Anti-Smoking Zealots are Just Brats

Lets face it, most people who complain about people smoking around them are just a bunch of puerile brats with nothing better to do than make a nuisance of themselves (as is so clearly shown by some participants in the alt.smokers newsgoup on usenet). I have known a few people who are genuinely bothered by ETS but in most cases, they tend to be more tolerant than the brats.

We are all familiar as well with the 'reformed' smoker who suddenly can't stand to be around smoke. I used to work in a private research lab. One of the technologists decided to quit smoking. He turned into a real asshole after that. He was probably a real asshole before that but I didn't know him that well so he didn't bother me until my smoking became an urgent concern of his.

After he quit smoking though he would pull the usual shit whenever anyone happened to be around enjoying a smoke; coughing and squinting and turning up the nose. One day while I was enjoying a Camel while working in an office down the hall I heard the door to his office slam shut. Not very subtle was he.

I had another encounter with a holier than thou non-smoker at the same facility. A young woman was being re-located to my lab. We were allowed to smoke in the labs in those days so long as we confined it to our desks. The day she moved in she put up a 'no smoking' sign. It was so typical of the Anti-Smoking Zealot (ASZ) ilk. Even though she was just an employee, same as me, her religious anti-smoking zeal allowed her to believe she could behave as though she owned the place. Of course, I ignored her edict. The two of us ended up at loggerheads.

In those days, before the government really started going hog-wild on the issue, the matter of accomodating smokers and non-smoking zealots was left up to the property owner or it's agent, the management. Notice I did not say, non-smokers - most of the rest of my non-smoking co-workers were tolerant, reasonable individuals as are most non-smokers in general, except when they enter a voting booth. Though I can no longer remember the response of management to this issue I can say the matter was promtly resolved to *everyone's* satisfaction. This is one reason interloping politicians are beneath mere contempt. They think they have all the answers. They clearly do not. And worse, their "solutions" are always inferior to those arrived at by private negotiation between parties directly involved with the issues. This is one reason they have to justify their ignorant impositions with bland, dishonest advertizing campaigns like the one in Hamilton, Ontario right now. It describes the coercive and unwelcome interference with the operation of private businesses, the replacement of voluntary negotiation and accomodation between the people who are actually involved, with "one size fit's all" dictates as a situation in which "everybody wins". But Canada is now a land of sheep and this type of crass manipulation proceeds without one person in a thousand even being aware of it's bald mendacity.

Unlike market solutions, where all transactions are voluntary and all participants walk away better off than before, government acts, coercive by nature, are *always* zero sum. Those who benefit *always* benefit at someone else's expense. This resonates nicely with the bratish ASZ for whom freedom and property rights are fine so long as they do not interfere with the duty of the plebian hoards to satisfy their so called *right* to enjoy the property of others on terms only *they* define.

The nannies in the alt.smokers newsgroup exhibit all of the same characteristics as the "me first" brats. Without exception they reject the sanctity of private property. This makes sense. Private property implies that control rests with the owner. The antis cannot pursue their agenda in a world where others are allowed a sphere of control. They *must* be allowed to barge into places where other people are congregated and set the rules.

Freedom of association, once considered important on an almost universal basis, is just another obstacle to the brat tyrant. Nothing must be allowed to stand in the way of the brat tyrant's *right* to breathe tobacco smoke-free air.

What unmitigated greed!

Yup, just a bunch of puerile fucking jerks, slamming doors like nine year olds demanding satisfaction without paying for it. Like I say, the most radical ASZ's are the kind of arses who truly think the world revolves around them. It is absolutely the mentality that demands privately owned establishments be coerced by the might of the government to accommodate their alleged 'right' to breathe 'clean air'. It is a sad commentary on the state of our governments where political scoundrels cater to the whims of those constituents motivated by nothing more than basic human greed for the unearned.

Marvin Caplan, architect of Hamilton's pandering bylaw reminded me in an email, "in the last municipal election over two thirds of those who voted supported the by-law in a referendum." Just roll this over in your mind a bit to consider the implications. While doing so remember H.L. Mencken's quip, "Elections are nothing but an advance auction in stolen goods." See what I mean?

It takes hard work, saving, planning, dedication to build a business. In our system of government all it takes is for some ignorant asshole in a voting booth to spend an erg of his own energy marking an "X" which, when replicated by enough other assholes turns into a number big enough to represent two-thirds of those who voted. The cumulative effect of a large number of shallow assholes with voting rights is translated into control of someone else's property. Even more insulting is the fact that the majority of those voting to expropriate will never even set foot in most of the places they so blithely dispose of. What a fucking disgrace.

Not all 'reformed' smokers behave this way. Again, puerile bratism is not confined exclusively to the non-smoking population. The brat former smoker is often the one responsible for so much of the rudeness attributed to all smokers.

One brat smoker I knew thought nothing of lighting up after a meal before everyone else had finished even in spite of being asked not to. Now an ex-smoker he had bought into the ETS horseshit and prohibits smoking in his house. Then he gets terribly offended when smoking friends choose not to visit him socially.

The narcissist, again, thinks the world revolves around him. It is the purpose and function of everyone else to serve as the means to his or her ends. This is why the ASZ's feel no qualms whatsoever about expropriating private property for their own personal enjoyment of a smoke-free atmosphere.

In a free country, those ASZ's who have the courage of their convictions would put their own time and money at risk by opening their own smoke-free bars and restaurants. The issue is *so* important to them they will think nothing of marking an "X" on a ballot, or whining and complaining, or spending hours engaged in a mindless exchange of insults in usenet but obviously not nearly important enough to employ their own resources to provide themselves with the accommodation they desire. As with all socialist whiners, the real work is always left to someone else.

The marketplace is a level playing field where people get what they want by production and voluntary trade. The dearth of smoke-free bars and restaurants prior to prohibition is a salient indicator of just how many ASZ's possess the kind of integrity and conviction required to achieve the goals they claim to value so highly.... none... zip, zero, zilch. The best they can summon in pursuit of the smoke-free accommodations they claim are so important is to whine, moan and put an "X" on a ballot.

There's an old saying, "Pay attention to what I do, not what I say." If you pay attention to what the ASZ's actually *do* you cannot fail to get a clear view right into their souls. Like broken people in a car wreck, it ain't a pretty picture.

No, they wait until someone else has done all the work, and then barge in loudly demanding their "rights". What a sorry bunch of worthless bums. What system other than one designed by and for these sniveling low-lifes, I.E. socialism, would allow such depravity to prevail?