Cigarette Butts are Disgusting
Posted in General, Politics by George
It’s disgusting when people throw cigarette butts on the ground. It happens all the time. Many people throw cigarette butts out the car window, toss them to the side when walking down the street, and treat them as if it’s perfectly ok to put them anywhere. One extreme example is when my girlfriend and I were sitting in a restaurant. While we were waiting for our food, a man who was smoking a cigarette finished smoking and threw it on the ground IN THE RESTAURANT, and walked away.
Obviously, that last example was pretty extreme, but the point still remains that there are a lot of smokers out there that feel they can throw their cigarettes wherever they choose. How is this different from littering? When someone crumples up a bag and throws it on the ground, the general consensus in society is that it’s pretty awful. But when someone throws a cigarette butt out the window of a car, it’s not a big deal to the average person.
Why?
May 15th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
Since smokers didn’t know how or are too lazy to throw away their cigarette butts, smoking has been banned at many beaches in California.
May 16th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
It’s amazing how because one decides to smoke he is automatically classified as being stupid and/or lazy. Just the whole group of aall smokers is one ignorant, slothful group.
Actually, that type of mentality and view of smokers is ignorant in and of itself. A lot of people in general can be lazy or lack intelligence and though some of these people manifest these traits through their disposal of cigarette butts, others do it through other forms of littering, through poor parenting, poor pet control, or many of other ways.
So instead of addressing the laziness or stupidity of smokers, address the mentality that has been adopted by so many Americans and other cultures as well. Smokers are no sub-human specie. They just have a habit that irritates some people. Some people smack their gum, some chew their fingernails, some pick their nose, some use overtly vulgar language. These are all just habits and though to some people they will be viewed as disgusting, irritating, and/or inappropriate, it does not make that person any different from the guy or girl sitting next to him.
So why address the littering habits of smokers? If you care so much about littering, address the littering habit as a whole since cigarette butts are obviously not the only type of litter degrading our environment.
Secondly from a humanity point of view, especially if one is liberal, it is very impolite and politically incorrect to address one type of people about a problem. If you segregate illegal immigrants, you are racist, if anyone but a black person uses the term “nigger” even if not meant derogatorily, you are racist. If you make an assumption or statement of a religion as a whole, you are an offender, an infidel.
So not only is your view in this article ignorant and terribly narrow minded, you are also stepping on the toes of hundreds of thousands of millions of smokers. And that, dear sir, is just intolerable.
May 16th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Jordan,
I quote from your comment:
I never said that. I said it’s gross that some smokers throw their cigarette butts on the ground. I’m not saying smokers are a subhuman species or anything.
May 16th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
george,
its reading between the lines…by posting about second hand smoke you are saying “I can’t believe those people don’t care about my health”
by posting about smokers littering you are saying “I can’t believe those people don’t compare about the environment”. You aren’t talking about littering in general or industrial pollution, but something that is a character flaw.
Your posts about cars are implying “I can’t believe those people who drive or drive big cars don’t care about their great grandkids.”
May 16th, 2006 at 11:26 pm
Jon, I think one of my biggest pet peeves is when people put words in my mouth.
1. Not everyone on gimme-five has read every single article I have ever written, so I’m fairly certain Jordan, who is probably a first time visitor, wasn’t commenting on the previous article written weeks ago.
2. Jordan referred to smokers as “stupid and/or lazy.” Did I EVER say all smokers were stupid or lazy? Did I EVER say that all smokers were “one ignorant, slothful group?” NO. Even IF Jordan had read the past article, he/she would see that I’ve said two things: secondhand smoke is bad for my health and I wish people would stand farther away from buildings and secondly that I find it disgusting that some smokers throw cigarette butts on the ground everywhere and society doesn’t look down on this. I’ve also made the same points in an article I wrote over a year ago. But I never once said that smokers as a whole were stupid, lazy, slothful, or ignorant.
In conclusion, don’t make it look like I’m some evil jerk by putting words in my mouth that I never said.
May 16th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
Furthermore, in your inference on cars, that’s not supposed to be taken in a literal sense. That article was written to ask people why they outwardly claim to be so concerned about the welfare of their children and grandchildren (”I’d do anything” mentality), yet are willing to take a chance on making their future even riskier by refusing to make small sacrifices to save energy.
But that’s unrelated to this article.
May 16th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
On another note, I saw mission impossible III last night. GREAT MOVIE! I loved it! I definitely recommend seeing it. I can’t wait to see the Da Vinci Code soon too…
May 17th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
George,
In your fury at Jon over putting words in your mouth you managed to put quite a few in his.
Nowhere did he say that you called them lazy, etc. He merely agreed with a previous poster about your line of reasoning.
He was pointing out what he considered a flaw in your line of reasoning, not commenting as to what rating you merit on the evil scale.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
ok…well now that we have a post defending what i said last night, I looked at what I wrote in the middle of studying for my test.
I didn’t say you thought they were lazy, or slothful, or maggots feasting on the flesh of babies. Jordan did. yeah he probably exaggerated a tad. but to quote your superhero, “I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations”
May 17th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Then what was the point of your comment? I don’t understand what you were getting at if you weren’t accusing me of being what Jordan called me.
May 22nd, 2006 at 1:06 pm
I do apologize, my son seems to be crazy. I say that you are correct George and dont let poor inconsiderate Jon tell you anything to the contrary.
May 23rd, 2006 at 2:03 pm
nice george…
May 23rd, 2006 at 2:53 pm
That was not me.. the IP address came from Arlington, VA.