Comment on The solution to many problems
zeezee@slrpnk.net 3 days agoweird you ask for people to have empathy for poor and struggling people but then hate on smokers when those people are almost always smokers themselves - genuinely you’ll be hard pressed to find a struggling person that doesn’t smoke
maybe there’s something more to knowingly poising oneself for the fleeting feeling of control and comfort that doesn’t have anything to do with “people who choose hurting others for their own convenience”?
tomi000@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I understand your point, but Id say empathy is not tied to a person but more to a topic or situation. So while the two sets of people might intersect, (my) empathy for them originates from the topic theyre associated with. I would say I have empathy for people struggling and at the same time, I dont have empathy for people giving others cancer. Some of them might be the same people and I have empathy for part of them and not for another. I dont know if Im wording it well and maybe Im misusing the term.
Also, I specifically worded it like that to not include all smokers, because like I said many are struggling with their addiction, but its not a majority from my experience. And yes, the tobacco industry is to blame for normalising smoking over the decades, but educating yourself, especially when it comes to drug use, is everyones responsibility.
Like I said I know a lot of smokers and many of them just dont give a fuck about how it affects others, but Im not saying that makes them bad people period. Its a part of them I dont like and there are other parts that I like. Just like I do lots of stuff that others probably dont like about me.
I might need to reread my comment because it probably sounded like I hated the people themselves for one of their habits, which is not what I was trying to say but I have pretty strong feelings when it comes to smoking.
zeezee@slrpnk.net 3 days ago
I appreciate you explaining your point - I guess I was just trying to say that smokers generally don’t smoke just to spite/give others cancer - and that it’s usually a coping strategy - and sure that’s not always the case and there are rich and well off smokers as well
I guess I just wanted to note that most smokers don’t choose to smoke but do it because they’re addicted - not just to the nicotine but also to the feeling of control to immediately calm yourself down (I’m not saying its a healthy or sustainable coping mechanism but an understandable one)
tomi000@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Yes, Im well aware that giving people cancer is not the main goal of smokers, but its a byproduct most are willing to ignore (there are many alternatives that dont produce second hand smoke). And at the end of the day, the outcome doesnt change whether they do it intentionally or not.