this is not the hamster you're looking for (flightstothesea) wrote in

otf_wank,
@ 2008-02-19 14:07:00

smoking bans are just like fascism!
Some of you may be familiar with a man by the name of Charlie Brooker, who writes for the Guardian's "Comment is Free" section (he also has a TV review column called "Screen Burn"). He's acerbic and misanthropic and generally reasonably funny, though if the comments on his articles are anything to go by, he was funnier at some undetermined point in the past.

This week's article is about the proposed £10 fee for a smoker's permit, the form for which is deliberately complex. This has a lot of people up in arms.

Comments for the article start out well enough, until anonymousdibs claims that There really is nothing in this world nicer than the sound of a smoker whining.

And just like that, we go from zero to Godwin's in 10 comments:

First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Take heed, non-smokers.

Unfortunately, you can't link to individual comments, so you'll have to scroll to get to the choicer bits of stupid and funny.

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	hallidae 2008-02-20 04:01 am UTC (link)
	Y'know, this randomly reminds me of the fact that our administration is claiming we'll be a completely smoke-free campus in six months. As in, you can't even stand outside and smoke, you have to sit in your car and do it. And I'm thinking "Yeah, that'll go over well when the vast majority of your cigarette-using students live in dorms and have no cars." (Reply to this)(Thread)

	icedark_elf 2008-02-20 05:41 am UTC (link)
	They did that to us last semester. On a campus when a majority of staff smoke. Yeah, we had some unhappy teachers. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	prettyamyrose 2008-02-20 06:05 am UTC (link)
	My campus briefly attempted smoke-free, but ended up designating the areas where smokers were going to steathily congregate to smoke anyway as the only places one could smoke... which, by and large, a great deal of them did anyway before the ban out of common decency. I found that one rather glorious. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

icedark_elf
2008-02-20 06:16 am UTC (link)

I will admit, being able to actually walk out of a building and not instantly into a cloud of smoke is nice.

Biggest problem I had with smokers was, when it rained, they stayed right next to the doors. Ever. Single. Set. So unless you went out a window, meant you had to suck in a big lungful or two of grey cloud. Which make my asthma have a fit.

Though I have a lot of smoker friends. Most of them, even in their own homes, though, go outside to do it. So I also get why they are grumpy over the sudden change.

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prettyamyrose
2008-02-20 06:35 am UTC (link)

See, that always pisses me off anywhere. I smoke, but I have always wandered a good distance away from where other people are unless they've got cigarettes in hand as well. It sucks when it rains, but there's been this novel invention called a bloody umbrella for how long now?

It isn't that hard to avoid smoking in mixed company, and this comes from a pack-a-day-if-not-sometimes-two type of person.

I understand where you're coming from. My best friend is asthmatic--which is probably some part of why my ranty smoker-courtesy came about.

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	fuzzytowers 2008-02-22 04:50 am UTC (link)
	I agree. I'm a smoker and can't understand what the big deal is on either side. I don't smoke in places where people say I can't, but I'd like to be left with a few places that I can, thanks. It's this whole nasty and impolite war that's been created that I don't like. Everyone's gotta take it to an extreme. Oi. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	wrongly_amused 2008-02-20 07:47 am UTC (link)
	To be fair, it would be nice to walk out of a building on a rainy day without nearly coughing up a lung two feet out of the door. This being said, the second campus I attended had designated smoking areas on adjacent spaces between doors that weren't attached to any pedestrian areas, and I was cool with that. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

hallidae
2008-02-20 08:03 am UTC (link)

I haven't lived in the dorms here at all, or been in another class building for almost a year, so I don't know what it's like for the rest of the campus, but at least at the art building, the teachers and students are really good about staying away from the doors, so I don't personally know why the hell the administration's getting its tail in a knot. Especially since it took them more years than I'd like to count to go "Ohshit, our buildings aren't safety code compliant!" and do anything about it. ::still waiting for them to figure out that the art building is still on the "Repair" List::

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wook77
2008-02-21 03:27 pm UTC (link)

Lived in the substance free dorm in my first year of college. There were literally no substances allowed - ie no caffeine. Other than the no caffeine thing, it wasn't all that bad. It was me, the students from other countries, the Mormons and the parolees. So, all in all, it was an interesting mix of students.

Add in that there wasn't the constant smell of cigarettes and I actually had a good time there.

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hallidae
2008-02-21 06:01 pm UTC (link)

There's a difference between voluntarily moving to a substance-free dorm (and yes, we do have one), and being told "Yeah, you've followed all our rules so far, but it's not enough. Smoke in your car if you have one, or quit if you don't, or we'll fine you so much every time someone catches you lighting up on campus, and expel you after this many offenses. Addiction? Pfft, you're in college, you're too young to be addicted."

And for the record, I don't smoke, I've just seen the hell my friends have been going through trying to wean themselves off cigarettes before the banhammer comes down.

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