Even though this is in the off-topic category, I’ll try to keep this at least a tiny bit relative, because this is pretty random.

Wherever I go, there’s smokers, and so much more than usual nowadays! They make those sickening, slimy throaty noises, just before popping a loogie and spitting their shit-spit out. They also cough with the knackered tones of zombies, and are way more likely to spread UTI’s to any women who are dumb enough to lay down with them.

And for some reason, they prefer beaches, where the air is fucking clean. Seriously? Were you not satisfied with ruining the air in normal areas? You’re inevitably going to die at the same rate, and on the same expiration date, regardless of where you’re smoking your tar-tipped cancer dildo. Nobody thinks you’re cool. In fact, you literally stink! Go smoke in a desert. Or better-yet, a sewer, where the bacterial environment matches your overall stench and sanitary incompetence.

Anyways, with that in mind, why do people put cigarettes in porn? I’ve seen those posts on e621 before, and promptly added “cigarette” to my blacklist. How, and in that reality, is smoking a literal pack of hazardous chemicals and substances a charming concept to some people?

I hope you’ll all forgive me for the outright rant. Tell me, what are your thoughts on this? Do you think the smoking population has gone out of control? Maybe there needs to be an organization fighting against this nonsense (One that isn’t full of cringy old people futilely failing to jump onto the “hip and modern” bandwagon).

I honestly hate those anti-smoking commercials about as much as I loathe the smoking industries. I wonder if they’re just normal people funded by smoking companies in order to cringe the younger generations into smoking.

Again, I apologize. I just drank my first cup of coffee. Literally, my very first and last. Don’t even get me started on psychotropic and mind-altering substances!

1: There are less smokers these days, not more.
2: You sound like you've come across, primarily, chainsmokers.
3: Citation on the UTIs?
4: If they're standing upwind of you, they're probably unaware the smoke is blowing in your direction. Move so you are not downwind, or politely ask them to move downwind if you are set up with equipment. There is so much gas in the planet's atmosphered that, even if every human from toddlers to geriatrics started smoking, it would not noticably impact air quality.
5: I don't think I need to respond to the idea that somebody will die as quickly in a desert or pools of excrement as they will on a sidewalk.
6: The same reason people put anything else in artwork or pornography; visual appeal.
7: Tobacco, Alcohol, Caffeine, Nitrous Oxide, Heroin, Cocaine, LSD, THC, all manner of ingested, inhaled, and injected recreational substances create an altered state of mind and experience that can often be seen as desirable.
8: Smoking is under the heaviest control it has ever been, with the vast majority of buildings exiling smokers outside.
9: There are multiple groups worldwide both government and non-profit, responsible for regulating and spreading awareness regarding tobacco and it's effects.
10: That's exactly what they are, although they are forced by governments to produce said commercials.
11: Caffeine does not agree with you, I recommend you avoid it in the future.

Summary: Don't look at what internal combustion engines do, if you are this upset by tobacco usage.

votp said:
1: There are less smokers these days, not more.
2: You sound like you've come across, primarily, chainsmokers.
3: Citation on the UTIs?
4: If they're standing upwind of you, they're probably unaware the smoke is blowing in your direction. Move so you are not downwind, or politely ask them to move downwind if you are set up with equipment. There is so much gas in the planet's atmosphered that, even if every human from toddlers to geriatrics started smoking, it would not noticably impact air quality.
5: I don't think I need to respond to the idea that somebody will die as quickly in a desert or pools of excrement as they will on a sidewalk.
6: The same reason people put anything else in artwork or pornography; visual appeal.
7: Tobacco, Alcohol, Caffeine, Nitrous Oxide, Heroin, Cocaine, LSD, THC, all manner of ingested, inhaled, and injected recreational substances create an altered state of mind and experience that can often be seen as desirable.
8: Smoking is under the heaviest control it has ever been, with the vast majority of buildings exiling smokers outside.
9: There are multiple groups worldwide both government and non-profit, responsible for regulating and spreading awareness regarding tobacco and it's effects.
10: That's exactly what they are, although they are forced by governments to produce said commercials.
11: Caffeine does not agree with you, I recommend you avoid it in the future.

Summary: Don't look at what internal combustion engines do, if you are this upset by tobacco usage.

I don’t mean people should literally go into a sewer or desert. That was a purely rhetorical statement.

And I don’t think as much about the environment as I think about how tedious it is to constantly dodge tweaker and smoker clouds.

And yes, I do agree, caffeine disagrees with me quite a bit. That’s why it’s my “first and last” cup.

Now that you mention it though, all the people pissing me off really are just chain-smokers. It’s been a long time since I’ve had the silence without grotesque throat noises. They’re so gross!!

nathmurr said:
Anyways, with that in mind, why do people put cigarettes in porn? I’ve seen those posts on e621 before, and promptly added “cigarette” to my blacklist. How, and in that reality, is smoking a literal pack of hazardous chemicals and substances a charming concept to some people?

Same reason anything else is in porn. Given the existence of rape porn, snuff porn, cub porn, etc, something depicting a harmful activity doesn't prevent people from enjoying it as a fantasy. Though given that smoking is a legal thing people do, and used to be promoted as a positive bonding activity, there's still a view of them based on that.

From the people I know who smoked, one of the biggest reasons to do it was cigarettes providing a calming effect. It helped reduce anxiety and dulled certain types of pain. Though there are of course a whole host of non-beneficial issues, including addiction, damaged lungs, increased risk of cancer, loss of taste/smell, and a natural tolerance build-up, requiring a person to smoke more to get the same positive effects as time goes on.

nathmurr said:
I hope you’ll all forgive me for the outright rant. Tell me, what are your thoughts on this? Do you think the smoking population has gone out of control? Maybe there needs to be an organization fighting against this nonsense (One that isn’t full of cringy old people futilely failing to jump onto the “hip and modern” bandwagon).

At least in the US, smoking is a lot more restricted now than it used to be. Advertisements and entertainment media are heavily restricted (they used to be able to get doctors to promote smoking various brands as "healthy", Joe Camel used to be a child-friendly cartoon mascot to attract a younger crowd, characters smoking was a lot more common in movies targeting kids), and there's restrictions on smoking in publicly accessible indoor areas. Private establishments are allowed to deny entry to people who are smoking. Quite a bit of this came about as a result of a big anti-smoking campaign in the late 80s and 90s, though there have been anti-smoking laws and regulations passed at various other points in history. Maybe I'm being an old fogey for remembering what it was like in the 80s and 90s, but it's a lot more anti-smoking these days.

I'm personally anti-smoking myself. I've never smoked, though my parents did, and while they tried to keep it outside or at open windows to keep it from getting inside, it wasn't uncommon to get a whiff of it and it never smelled pleasant. That second-hand smoke can sometimes be more dangerous than smoking itself (the cigarette has filters on the end you breath through to block the more harmful chemicals from getting in, which obviously doesn't do anything for a nearby bystander without the filter) adds to my dislike of it being a thing. I don't mind it when it's in art aimed at an older audience, though. At that point it's just fantasy, so as long as people are educated on the dangers and there's sufficient public protection in place, people are free to fantasize about it all they want.

People who abuse recreational substances rather than merely enjoying them are always going to be the most obvious users of them, and the least pleasant; drunk drivers and violent wifebeaters I'm sure come to mind quicker when thinking of alcohol than the old man swirling a glass of scotch in his reading room.

Something to keep in mind about smokers is that the best ways to dodge the clouds are
1: Be upwind
2: Be off-centre if you're downwind
3: Stay at least two metres away if there's no wind. Being behind or to the side is better than being in front.

I take it you live in a larger city if this is a frequent issue, as smaller cities, towns, and villages are typically not a high-stress enough environment to create a large volume of chainsmokers. Smoking like that is a often a mechanism of harsh environments, similar to alcoholism, as much as it is neurochemical addiction.

By the way, don't forget they also raised the smoking age in the US from 18 to 21 recently, Watsit.

votp said:
People who abuse recreational substances rather than merely enjoying them are always going to be the most obvious users of them, and the least pleasant; drunk drivers and violent wifebeaters I'm sure come to mind quicker when thinking of alcohol than the old man swirling a glass of scotch in his reading room.

Something to keep in mind about smokers is that the best ways to dodge the clouds are
1: Be upwind
2: Be off-centre if you're downwind
3: Stay at least two metres away if there's no wind. Being behind or to the side is better than being in front.

I take it you live in a larger city if this is a frequent issue, as smaller cities, towns, and villages are typically not a high-stress enough environment to create a large volume of chainsmokers. Smoking like that is a often a mechanism of harsh environments, similar to alcoholism, as much as it is neurochemical addiction.

By the way, don't forget they also raised the smoking age in the US from 18 to 21 recently, Watsit.

Damn, I had no idea. I’m definitely glad they raised the age. A guy I know was given cigarettes by his Dad when he was 11 Years old. He’s been addicted since then for 43 Years. It’s unbelievable what people did back in those Days. Heavy limitations on pointless substances are my favorite laws now.

I do live in one of those larger Cities too. Also living in California, where people found with crack or meth get a slap on the wrist, charged a fine, then get sent on their merry way. All thanks to a certain governor who’s name I won’t mention.

Heavier regulations, historically, create more use, not less, and leading into total restriction will universally create a booming black market for the product in question. Education, not regulation, is important in aiding in making informed decisions, unless you'd like to see other "pointless" substances such as alcohol, caffeine, and weed restricted/banned? I, for one, find the idea of coffee bootleggers hilarious.

votp said:
Heavier regulations, historically, create more use, not less, and leading into total restriction will universally create a booming black market for the product in question. Education, not regulation, is important in aiding in making informed decisions, unless you'd like to see other "pointless" substances such as alcohol, caffeine, and weed restricted/banned? I, for one, find the idea of coffee bootleggers hilarious.

votp also said:
1: There are less smokers these days, not more.

Hmmm. Something seems amiss here.

wat8548 said:
Hmmm. Something seems amiss here.

People are still free to smoke. Cigarettes are sold in stores, and plenty of places allow smoking. The regulations are primarily against providing misleading information, advertising in ways that can attract impressionable kids, and helping people who don't want to smoke to avoid being around harmful second-hand smoke. Compared to the alcohol regulation in the early 20th century, which led to a whole underground crime syndicate because it helped people get booze, the smoking regulations around today are nothing.

You know, it wouldn't actually surprise me if I did see a moderate uptick in smoking in the United States over the next five years, particularly "underage". Not just from the moved goalpost, mind you.

votp said:
You know, it wouldn't actually surprise me if I did see a moderate uptick in smoking in the United States over the next five years, particularly "underage". Not just from the moved goalpost, mind you.

It’s probably because of vapes and weed legalization (if you live somewhere it was legalized)