FURIOUS nads! by The One True b!X

Okay, so when I made a reference to the debate over bans on smoking in public places in my post about some of the more cultural aspects of smoking, I said I didn’t want to get into the public policy debate. And I certainly don’t want to turn this into some sort of regular topic here.

But since I just tonight followed a Welcome to Blog post over to a Portland’s Future Awesome thread about such bans, I should go ahead and say a couple of other things about the matter.

First off, there are what I consider to be legitimate grievances and illegitimate grievances. Unfortunately, most of the comments from supporters of public smoking bans over in the PFA thread appear to be of the latter type.

Here’s what I consider to be an illegitimate grievance: The argument that anyone has some sort of inherent right to have their preferred or favorite bar be smoke-free.

You don’t have a fundamental right, predicated upon the basis of your dislike for smoke, to force, say, Horse Brass Pub to go smoke-free rather than, say, heading down to Doug Fir Lounge instead.

I’m sorry, but the argument is just plain stupid. And the only reason that sort of pitch ever gains any traction is because the level of hostility against smokers has increased due to there being so many asshole smokers in other more day-to-day situations, which is what I addressed in my previous post on all of this.

There’s only one legitimate grievance here, and that’s the workplace health and safety argument. As I said before, I’m of mixed opinion and divided mind on that count, but there’s no question that it’s a legitimate point of contention.

But can we please stop this bizarre line of thought wherein people think they somehow are entitled to have all bars be smoke-free simply because they dislike smoke and don’t want to have to travel a bit further to find a different bar?