Why I Don't Like Smokers

It's funny the course a thought can sometimes take. For personal reasons I was contemplating the mindset of an abuser and psychological factors and my mind jumped to an analogy of smoking and thus the revelation: smokers are like abusers. Or, more correctly, smokers are abusers.

Why? Think about it. A smoker is doing something very self damaging and, when they smoke around others they are inflicting harm, physical harm, on those people. These could be their spouses, their children, or total strangers. Like abusers, they often feel entitled to harm others in this way and, most of the time, don't even see why it's bad or harmful.

The most notable and, perhaps abhorrent of this abuse is perpetrated on our children. Not only children living in the household, but any child that comes into contact with their poison. Not only does it inflict physical damage, but also psychological damage. We know that children who grow up around smokers are more likely to grow up and smoke themselves, inflicting self damage which can be compared to self injury such as cutting or purposeful reckless behavior.

Most people would be disgusted if they found out that, say, a six year old were addicted to cigarettes. You would never let your six year old smoke... would you? If you would you would have your child taken away and into the custody of child services in a heartbeat, and yet we allow our children to become addicted to cigarette smoke from second-hand smoke at much younger ages. This is the real reason that children who grow up in smoke filled homes are more likely to smoke- they're already addicted!

So, smokers are, by all accounts, abusive addicts who feel no remorse in hurting other people, even their own children. I've made it no secret that I believe parents who smoke around their children should have their children taken away or be charged with abuse and be made to take a parenting class- perhaps one that shows what it is they're doing to their children which they supposedly love so much and would do anything to protect.. except not smoke, obviously.