Rant: Why do smoker's try to blame everyone but themselves for their cancer?

[MichaelD]

[rant]

I just finished reading a magazine article (Redbook...my boss had it on her desk...) written by this teary-eyed woman who at age 53 was dying of cancer and emphysema (sp?). She'd been smoking since the age of 14...39 years.

She blames the Big Evil Tobacco companies for her disease. Give me fruggin' break, lady. The cancer warnings have been on the package for DECADES now. It's common knowledge that smoking causes lung cancer, mouth cancer, emphysema and other deadly maladies.

This isn't the first "pity me, I did nothing wrong" article by a smoker I've read.

If I start off drinking and eventually develop into an alcoholic, is it Jim Beam Inc's fault? Budweiser's fault? Gallo Winery's fault? Nope. It's Mike's fault.

So why do the smoker's blame everyone but the responsible party; themselves?

[/rant]

*EDIT*
Tried to add a poll after thread was created...I don't see the option to do that.

 

[308nato]

That's a pretty big generalization there. Why don't you add a poll to see who smokers blame?

I would say that most smokers blame themselves. Of course, that doesn't get much airtime because it doesn't fit the "I've been victimized" mindset.

 

[Aceman]

So why do the smoker's blame everyone but the responsible party; themselves?

I think that's the exception not the rule. If I contract cancer from my smoking, I know it was only me that caused it by smoking and only I can prevent it.

 

[BillGates]

Sweet, another smoker bashing thread - mine lasted 10 days and 300 posts...

But remember, smokers are VICTIMS because they started way back when nobody knew it was bad!!...

....as for why they haven't quit in the 20 years since, when we knew it was bad, you'll have to ask them yourself.

White trash have to keep up their image somehow you know.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

THis is all part of the foundation of a lawsuit against big tobacco. Juries hate tobacco companies.

 

[Moonbeam]

Why should they be any different than anybody else. When did you start blambing yourself for blaming smokers who blame others for their cancer?

 

[Adul]

it is the in thing to do.

 

[Aceman]

White trash have to keep up their image somehow you know

So how do you keep your white trash image up?

 

[MichaelD]

No, no and no. I'm not bashing smokers...even though they stink and try to poison me and ruin my dinner by lighting up next to me...I'm bashing their attitude that "it's not my fault my tongue had to be removed b/c I smoke cigs and chew tobacco at the same time..it's the TOBACCO COMPANY'S fault..."

I'm just curious how someone who has contracted a PREVENTABLE disease like cancer/herpes/alcoholism can blame anyone but themselves?

 

[MikeO]

Why do smoker's try to blame everyone but themselves for their cancer?

I'd say most smokers know who's the one to blame.

 

[royaldank]

Because that is all American's do anymore. We don't accept blame for ourselves. We spill coffee on our crotch, we blame McDonalds for making it too hot. Some kid shoots up a school and we try to blame videogames. Some kid commits suicide and people try to blame videogames and music. Two planes take down the WTC and we blame the government. A 240 lbs woman can't get a job as an aerobics instructor and they blame some kind of discrimination against them. Gamblers loose all their monies and then blame the casinos for being broke as a joke.

It's getting rediculous. Pretty soon you wont be able to leave your house for fear of looking at someone wrong and getting sued.

 

[PlatinumGold]

I don't believe in the Smokers are victims crap either. but comon, it's not like you can hold the tobacco companies innocent. They did market and sell a poisonous product for years. and they market it to kids who can't make the best decisions for themselves.

Obviously anyone that smoked for 30 years has no one to blame but themselves but that doesn't take the tobacco companies off the hook for marketing to kids.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
I don't believe in the Smokers are victims crap either. but comon, it's not like you can hold the tobacco companies innocent. They did market and sell a poisonous product for years. and they market it to kids who can't make the best decisions for themselves.

Obviously anyone that smoked for 30 years has no one to blame but themselves but that doesn't take the tobacco companies off the hook for marketing to kids.

Agreed on the marketing to minors part. The Joe Camel cartoons were way out of line.

 

[HiveMaster]

I'm just curious how someone who has contracted a PREVENTABLE disease like cancer/herpes/alcoholism can blame anyone but themselves?

Ahh. Now your true ignorance shines thru. I am sure that persons who suffer from cancer, herpes, and alcoholism all brought it on themselves. Alcoholism is genetic. Many cancers have a genetic link...and herpes you can get from someone who does not even know that THEY have the desease.

So, when we can:

1) Choose our genetic makeup

and

2) Get the results of a complete physical, down to the cellular level, of our sex partners

You can then rant about how people "choose" to get a preventable desease like cancer, herpes, or alcoholism.

 

[Ns1]

Because that is all American's do anymore. We don't accept blame for ourselves. We spill coffee on our crotch, we blame McDonalds for making it too hot. Some kid shoots up a school and we try to blame videogames. Some kid commits suicide and people try to blame videogames and music. Two planes take down the WTC and we blame the government. A 240 lbs woman can't get a job as an aerobics instructor and they blame some kind of discrimination against them. Gamblers loose all their monies and then blame the casinos for being broke as a joke.

It's getting rediculous. Pretty soon you wont be able to leave your house for fear of looking at someone wrong and getting sued.

well said

 

[teddymines]

Originally posted by: billgates380Sweet, another smoker bashing thread - mine lasted 10 days and 300 posts...

But remember, smokers are VICTIMS because they started way back when nobody knew it was bad!!...

I disagree with that last statement. You're inhaling SMOKE for crissakes, the very stuff we're taught to avoid in a burning building by staying low, the stuff that makes you choke when the wind blows from the bonfire...

How can anyone POSSIBLY think that somehow this kind of smoke is OK???

I don't see government warnings on drill bits, but I can pretty much conclude that drilling holes into my skull is a Bad Thing.

 

[lawaris]

I don't blame anyone ... cos' nobody's told me that I have cancer

 

[b0mbrman]

I've smoked, I've drank heavily...if anything bad happened to me, I wouldn't blame anyone but myself.

I think most of the people who are whining aren't the ones actually smoking/drinking but rather those away from the situation who need something to cry about (hippies always need something to cry about)

 

[Carl Uman]

All this crap about suing tobacco companies because of increased health etc... is a bunch of crap. Why don't we sue every junk food company while we are it? They make America fat! How about Ford and GM? They make cars and trucks that pollute our air. All this political BS really p_sses me off!!!

Another thing that makes me mad is that most (not all) smokers think they should be able to smoke where ever and when ever they want regardless of who else has to breath it. If they want to smoke fine, it's their decision and they have to live (or not) with it. Just do it where others don't have to and don't blame someone else for the consequences of your choice.

 

[Azraele]

Of some of the somkers I've talked to, they have such interesting rationalizations concerning their habit that it's no use even trying to talk intelligently with them.

Of the rest, as long as it doesn't get near my lungs, smoke away.

 

[Carl Uman]

Originally posted by: teddymines

Originally posted by: billgates380Sweet, another smoker bashing thread - mine lasted 10 days and 300 posts...

But remember, smokers are VICTIMS because they started way back when nobody knew it was bad!!...

I disagree with that last statement. You're inhaling SMOKE for crissakes, the very stuff we're taught to avoid in a burning building by staying low, the stuff that makes you choke when the wind blows from the bonfire...

How can anyone POSSIBLY think that somehow this kind of smoke is OK???

I don't see government warnings on drill bits, but I can pretty much conclude that drilling holes into my skull is a Bad Thing.

Well said. Of course Chris Rock said it well too... there isn't always a reason... can't people just be crazy

 

[ThePresence]

Its the same thing like those people suing gun companies. Hello? A gun is, like, a weapon? It's supposed to be dangerous! Jeeez, the US judicial system gotta do something, but it wont, being that it's the criminal justice system. BTW, Im a smoker.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

I know a man who's smoked a pack a day for the past 20yrs and has been smoking for the last 34 years and he's in fine shape with no proof that he smokes in the lung x-rays.

nik

 

[ThePresence]

Originally posted by: ffmcobalt
I know a man who's smoked a pack a day for the past 20yrs and has been smoking for the last 34 years and he's in fine shape with no proof that he smokes in the lung x-rays.

nik

Then this thread is obviously not about him.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: ThePresence

Originally posted by: ffmcobalt I know a man who's smoked a pack a day for the past 20yrs and has been smoking for the last 34 years and he's in fine shape with no proof that he smokes in the lung x-rays. nik

Then this thread is obviously not about him.

Thought I'd brag a little.

nik