAGA adjacent.

Uh, OP, everyone vapes now and smokes weed.

OP really wants a cigarette and is trying to desperately to convince himself of something. Kinda sad that he’s admitting that he has no self-control and needs a nanny government to step in for him.

What, R8?

You’re projecting, dummy. Try going on the patch if you’re embarrassed. It worked for me.

18 years ago.

Fat people. Yes, half the country is fat. But it's still okay to sneer at, mock, express disgust about the overweight.

I'd say public urination and defecation is a bit higher than smoking ciggies.

I have always found the smell of cigarette smoke disgusting, but I have to admit one thing. I have also always found the sight of a good looking man taking a drag off a cigarette one of the sexiest things ever.

It wasn't any campaign that made people stop. It's the ridiculous prices that made people quit. $10-15 a pack is an expensive habit to hang on to.

The only people I see smoking are hard-core Trumper-type white trash.

And they buy those cheap off-brand cigarettes.

You should hear some of them cough! I (almost) feel sorry for them.

[quote] It's the ridiculous prices that made people quit. $10-15 a pack is an expensive habit to hang on to.

You don’t think that was social engineering?

I was gonna start a thread earlier asking How are young people smoking? Then I googled it and the answers were things like, it looks cool, peer pressure etc. But a campaign showing teens that no matter how much face creams they apply or gym sessions they do, they are gonna end up yellow, smelling and coughing. There's the anti smoking campaign right there...get them where it hurts, in the looks department.

^^^That's what made me quit, R16. When I was 30 (1988), I read in (I think) Dear Abby that smoking shrinks your capillaries and gives you wrinkles.

It wasn't too long after that that I quit smoking, and never smoked again.

There's seriously no excuse for anyone under 70 to be a smoker. All of the health risks were known when people under 70 were of the age to begin smoking. If you're older than that, you get a pass since I know it was culturally acceptable (even desirable) for many years, and I know it's hard to quit.

Jews in America!

Nobody shamed me out of smoking. I didn't give a shit what anyone thought. But I knew it wasn't good for me. I tried many times but finally quit for good while watching my mother die of lung cancer.

I quit a few years before smoking became expensive ($1.25 machine, $10.00 a carton). I started to notice people standing outside in winter in front of office buildings, as smoking was gradually becoming verboten indoors. I told myself I was not going to be one of those people, and I quit that next summer. It was my third time quitting, but it stuck. I have not wanted a cigarette since.

It amazes me how prevalent smoking still is in other countries.

Germans smoke like chimneys, and it's across socioeconomic classes. It's kind of like the US was in the 70s and 80s.

Science

Reality

Peer-reviewed evidence

Rational thought

just to name a few things more despied off the top of my head.

[quote] I started to notice people standing outside in winter in front of office buildings, as smoking was gradually becoming verboten indoors. I told myself I was not going to be one of those people,

That was one of the things I missed. I met interesting people from other offices.

Nonsense, vapes are the new cigarettes. Nothing ever changes. And being a rebel who defies the sheep is always kewl. Smoking is also being glamorized in movies again.

People who don’t like pitbulls

People who think tattoos are a sign of a personality disorder.

I really enjoyed smoking in college in the 80s when it cost 75 cents a pack. Everyone seemed okay with it. Makes me gag now.

The people who keep talking about vaping need to learn how to read. The thread doesn’t ask about vaping. this thread is about smoking. Vaping is not smoking.

Nor does this thread ask whether vaping is more popular than smoking. The question is, is anything more despised than smoking in America? A proper answer to that might be, “Yes, vaping is an example of something that is more despised than smoking.” That would be a valid response.

But really, vaping is irrelevant to the question

r30 You doing ok?

r30 is busy playing hall monitor.

Sometimes I stop at a local dive bar for a beer after Trader Joe's. There's a smoking/vaping patio there and all the blue-collarish guys in their twenties are out there vaping or with a Zyn canister on the table — the kind of guys who, a generation ago, would have been smoking cigarettes.

For young people I think it has more to do with the cost than health reasons. Younger people also aren't going out clubbing and ordering mixed drinks; it's cheaper to pregame at home with an edible. Same here — vapes are far less expensive than a cigarette habit.

I agree with r30. Vaping is problematic in its own right but simply doesn't have the same ick factor.

I smoked throughout my twenties in college and grad school, but it was on and off. I did love a good cigarette though. Drinking never appealed to me, but kicking back and having a cigarette was my one vice. I 100% understand people's aversions to it, but I roll my eyes at the people who will fake cough when passing by a lit cigarette as though it's going to kill them. We are exposed to so many chemicals (especially in big cities) that we inhale on a daily basis, and acting as if a whiff of secondhand smoke is going to lead to your imminent death is pretty silly. I don't judge smokers, though I think they'd be wise to at least switch to vaping if they don't want to quit nicotine. The jury is still out on the health effects of vaping of course, but it is 100% less riskier than cigarettes.

I used to care, but now that microplastics are poisoning all of us and with no end in sight, it’s hard to get too worked up about a cheeky fag.

Grammar Nazi’s Animal haters the homeless and people who drive those big white trucks to get a gallon of milk. Oh sorry was that an incomplete sentence.

Animal cruelty.

Jamie Lee Curtis.

Yes, Trump and he smells worse than cigarettes.

R15 The price escalation had a lot to do with government taxation so yes.

[quote]The government-sponsored anti-smoking campaign that ran from the late 1990s through the 2010s must be, hands down, the most successful public information campaign waged by any government in history.

This is the one thing the US got absolutely right and it's kinda shocking, considering the emphasis on individual rights. It's crazy how long it took for Europe to get its act together on ciggies. I blame the French, personally. And if any of the Balkan countries had been in the EU at the time when those prohibitions started getting passed, we'd still all be smoking inside.

[quote]Animal cruelty.

It didn't stop Kristi Noem's ascent, but I bet smoking cigs would have.

*

I quit in 1984 and still miss it terribly —especially when paired with alcohol and coffee.

Danish ex Queen Margrethe II no longer puffs her beloved high tar Karelia Agriniou unfiltereds imported from Greece.

Fifty years ago: "Honey, look on the bright side. He just started smoking cigarettes, not marijuana."

Today: "Honey, look on the bright side. He just started vaping, not smoking cigarettes."

Child abuse is more despised than smoking.

r48 Well, for normal people. Not for rethugs.

R45 While still in my early twenties I quit smoking one day on impulse because I got out of breath climbing the stairs of the subway station. I wrongly attributed it to cigarette smoking, when it fact I was coming down with a bad chest cold with congestion that didn't become obvious until the next couple of days. I had two packs of unopened Chersterfields in my desk at work and which I threw in the waste bin under my desk. A coworker who saw me was flabbergasted and asked for them. I told him he can have them, since I officially quit cold turkey. I actually never smoked again. That was just over 40 years ago. A couple of close friends who smoked at some point months and years later each said they intend on quitting, but they never did. One died of lung cancer age 57. The other died two years ago of COPD.

I see e-cigarettes and vaping as just bullshit alternatives to regular cigarettes. They also are addictive and also cause serious disease.

[quote]I see e-cigarettes and vaping as just bullshit alternatives to regular cigarettes. They also are addictive and also cause serious disease.

No, the bs is from the government which claims vaping is the same as smoking cigarettes. Sure, it's addictive. But inhaling a mist is virtually harmless to your lungs compared to inhaling smoke from burning tobacco. Think for yourself. The state has an agenda.

Chesterfields? Are you 105?

I quit smoking cold Turkey on my 51st birthday. I had smoked a pack of full flavored, high nicotine cigarettes each day for thirty years. I loved smoking. The feeling of inhaling did it for me. I rarely smoked in my home and never at work. I smoked on the way to and from work and when I traveled, I smoked almost nonstop.

The price went nuts toward the end on my smoking. When my beloved Marlboro Reds started costing north of $50/carton, I began ordering cartons of duty free cigarettes from a place in Cyprus. Prince Reds, which I smoked when I lived in Sweden, were my go-to.

I understand what OP has observed. Virtually nobody smokes any more in places you used to see and smell it. Occasionally I smell cigarette smoke when I’m stopped in traffic, but not often. The beach? No. Outdoor shopping areas? No. Even bars and restaurants are nearly cigarette free. I don’t hate it, but I appreciate when I am out of the country and am around people who are smoking. It makes me want to buy a pack and join in, but I don’t.

R51 I disagree. Twenty plus years from we will likely learn that all those chemicals present in almost all vaping have given cancer to a new generation of "alternative smokers".

[i] Vaping exposes users to dangerous chemicals including addictive nicotine, cancer-causing chemicals like formaldehyde and benzene, heavy metals such as lead and nickel, and lung-damaging substances like Acrolein and Diacetyl.[/i]

Here’s a view from a former smoker: I notice that those who still smoke cigarettes will distance themselves from others, go up an alley, whatever. Walk down streets in New York, Boston, or Chicago and you just smell weed everywhere. It’s nauseating and to me is much worse than secondhand cigarette smoke was. To complain about secondhand pot smoke marks you as uncool and judgmental.

Also, remember how they used to say that second-hand smoke killed hundreds of thousands of people annually? When was the last time you saw a statistic that showed how many people are alive because cigarettes have become so taboo?

The current strain of marijuana that are sold in big cities like NY I consider to be stink weed. The pot I grew up in my teens - thirties that friends smoked had a sweeter less offensive smell. Today's breed of pot smells like a skunk. I can no longer keep my windows open at home at night because the stink from neighboring buildings will waft in late ion the evening and while I am sleeping. At least cigarette smell wasn't so overpowering and far reaching. If a neighbor smoked I wouldn't know unless I was living in a next door apartment. The smell of today's pot is far reaching.

[quote]I disagree. Twenty plus years from we will likely learn that all those chemicals present in almost all vaping have given cancer to a new generation of "alternative smokers".

I would bet money on this. Vaping cannot be a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes. With vaping, people are still inhaling a million chemicals into their lungs.

Norwegian tennis star Casper Ruud complains about the smell of weed at the US Open

I had to quit because of the judgment I received at the hands of Datalounge queens who will rim a stranger and bottom for the homeless. But a whiff of a cigarette from two blocks away? Too much for their delicate sensibilities and a violation of their constitutional right to never be exposed to anything they find unpleasant.

I have never smoked weed, but for some reason I really do love that smell.

Too funny r59!

I could never get over the smell. My white trash father and stepmother smoked and hotboxed a new car in weeks. The house stank, which meant my clothes stank when I went to school. When my brother still lived there and he’d come visit our grandparents, his clothes went right in the wash and the suitcase went outside to air out.

It explains why I’m so particular about being clean and smelling good and having decent teeth now.

Also I have plenty of other bad habits, haha.

Would today's high schoolers believe it when you told them many if not most high schools used to have designated smoking areas where a kid could light up between algebra and Spanish?

r63 I went to high school in the 90s and smoking was banned everywhere on campus by then, but the teachers who had been at the school for years told us that in the 70s not only could the teachers smoke in the teachers' lounge, there was an INDOOR lounge where the students could go and smoke!

I was in high school 1978-82. Teachers who smoked did so in the teachers lounge on the second floor. That room was converted to a classroom my sophomore year, so they had to smoke in the boiler room in the sub basement. No more speed sticking a cigarette between classes! Students were not allowed to smoke at school, so lunch periods the smokers walked to the sidewalk across the street to smoke. My senior year, I had two free periods and hung out in the boiler room smoking with the teachers who had those periods off. It amazes me what teachers reveal to kids in such situations. I loved being able to have those experiences.

We had a smoking room for students 1972-76 when I was there. They called it the STUDENT ACTIVITY ROOM.

“We’ll take 2 seats in the non-smoking section, right past the smoking one.”

[quote] It amazes me what teachers reveal to kids in such situations. I loved being able to have those experiences.

I stayed friendly with three of my high school teachers after I graduated. A few other students and I would occasionally meet up and visit with them for lunch at restaurants etc. It was so funny how after we were no longer their students and out of high school they would tell us ALL the gossip about the other teachers and administration. The teachers/administrators they hated, the ones who were married and had affairs, the ones who had drinking problems etc. The would spill all the shit to us. Our high school was like one big soap opera, which we didn't know about until after we'd graduated.

In the '70s my friend had a "no smoke toker aka NST", a vented plastic cylinder that contained a lit spliff in a holder screwed into one end. It wasn't fool proof but we could smoke weed and hash in the smoking sections of movie theatres without much bother.

I'm not surprised r68. So many extended family members were teachers and at one time my father was a department head at the school board. At one time I had an older brother teaching at my large high school as well as one of my father's cousins as a student supervisor. I knew a lot I shouldn't have but mostly kept my mouth shut. And the school was so big I rarely saw my brother there. Other teachers sometimes saw me as a sympathetic but discreet ear.

When extended family got together, out came the booze and the stories.

There is no possible way that vaping is as bad as smoking. It's surely not risk-free, but when you compare the components of the two, it's common sense. There are around 200 chemical components in your typical liquid vape juice; in a burning cigarette, there are over 7,000. Those are facts. It's likely as time goes on that we'll see the health effects of vaping, but I think they will be significantly less. A flavored water-based vapor and smoke from burning organic matter are two very, very different things.

You also have to take into account the depositing of tar which comes with smoking tobacco (or any other substance, for that matter), which is a major component of smoking-caused lung diseases. With vaping, there is no tar because nothing is combusting. There are still chemicals of course, but we inhale all kinds of chemicals (organic and otherwise) constantly, especially in urban environments. Is vaping good? Probably not. But it is hardly comparable to smoking.

r71 Breathing industrial pollution and even car exhaust on the freeway is worse yet we never hear how many of us die from that. There is a political motivation behind the suppression of both smoking and vaping.

I used to love to smoke. I did not smoke that much but I always loved it. I also lived in Europe on and off in my late 20's and 30's. And Yes, I did smoke. Nowadays, at 55, if I can afford it, when I travel to Europe I try to get a room with a terrace and I smoke. One for breakfast and one in the evening. The pleasure I get from those two cigarettes is incredible to me. But I am a "non-smoker."

[quote]No, the bs is from the government which claims vaping is the same as smoking cigarettes. Sure, it's addictive. But inhaling a mist is virtually harmless to your lungs

Wrong. They’ve already shown to be coating lungs. Vaping is not better than smoking.

Source, R74?

I've read and seen similar stories on the news r75. I will try to find them but in the meantime, if you are a vaper, you should be looking it up too, for your own sake.

Imagine posting this on a gay website in 2025. Or anywhere. There's a list a mile long of groups more despised than smokers right now. Half of MAGA is smokers. Smokers are despised in some circles and the norm in others.

R76 pretty much all of the medical literature out there has indicated that vaping is not as harmful as smoking. It may not be healthy, but it's certainly the lesser of two evils. The issues where people were getting "popcorn lung" as they called it were from people using bootleg vape juice that had vitamin E acetate in it. If anything, the potential risks of vaping are mostly due to the nicotine concentration which may negatively affect cardiovascular health. Tobacco smoking also poses this risk (especially if you're a chains smoker), plus tar accumulation and exposure to thousands of more chemicals than what are in vape juice.

[quote]It wasn't any campaign that made people stop. It's the ridiculous prices that made people quit. $10-15 a pack is an expensive habit to hang on to.

R13 those are rookie numbers, try $34 for a pack of 20, and thats the cheap nasty ones. Brand name cigs are $42-48 a pack of 20 and up

We did have the anti smoking campaigns here too, and they worked, but the prices are something else according to friends I have that smoke. I never started, couldnt afford it, and glad I didnt

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. All three owned politicians for years then Tobacco was brought down. When will the same be done for Alcohol and Firearms?

No one’s fun anymore! Whatever happened to FUN, r80??

r81 Fools here should worry more about doing something productive in the world rather than bitching and moaning about smoking or vaping. Who gives a rat's ass? Mind your own business.

[quote] pretty much all of the medical literature out there has indicated that vaping is not as harmful as smoking.

Link please

I'm in the UK, but I suspect it's similar here. It's fairly rare to see people smoking cigarettes now; vapes are much more commonly used.

I don't think people despise cigarette smokers as much as they're mystified by them. They see vapes as providing that much craved nicotine hit while missing out all the tar and other nasties going into your lungs. So they don't really get why anyone would choose it.

I'm biased though as I've never smoked or vaped, so neither make sense to me.

The anti smoking movement in the US and what happened to smokers is an example of what can happen to a group of people who have become not only unpopular but kind of hated. The AIDS epidemic in the 80s with no Rx. It was close to going that way.

The anti smoking movement really started in 1963 and the writing of the 1964 SGReport on smoking and health. One of the most important publications in the history of public health.

But then in early 1980s R2 D2 and his buddy C3 and then Brooke Shields and other top talents were the stars in the best most watched overall and in prime time free PSAs in US history.

Every one of the TV and print ads did not have federal govt as the sponsor they were all tagged as local ads. So it looked like your local health dept had developed world class PSAs with world class talent . And they really were aired a lot. There was a study done on this I have read.

Then the work place and no smoking rules just about everywhere. Hard to remain an addict if you can’t find a place to get your fix especially when paying over $10 for a single pack.

Going to a job interview and a smoker ? My advice—-do not smoke before wait until after the interview.

I think it's the prices of cigarettes that had the most effect in preventing young people from taking up the habit. Back when I was a teen/young adult in the 90s there was a lot of smoking in my age group because a pack of cigarettes was only about $2.

You guys are a weird nation. Hate smoking yet most of you eats nothing but junk food. Like that's much better

Trailererr Shift

R87 it would not take the govt much effort at all to turn Big Mac eating heavy people or ass eating barebackers into a seriously hated group if the US govt truly wanted to and put their money and talent to it. They did with smoking.

We know that won’t happen under Trump because Trump loves McDonald’s,

Italians have taken up vaping with gusto.

Many more people die from fatass cholesterol and heart disease than smoking and lung cancer.

Lay down the ice cream. *blows smoke in your face*

I have the great misfortune of being friends with the last two smokers on earth. I quit back in 2005. I haven’t had a puff since, because I feel like my quitting is very fragile. One puff and I would be right back to smoking. So these two friends refuse to stop smoking in front of me, which I literally cannot stand. They both socialize with scumbags so they act like I am the freak for not smoking. One very wealthy unemployed girl drinks, smokes and takes drugs. She keeps inviting me to stay on her island in the summer, but I cannot be trapped there with all her fucking addictions. I have never gone. And I cannot see these two people in person because they won’t stop blowing smoke in my face.

R91 :-)

Yes smoking is a leading cause of heart disease in the US, I assume that was the point you were making?

R91 and I am sure you are aware that smoking is a risk factor for 15 other cancers other than lung cancer. Lung cancer is 1 of 16

And smoking is still the leading cause of early preventable death in the US.

#1

r93 No it isn't. The leading cause of heart disease is diet and clogged arteries, fatass. :)

R95 now do read more carefully. I say this with kindness. I said it was a leading cause. Not the leading cause. About 25% of CVD is related to smoking.

r96 Okay, I stand corrected. Still, I smoke and I'm thin as a rail and my heart is healthy because I exercise and I don't eat crap. I still think those 25% must be fatties who smoke.

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!

Oh shut up.

R97 I don’t give a fuck if you smoke. I don’t care if you are thin from meth. Brag away. No one here actually cares. Drugs are as American as pizza.

R84 it could be hate , despised , looked down upon , pity , look at them just as you might look at any other addict . Mystified? We do understand addictions and addicts most of us do.

It’s not at all mystified.

r100 No dear, some of us are svelte because we eat healthy and work out. Meth? Lol. Never did the white trash sex drug. I was a bit of a coke fiend once, but now I'm clean and sober.

But the self-righteous sanctimonious holier-than-thou crap I'm hearing from gay guys here about tobacco makes me wanna log out.

Coke and tobacco help keep you thin. I can spot an addict from a mile away. Continued good luck to you.

r103 Haha. Nah, I've always been skinny. I can eat whatever I want and never gain weight.

R103 you are ok I like people with a sense of humor.

The middle class has a problem with smoking. The rich and the poor do as they please.

I've watched a fair number of foreign films recently. The fucking smoking RUINS them.

I don't give a fuck if people smoke.

Republicans.

[quote] Danish ex Queen Margrethe II no longer puffs her beloved high tar Karelia Agriniou unfiltereds imported from Greece.

I hope that she has since availed herself of some teeth whitening procedure.

Can you imagine having her as a grandmother and having to kiss the old cunt when she was smoker? Maybe queens are not kissed by their grandchildren. What do I know?

She really cunted out within the last couple of years by removing the princely status/titles of the children of her younger son, Prince Joachim. The old cunt should have just made it apply to the next generation and not her existing grandchildren.

Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman’s got to hold on to.

If you want to make a guess as to who is a smoker and your sense of smell is shot from you know too much previous fun.

Education level is maybe the best way. The more education the less smoking. And it’s been this way for many decades. The higher up the education ladder the less smoking.

It is what it is.

Of course the worst thing that could ever truly upset and ruin the true anti smoking crowd is an actual safe cigarette and I fully realize that as well..

In fact they tend to not support work toward a safer cig.

Nobody fucking smokes anymore, it's an irrelevant argument.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

[quote]The Allure of Smoking Rises Again. The cool factor of cigarettes has proved hard to shake.

r113 No, us cool bastards don't follow the sheep. Now lay down that piece of pizza and have a cigarette.

Of course:

-Being fat

-Looking old

-Contrarily, losing weight when you were deemed "funny fat" like Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Melissa McCarthy, Rebel Wilson, etc

-Failing or falling from popularity when you used to be a success

-Doing any of these things when you were a celebrity or famous

R113 Half of the people in my country smoke

R117 it only looks and smells that way. No country has 50% of its adults as smokers.

A lot of people still smoke, R113. Mostly older and poorer, more prevalent in certain racial and ethnic groups, but even affluent, financially secure white people still smoke in the US. A huge subset of the Republican party is angry smokers who list smoking bans among their 8,000 other grievances with the world.

R118 Just looked up the statistics. We are number 7 in the world with 37.6% smokers. So okay, it isn't a half of the country, but it is still a huge number and not "Nobody fucking smokes anymore" like R113 states

R120 is right - smoking rates are still very high in some places - and unexpectedly low in others. The list linked is as interesting for those at the bottom of the list as it is for those at the top. Ghana has the least at just 2.4%, Nauru the most at 45%. Canada has the lowest rate in the Western world at just 12%. A lot of the places with low smoking rates do not strike me as places I'd want to live in - Iran, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Burkina Faso all of lower smoking rates than any developed country (bar Iceland)

Smoking is still the leading cause of early preventable death in the US but now only 11% smoke as of 2023. Lag time. California and Utah have the lowest smoking rates.

I don’t know if we ever hit 50% but we got really close.

And they did it by not being nice to the smokers. Mean in fact. Punishment gets better results if you want to change a groups unhealthy behavior.

History and a Warning