Comments

The ugly face of denormalisation — 23 Comments

  1. I cannot believe how *fucking* angry seeing that clip has made me feel.

    Would he have behaved the same if it was a bloke that was smoking? She should have told him to go forth and multiply, and gave him a swift kick in the happy sack.

    If I'd seen that I would have lit a cigarette and then smoked it in front him. I bet he wouldn't have been so brave then!

    • Surely smoking should be encouraged for all those walking dark country roads?  A nice fat glowing fag-end to light them up?

      Incidentally, I would be exempt from that law as there is a [theoretical] 50km restriction between me and the village, and it is pitch dark most of the way!

  2. Here in the Black North, the Northern health Board are making all their hospitals non-smoking. There is a nice smoking shelter in Antrim Area hospital but it's going to be demolished. Nurses now have no smoke-break because the entire grounds are to be non-smoking, and this includes – wait for it – inside your own car.

    Now here's me, just emerged from A&E after my old dad had a stroke, waiting for news and having a smoke to settle the nerves, along with the ambulance crew, on their break, that brought him in. Fair enough, but from March this'll be a no-no. So if you've just had some bad news ie your son/motorbike vs.tree, and need a smoke in your darkest moment, tough shit. No sympathy for human feelings, no law says they have to do this, it's just spite. How and by whom will this be enforced, my Missis (who works for this shower and tho a non-smoker is dismayed at the callousness) asked the big boss who made the recent announcement – the answer was, as you will have already guessed, silence. 

    As for the man in the video, he needs a lesson in manners. If he'd spoken like that to me he'd have got my boot, subsequent to his ignoring my warning re: an impending boot/head interface plus instructions to depart.

    • I think had I been confronted by a dickhead like that I would have complied with his demand that I put out my cigarette.

      I would have stubbed it out on his forehead.

    • All the hospitals I have dealt with recently [four in  total] have been non-smoking including the grounds.  One hospital even had a loudspeaker system dronong on about not smoking.  Needless to say no one took any heed and in one hospital the smokers seemed to delight in hanging around under the no-smoking signs.

  3. GD, I cannot tell you how glad I am to be living in a civilised country. It may be an economic basket case (a situation not entirely of its own making), but people here have a live-and-let-live approach to life and a healthy disrespect for nannying laws.

    And despite the economy, they are pleasant, courteous and helpful. Even though I've lived here for nearly 15 years, I still find myself surprised at how nice people are.

    And here in Patras (where I am at the mo), the third largest city in Greece, if I go to a restaurant and put my tobacco and lighter on the table, an ashtray immediately appears. The zealots will have their work cut out 'denormalising' smoking here! It's an accepted, and acceptable part of life.

    I don't think we will ever see a situation like that in the video in this country. The aggressor would be set upon (verbally) by the passers-by in no uncertain fashion.

  4. I'm a non smoker, but I believe that enough is enough with all this harassment. Interesting the beeps you can hear are usually from police radio, so it would be interesting to find why he/she never had a word with said chap for breach of the peace.

  5. hifuckinghilarious…

    One should never walk on a motorway as it is extremely dangerous and also an offence to do so.

    just up the road from me is a station of the train variety…in the steam train days it had a lovely waiting room proper buildings etc and staff these days it has a bus shelter in the two platforms and a couple of lights which sport many a warning sign…the most idiotic though are side by side on the little path that leads to the platforms.
    One says 'trespassing on the railway is an offence which could result in a fine of £100'
    the one alongside it says 'smoking on the railway is an offence with a fine of £1000'
    The trains that use the fucking lines are all diesels and most of them have a power unit at either end so two fucking massive diesels spewing diesel fumes do no harm whatsoeveratall unlike a bit of burning plant and paper.

    • I don't know why he mentioned the motorway thing.  No one in their right mind would take a stroll there with or without a jacket. 

      As it happens, I tend to wear one of those waistcoats down to the pub for two reasons – one is that it scares the shit out of people who think I'm a speed trap and the other is that there are some hairy drivers around here.  If they bring in that law I'll be forced to go without.  There are times when it's dangerous being a rebel?

  6. Everybody is annoyed at that poor fellow with the loud voice.  He's simply suffering from ASDS: bit.ly/ASDShelp 

    There's a news story at https://disqus.com/home/discussion/aattp/vile_racist_slapped_spat_on_elderly_black_woman_who_turned_out_be_a_judge_video/ about a man who went up to an older female smoker outside a courthouse, verbally abused her over her smoking, then slapped her and spat at her.  There are over 400 comments made to the story.  Less than 2% of those comments (ignoring the three that I made) completely ignore the proximate cause of the incident, the smoking, and simply go on about sexism and racism. 

    Yelling is actually the smallest of reactions: there have been shootings, beatings, burnings, suicides, stabbings and at least one strangulation murder (story only from an internet posting, but it rang true) of smokers in the last ten years.  My guess is that I've only seen a fraction of the reports, and that the reports are only a fraction of what's been out there.  I'd say it's likely we've moved well up into the triple digits by this point.  Antismokers are guilty of far more than being complicit in disgusting behavior.  They're complicit in and guilty of outright murders.

     

    – MJM

  7. It is coincidental you should highlight this as for the next two weeks I will be on the road with a media tour to highlight the mistreatment of smokers over the last eleven years.

    Wish me luck  🙁

    • Best of luck John! If you want some links to stories send me an email.  I've collected a few.  You're also more than welcome to print out my Wall Of Hate ( http://bit.ly/Wall-Of-Hate ) for your tour if you like.  It displays quite well at 24×36" on good stock.  (I'd guess at about 25 to 30 pounds from AllPosters (DOT) com  when they're having a 35 to 45% off sale.)

  8. scary more than funny.. I am seeing a lot of these types in my travels these. and I mean Ireland

    • This whole business is turning into a legitimised oppression of a sizeable minority, with the tacit approval and funding from the various governments.  If this kind of carry on involved race, colour or creed there would be massive public outcry.  As it is, they claim "it's for our own good".

      • Grandad, interesting that you made that comment at around the same time I wrote the below on another board:

        It's like racism in a way… people who feel that they have to run home and take a shower after rubbing up against people of the wrong color on a subway. Not because they would have felt that way all on their own, but because that's what they were raised with. The problem was virtually unknown back in the 1970s: about a third of my college classes allowed smoking, and no one ever objected or broke out in beeboozles or choked to death frothing on the floor. And in all my years of dormitory living I never heard of roommates breaking up over smoking differences, despite the fact that the shared rooms were small and had no particular ventilation unless you stuck a fan in a window. It's a manufactured hate based on fear, and it's resulted in mountains of discrimination and even in violent attacks, tortures, and outright killings.

        ==== I was then challenged over the racism comparison, saying they were most certainly NOT alike. So I responded with this:

        in some ways you're correct. Smokers aren't given seats at the back of the bus, and housing and jobs would never be allowed today to say "No Coloreds Need Apply." Someone of the "wrong race" couldn't be charged extra on their health insurance simply because their racial membership was argued to run up more bills. Nor would the amount of hate illustrated on that Wall-Of-Hate be well tolerated on most boards. And if some white guy went off on a tirade against an older black woman smoking out on the sidewalk, telling her to put her smoke out and eventually spitting on her and slapping her in the face we wouldn't be seeing 420 out of 430 comments focusing on racism while ignoring the actual cause of the attack. We also don't see people in jail for "being Oriental in the wrong place" nor professors denied tenure simply because they refuse to accept only Klan-Approved research funding and dare to accept a grant from the NAACP. Nor do we see a US President proudly sign a tax increase of over 2,000% on one of the poorest well-defined races in the country and then go on nationwide TV and deny he increased taxes on any "people." No children being taken from one parent and given to the other purely on openly racial grounds either.

        So I guess you and beaker are right. They're not the same at all. Wonder if we could work out a trade?

        – MJM

         

        • A case of Great Minds? 

          What strikes me is the openness of the bias against smokers.  Try booking a holiday for example and the vast majority of accommodation rentals will specify "non-smokers only".  Suppose they advertised "no Irish", "no niggers" or "no Muslims" there would be an international outcry yet the non-smoker specification doesn't raise an eyebrow.  I know there are [possible] issues with decoration or lingering aromas but from my experience dogs are more welcome than smokers. 

          • And doghouses built to the specifications of smokers' shelters would result in the owners being fined for animal abuse.

             

            – MJM

Hosted by Curratech Blog Hosting