I Didn't Realize I Was A Snob, But I Am . . .

[plateauguy]

This weekend my wife and I had to go to CampingWorld. On our way there, we saw several cigerette smokers with their cigerettes hanging out the car window, flicking ash. It was then that I realized, I REALLY don't like cigerettes!
I was raised in a household of cigerette smokers, but I never saw my parents flick their ash anywhere but an ashtray. I never saw them throw a cigerette down on the ground and walk away from it, and I never saw them try to talk with a cigerette in their mouth, and blow smoke into anyone's face!
Is this just further proof that manners are not taught anymore, or is it that I am a just a tobacco snob?

 

[roadqueen]

Cigarette smokers can be mannerly, it's just that most aren't. I find this applies in most of today's modern society, it's not just smokers.
Not all smokers throw their butts on the ground, or try to talk to someone with one in their mouth and blow smoke in the poor other conversationalist's face.
Or maybe that's just me, I don't know.

 

[mso489]

Littering and general lack of consideration for others, loud cell phoning in public places,

etc. I think people express their unhappiness, anger, and resentments by being louts.

And/or, some of them are just louts through and through. I guess it's the human condition.

I try to govern myself and hope that others will too. Pipe smokers are much more considerate

of others than cigarette smokers ... I hope. Used to have an in-law who had a terrible time with

binge vodka alcoholism. It always fascinated me that he looked down with deep angry

condescension on people who had substance abuse problems with pot, beer, wine, whisky,

etc. But vodka, ah vodka, was the sacred elixir. We tell ourselves stories.

 

[foggymountain]

489 expresses it well. I remember being on vacation in Dusseldorff Germany in 1971. I smoked all three at the time: pipes, cigars and cigarettes. The streets were so immaculate there wasn't a speck of refuse anywhere. I had never seen anything like it, even in Holland. So I put a cigarette out and stuck the butt in my pocket.

 

[phred]

There's a known tendency among humans to believe that things are getting progressively worse at time goes by, but as a one-time history major, it's not as clear-cut as it seems. After all, we no longer have a problem with male children being castrated so that they can continue to perform as opera singers, which I've always felt was one of the stranger signs of a decadent society in decline...
Personally, I suspect that this perception is part of our own growing realization that we're not the center of the universe, and a reaction against the people who haven't yet internalized that realization. I know that I feel it myself when a group of three walking abreast doesn't bother to get out of my way on the sidewalk, or when someone with headphones on insists on singing along (off-key) with whatever they're listening to, or when I spot cigarette detritus where it doesn't belong.

 

[spartan]

My wife still thinks it's okay to Facebook while we're visiting family.
I had to sit her down and tell her that it's extremely rude to multitask while someone (especially your elder) is trying to hold a conversation with you.
Kids these days... haha.
It's just people being oblivious and not empathizing with others. I don't understand how people like that operate.
Don't think you quite qualify as a tobacco snob unless you start looking down at others for their CHOICE in tobacco. If you just hate inconsiderate people, well... You're normal.

 

[locopony]

How observant, Phred.

 

[numbersix]

I don't think you're a snob. Let's face it, cigarettes are a nasty habit only made worse by oblivious smokers. I used to smoke 'em, and so I try not to judge smokers. But even when I smoked, I knew that it was a nasty habit, which is why as a habit it didn't last too long.

 

[roadqueen]

Not everyone thinks that cigarettes are nasty, Six. I enjoy them just as much as I enjoy my pipes and the occasional cigar. To each their own, I see no reason to look down on someone who has different tastes, or in my case, all-inclusive tastes.
I enjoy several forms of tobacco use. Does that make me nasty? No, I don't think so.

Don't think you quite qualify as a tobacco snob unless you start looking down at others for their CHOICE in tobacco. If you just hate inconsiderate people, well... You're normal.

+1 Spartan

 

[numbersix]

@roadqueen

Not everyone thinks that cigarettes are nasty, Six... Does that make me nasty? No, I don't think so.

Fair enough and I don't think it makes you nasty (nor myself when I smoked); but (speaking for myself only) I stand by what I said.

 

[teufelhund]

I think it just comes down to laziness. Peopel seem to know what is mannerly and just choose not to care. I can somewhat sympatyhize with cig smokers on the road; I don't even think they make cars with ash trays anymore. All the same I smoked cigs for most of my 20's and guess what I have a $3 bobkin in my car and I even still use it as a pipe holder and to know my ash. Do they really want to go to all the trouble of picking one up the next time they end up at any autostore/wally world? Hell no; just plain lazy. It's they same reason you could follow them from the parking lot to the Walmart entrance and watch them flick their butts rather than deposit them at the Oasis not 20 ft from the front door.

 

[roadqueen]

Fair enough - cigarettes are nasty to you. I can respect your personal preference/opinion on the matter without issue. It simply rubbed a bit that you lumped every single cigarette smoker (yourself included) as being "nasty". I didn't feel that was a fair generalization.
Thank you for being classy, I appreciate light-hearted debate.

 

[brian64]

Regarding the issue of cigarette butt litter, I believe it is a result of the group mind at work. What I mean is, the average person does not think much...they just follow the hive mind. It somehow became common practice in society to throw cigarette butts on the ground and not be perceived as littering. Most people who do this would not normally litter with anything else, such as a candy wrapper for example, because the group mind tells them it is littering and not acceptable.

 

[numbersix]

you lumped every single cigarette smoker (yourself included) as being "nasty"

I was referring to *cigarettes* themselves, not the people who smoke them (both my parents smoked for decades and I never thought of them as nasty either)

I can respect your personal preference/opinion on the matter without issue.

Thanks roadqueen - I definitely meant no offense. ::

 

[plateauguy]

+1 Six

 

[allan]

Interesting responses on this matter. Today I watched a driver in front of me throw out his window a plastic cup.
I often see (in my business neighborhood) mothers with children simply throw their wrappers into the street.
What chance do these children have? Sometimes I'll actually pick up the wrapper in front of the parent, but more often than not I just walk away. I've sort of given up with arguing and getting into it with folks, even about politics. I know its not exactly the same, but I realize now that I just don't want to fight anymore.

 

[kashmir]

The thing that gets me - and I know they're doing this on purpose - why can't they make biodegradable cigarette filters!?! It's not rocket science. I could probably come up with something myself in an afternoon in the shed. And here they are with several hundred billion dollars in disposable R & D income. With biodegradable filters smokers could poop all they want in public, with narry a word from me. It's just when you cut up a dead seagull and find its crop full of Winston filters, why then you know the world is certifiably insane.

 

[kashmir]

Roth - That is precisely the point. If biodegradable filters were developed, you wouldn't find them in their stomachs. No? You can't change people's behaviors - but you can change the consequences of those behaviors.

 

[brian64]

I know there's a high love for Libertarianism on this Forum, but enough is enough -- we won't get those idiots' to learn unless we have a way to get their attention.

IMO, the Libertarian viewpoint would not in any way condone the littering...it would rather oppose the banning of smoking as an alleged solution to a littering problem.

 

[kashmir]

When I smoke my Prince Albert roll ups, and extinguish the unfiltered butt in my calloused fingers, why it gives me great joy to return the detrius to mother nature. The decomposition of that paper, ash and dottle gives life sustenance to a myriad of creatures as it cycles on through.