no. you picked up that damn cigarette in the first place. quit trying to blame the tobacco companies for your bad decisions.
I’m addicted to caffeine, but still, I choose to drink it. I don’t have to, but I like it.
I believe that starting to smoke is a choice, and then it becomes physically addicting. Stopping is also a choice that you have to make. So I believe 100% that it’s a choice. It’s been almost three years since my last cigarette, and I made a choice for it to be that way.
This question is stupid. nuff said.
The first thought of starting smoking is essentially free will,but, then they get you…fucking nicotine.
oh my god you people are starting to piss me off there are always going to be people in the world that smoke and there will always be tobacco companies to supply those people
its supply and demand, sugarlips and nothing you can do with your little commercials is going to change shit
no its a choice to even start or is it? some people I know would say tbat their so called friends got presured them to start! I personally can’t belive people and their inablity to say NO! On the flip side of that, I also belive that quiting is a choice as well! I know someone who smoked for most of their life and she just quit cold turkey and has been smoke free for 6 months!! Just some thing to think about!!
~smedly~
ps what is with all the smoking qustion?
i like ur blog…very meaningful.
The effects of smoking aren’t a reality to many..people enjoy destroying themselves from the inside out sometimes. Kinda like long term suicide almost…They start off thinking its sophiscated or will help relieve stress…when its not a very brief fix…that actually is not worth the bad breath, smoke stained teeth and lung cancer…some even believe it will help them lose weight…when in actuality it doesn’t work like that for everyone..I had a cousin that smoked and she’s still very much overweight till this day…smoking is all around gross for the person and for those who are subjected to living with them..
Being an ex-smoker (I smoked for 10 years – at the time I quit, I was smoking 2 packs a day and was addicted big time)
I didn’t choose to smoke, but I could choose to quit – and for a long time I didn’t.
They are not the same thing, they are opposite sides of the same coin, but they are still opposite.
In nearly (by this I mean all but absolute) everything in life you have the choice. Even in situations of deathly danger. If someone hands you a gun and says to shoot 10 hostages (or even just one) or die, you can never say that you had no choice. It was given, you made a choice. Addiction is an excuse, it does happen, and it makes things hella difficult, but you have the choice. Life happens, it is ALWAYS your choice what you make of it. Whether the question was actually about smoking or not.
It’s also a choice to stop smoking, like it was a choice to snort cocaine and then another choice to go to NA. Dumbest question I have seen in a while now, good job. Making people hate an anti-smoking campaign really isn’t the way to get people to stop smoking.
This is the stupidest campaign.
Ever.
You people lose the internet.
Hey, I know. Let’s blame big tobacco for everything. I have a headache right now. Stupid big tobacco companies. I had a bad hair day. Those damn rich tobacco companies. My nails keep breaking. Tobacco companies are greedy.
Its a choice to remain addicted. Everytime you light up you make the choice to smoke or not to smoke, remain addicted or quit, cause someelse to be effected second hand or not, and on and on it goes. Addiction doesn’t over rule a choice. Addiction is not an excuse. Addiction doesn’t make it okay or right.
Cease and desist, for the love of all things pure and untouched by anti-tobacco propaganda. This is a blogging community, and we’d really like for that to remain its’ focus.
Oh, and why doesn’t it say anywhere around here that you’re being funded by tobacco companies? Afraid of being called hypocritical? The Master Settlement Agreement is a huge, steaming load of CRAP.
I wonder how much you people get paid to advertise Big Tobacco products to preteens and teens who might otherwise never have had their curiosity peaked by all the pretty cartoons your site associates with cigarettes.
I mean, yeah, Big Tobacco can’t advertise cigarettes everywhere legally, and yeah, you get paid by Big Tobacco to run this ‘campaign’, but, sure, yeah, you guys are just high minded idealists with no agenda aside from forcing how bad cigarettes are down everyone’s throat. Sure. I believe that.
Wait, no.
Even if you were the genuine article and not some trumped up backwards advertising campaign, you’d still be fascist douchebags.
The upside is, someday you’ll all die from eating too much cheese. Or drinking one too many Cokes. Or alcohol poisoning. Or, more likely, you’ll all die bleeding from the painful prolapsed colon that is the final result for everyone who turns their assholes over to Satan for a good reaming.
^^
Word.
wow, normally a few people stick up for truth. guess not this time
Here’s a question, Truth. You’re alienating your followers and losing support. What do you do now?
Hmm, it makes it a harder choice, but its still a choice.
And I chose to stop smoking.
I’ve no love for Tobacco Companies, but little pity for smokers either.
I like what you guys do here. This was my response to the Featured Question:
“Even kids stop eating candy when they start to get sick from it…”
Well, everything has a price. You choose to start, and you can chose to quit, though you may have to pay more for the latter choice. So most people don’t think it’s worth it to go through all that trouble if they can make the sinceproblem disappear for a while anyway, through smoking, which still doesn’t really help it much in the long run. Of course, there may not be a long run.
Otherwise, some people just don’t have the mental strength needed to pay that price. You get out of something what you put into it, so a person won’t make much progress quitting if they’re half-assing it, will they?
Most rational people know smokers could quit if they wanted. As in seriously wanted, without that feeling in the back of their mind that doesn’t want them to quit at all. But a small child could stop eating candy if he wanted, but for some odd reason he doesn’t; call it what you will– a form of manipulation or just free will. What is free will anyway?
But even that child will stop eating candy when he starts to get sick from it.
Smokers don’t.
So one might wonder why a person’s free will would drive them to do something that hurts them. Of course, when those fumes are wafting through their lungs, something makes them stop thinking about all that “bad-for-you” stuff.
I can’t believe how many nasty comments Truth is getting. Fighting over the Internet is stupid.
Truth is just trying to get curious answers out of people to provoke deeper thinking and I doubt they are trying to get teenagers to smoke. After all, teenagers rarely feel curious because of cartoons–especially of little animals and fairies. Children, who shouldn’t be on this site in the first place, are. Besides, the point of Truth is to tell smokers exactly what they’re getting into when they put that cancer stick to their mouths. What’s wrong with that? If you don’t like hearing it, then leave, because you’re not wanted. You’re only picking fights, because either you don’t have an open mind or you’re bored. (And no, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with a friendly debate.)
So if you’re only hear to start trouble…grow up or leave so the adults can talk.
i’ve been quitting off and on for over a year. it’s the hardest thing i’ve ever tried to overcome.
this month has not been a successful quitting month.
@AHEM! - Well, I’m glad the site moderator stepped in to let us all know our options.
Oh, wait, no, get the hell over yourself.
Leave? Not wanted? Are you hearing yourself? The featured question is on the front page of Xanga… everyone sees it. A question is directed at the Xanga public at large.
You, sir, are the one who doesn’t want to hear a dissenting opinion. YOU said for people who didn’t agree with this la-te-da little campaign to take a hike. Of all the things I may have done in my, I didn’t tell you not to respond to something said to the room at large.
Neither was their an argument had to begin with. If you look up, above your comment, there is nothing there that I responded to. Everyone seems pretty annoyed with these people, probably because these people are pretty annoying.
If you think arguing on the Internet is stupid, I invite you to cease to do so.
If you don’t like discourse, especially discourse about an ‘anti-smoking campaign’ paid for by Phillip Morris, grow up or leave so the adults can talk.
why do they choose you for all the featured questions
@crackcannon - I had no idea that the campaign was paid for by Phillip Morris. I just thought they were cute. But they never encouraged me to quit smoking. I quit because it’s too expensive. *shrug*
If they really want people to quit they should show what smoking does to your looks and your lungs. Yellow toothless smiles aren’t pretty. Ugh.
Wrong. We are not born addicted to cigarettes, nor are we forced to smoke. Smoking IS a choice.
Stop hijacking this site for your own purposes, you douchebags.
I admire what you are doing, trying to save lives and everything. However, it IS the individual’s choice to smoke or not, even after that individual has become addicted to the nicotine. Addiction has absolutely nothing to do with free will and the decision to choose. I myself am a full-time cigarette smoker, not because I am addicted to the nicotine, but because I choose to be a full-time cigarette smoker. I know fully well that cigarettes are horrible things, that I am in fact addicted to them, and one day I will probably die from them. Even with that knowledge, I CHOOSE to smoke; I choose to kill myself in this way. Furthermore, I disagree with the government’s attempt to outlaw smoking in public areas because it takes away from the individual’s right to choose to smoke or not in these public areas. Without our free will, we are merely slaves to those in power, and I completely disagree with that. I am not a slave to the government, I am not a slave to the tobacco companies, and I am certainly not a slave to cigarettes. Once again, I am a smoker because I CHOOSE to be a smoker.
@crackcannon - Amen to that. “Truth” is a big scam, intended to actually boost the sales of tobbacco among young people. It’s too obvious.
people say cocaine is a choice, but if you’re addicted to it, doesn’t that rule out choice?
Its always a choice. Everything you do is a choice. Why act like its not? This question sounds ignorant, and very biased.
smoking is just one of the many choices we have in life, just like putting a gun barrel against the roof of your mouth and pulling the trigger.
i work in a smoke shop, and oh man you wouldnt believe how many customers HATE me because im always telling them how much healthier they would be if they stopped smoking, but then i remind them its their choice on how they like to die and i need a paycheck anyways, so its best they keep on keepin on. lol
Honestly, I’m looking into Livejournal and a few other places because of this stupid retarded bullshit on here. you people fail at what you’re doing.
@interludekacie - best of luck on quitting. believe urself; YOU CAN DO IT!
Publications about unethical and forced organ procurement practices mainly reported from China and summarized in the Kilgour & Matas Report triggered the wish in the medical community to found the medical organization Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) that will look particularly into illegal and unethical forms of organ harvesting. Membership is free for medical doctors and medical professionals.
DAFOH considers any form of organ removal that jeopardizes the donor’s life and welfare, or which pursues to end a donor’s life in order to obtain an organ for transplantation or other reason, to be unethical organ harvesting. This is in contrast with donating an organ for transplantation with consent. In this regard the systematic organ harvesting practices in China are of major concern for medical doctors worldwide.
DAFOH seeks to bring unethical medical practices to public awareness, to initiate further investigation and to promote ethical practices in medicine.
For all you people saying “go away, you’re annoying, i choose to smoke, etc.,” think about this. The choice that you make is a choice that’s affecting people besides yourself. Smoking is not as personal as you seem to think. When you make a choice to smoke, you take away my choice. Here’s a question for you, Truth, and for all you people who force your choice on other people: How many people die everyday due to a condition caused or aggravated by second-hand smoke? Essentially, how many people are murdered at the hands of nicotine junkies? There are millions of people who suffer from asthma, smoke allergies, lung cancer, and other respiratory illnesses. Every time a smoker decides to light up, he or she is hurting everyone who made the smart choice.
@MytyGodd333 - Go ahead and kill yourself with cigarettes… just do it somewhere where you aren’t killing the people who were smart enough to not start.
@caesar_whit - I’m staying up too late on xanga — It’s big tobacco’s fault!
No one forced me to smoke a cigarette, yes, it was a choice. I had full control over it, no one else. You don’t just get addicted to something right away.. it takes effort of the user.
I realize that smoking is a horrible thing to do, and I appreciate the effort you all are making to reduce smoking. However, I’m not a big fan of this question. One can certainly make an argument for it being a choice. Even if one does become addicted, the point can still be made that many have chosen to quit.
Instead of bringing up questions like these that probably don’t help much, and make people argue against you, why not keep hammering all the statistics and facts that we know very well. It’s obvious that smoking is horrible, can lead to almost any type of cancer and other serious health problems, affects the way your face and teeth and fingers look, makes everything you’re around smell horrible, is disproportionately used among poor people who hardly have the money to spend on all these cigarettes, increases the costs of healthcare for everybody, etc. Basically, you could just try to make people look like total idiots for even CONSIDERING smoking. Few people would even think about disputing this.
smoking is a choice. i dont smoke but i used to chew. its really not that hard to quit. sure i havent been quitting in awhile but a few weeks the cravings arent that bad. atleast not as bad as tv makes it sound. its more psychological than anything. sure i get the craving but it goes away when i do something else.
Comments (44)
no.
you picked up that damn cigarette in the first place.
quit trying to blame the tobacco companies for your bad decisions.
I’m addicted to caffeine, but still, I choose to drink it. I don’t have to, but I like it.
I believe that starting to smoke is a choice, and then it becomes physically addicting. Stopping is also a choice that you have to make. So I believe 100% that it’s a choice. It’s been almost three years since my last cigarette, and I made a choice for it to be that way.
This question is stupid. nuff said.
The first thought of starting smoking is essentially free will,but, then they get you…fucking nicotine.
oh my god you people are starting to piss me off
there are always going to be people in the world that smoke
and there will always be tobacco companies to supply those people
its supply and demand, sugarlips
and nothing you can do with your little commercials is going to change shit
no its a choice to even start or is it? some people I know would say tbat their so called friends got presured them to start! I personally can’t belive people and their inablity to say NO! On the flip side of that, I also belive that quiting is a choice as well! I know someone who smoked for most of their life and she just quit cold turkey and has been smoke free for 6 months!! Just some thing to think about!!
~smedly~
ps what is with all the smoking qustion?
i like ur blog…very meaningful.
The effects of smoking aren’t a reality to many..people enjoy destroying themselves from the inside out sometimes. Kinda like long term suicide almost…They start off thinking its sophiscated or will help relieve stress…when its not a very brief fix…that actually is not worth the bad breath, smoke stained teeth and lung cancer…some even believe it will help them lose weight…when in actuality it doesn’t work like that for everyone..I had a cousin that smoked and she’s still very much overweight till this day…smoking is all around gross for the person and for those who are subjected to living with them..
Being an ex-smoker (I smoked for 10 years – at the time I quit, I was smoking 2 packs a day and was addicted big time)
I didn’t choose to smoke, but I could choose to quit – and for a long time I didn’t.
They are not the same thing, they are opposite sides of the same coin, but they are still opposite.
In nearly (by this I mean all but absolute) everything in life you have the choice. Even in situations of deathly danger. If someone hands you a gun and says to shoot 10 hostages (or even just one) or die, you can never say that you had no choice. It was given, you made a choice.
Addiction is an excuse, it does happen, and it makes things hella difficult, but you have the choice.
Life happens, it is ALWAYS your choice what you make of it.
Whether the question was actually about smoking or not.
It’s also a choice to stop smoking, like it was a choice to snort cocaine and then another choice to go to NA. Dumbest question I have seen in a while now, good job. Making people hate an anti-smoking campaign really isn’t the way to get people to stop smoking.
This is the stupidest campaign.
Ever.
You people lose the internet.
Hey, I know. Let’s blame big tobacco for everything. I have a headache right now. Stupid big tobacco companies. I had a bad hair day. Those damn rich tobacco companies. My nails keep breaking. Tobacco companies are greedy.
Its a choice to remain addicted. Everytime you light up you make the choice to smoke or not to smoke, remain addicted or quit, cause someelse to be effected second hand or not, and on and on it goes. Addiction doesn’t over rule a choice. Addiction is not an excuse. Addiction doesn’t make it okay or right.
Cease and desist, for the love of all things pure and untouched by anti-tobacco propaganda. This is a blogging community, and we’d really like for that to remain its’ focus.
Oh, and why doesn’t it say anywhere around here that you’re being funded by tobacco companies? Afraid of being called hypocritical? The Master Settlement Agreement is a huge, steaming load of CRAP.
I wonder how much you people get paid to advertise Big Tobacco products to preteens and teens who might otherwise never have had their curiosity peaked by all the pretty cartoons your site associates with cigarettes.
I mean, yeah, Big Tobacco can’t advertise cigarettes everywhere legally, and yeah, you get paid by Big Tobacco to run this ‘campaign’, but, sure, yeah, you guys are just high minded idealists with no agenda aside from forcing how bad cigarettes are down everyone’s throat. Sure. I believe that.
Wait, no.
Even if you were the genuine article and not some trumped up backwards advertising campaign, you’d still be fascist douchebags.
The upside is, someday you’ll all die from eating too much cheese. Or drinking one too many Cokes. Or alcohol poisoning. Or, more likely, you’ll all die bleeding from the painful prolapsed colon that is the final result for everyone who turns their assholes over to Satan for a good reaming.
^^
Word.
wow, normally a few people stick up for truth. guess not this time
Here’s a question, Truth. You’re alienating your followers and losing support. What do you do now?
Hmm, it makes it a harder choice, but its still a choice.
And I chose to stop smoking.
I’ve no love for Tobacco Companies, but little pity for smokers either.
I like what you guys do here. This was my response to the Featured Question:
“Even kids stop eating candy when they start to get sick from it…”
Well, everything has a price. You choose to start, and you can chose to quit, though you may have to pay more for the latter choice. So most people don’t think it’s worth it to go through all that trouble if they can make the sinceproblem disappear for a while anyway, through smoking, which still doesn’t really help it much in the long run. Of course, there may not be a long run.
Otherwise, some people just don’t have the mental strength needed to pay that price. You get out of something what you put into it, so a person won’t make much progress quitting if they’re half-assing it, will they?
Most rational people know smokers could quit if they wanted. As in seriously wanted, without that feeling in the back of their mind that doesn’t want them to quit at all. But a small child could stop eating candy if he wanted, but for some odd reason he doesn’t; call it what you will– a form of manipulation or just free will. What is free will anyway?
But even that child will stop eating candy when he starts to get sick from it.
Smokers don’t.
So one might wonder why a person’s free will would drive them to do something that hurts them. Of course, when those fumes are wafting through their lungs, something makes them stop thinking about all that “bad-for-you” stuff.
…
…But what makes them…?
I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!
I can’t believe how many nasty comments Truth is getting. Fighting over the Internet is stupid.
Truth is just trying to get curious answers out of people to provoke deeper thinking and I doubt they are trying to get teenagers to smoke. After all, teenagers rarely feel curious because of cartoons–especially of little animals and fairies. Children, who shouldn’t be on this site in the first place, are.
Besides, the point of Truth is to tell smokers exactly what they’re getting into when they put that cancer stick to their mouths. What’s wrong with that? If you don’t like hearing it, then leave, because you’re not wanted. You’re only picking fights, because either you don’t have an open mind or you’re bored. (And no, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with a friendly debate.)
So if you’re only hear to start trouble…grow up or leave so the adults can talk.
i’ve been quitting off and on for over a year. it’s the hardest thing i’ve ever tried to overcome.
this month has not been a successful quitting month.
@AHEM! - Well, I’m glad the site moderator stepped in to let us all know our options.
Oh, wait, no, get the hell over yourself.
Leave? Not wanted? Are you hearing yourself? The featured question is on the front page of Xanga… everyone sees it. A question is directed at the Xanga public at large.
You, sir, are the one who doesn’t want to hear a dissenting opinion. YOU said for people who didn’t agree with this la-te-da little campaign to take a hike. Of all the things I may have done in my, I didn’t tell you not to respond to something said to the room at large.
Neither was their an argument had to begin with. If you look up, above your comment, there is nothing there that I responded to. Everyone seems pretty annoyed with these people, probably because these people are pretty annoying.
If you think arguing on the Internet is stupid, I invite you to cease to do so.
If you don’t like discourse, especially discourse about an ‘anti-smoking campaign’ paid for by Phillip Morris, grow up or leave so the adults can talk.
why do they choose you for all the featured questions
@crackcannon - I had no idea that the campaign was paid for by Phillip Morris. I just thought they were cute. But they never encouraged me to quit smoking. I quit because it’s too expensive. *shrug*
If they really want people to quit they should show what smoking does to your looks and your lungs. Yellow toothless smiles aren’t pretty. Ugh.
Wrong. We are not born addicted to cigarettes, nor are we forced to smoke. Smoking IS a choice.
Stop hijacking this site for your own purposes, you douchebags.
I admire what you are doing, trying to save lives and everything. However, it IS the individual’s choice to smoke or not, even after that individual has become addicted to the nicotine. Addiction has absolutely nothing to do with free will and the decision to choose. I myself am a full-time cigarette smoker, not because I am addicted to the nicotine, but because I choose to be a full-time cigarette smoker. I know fully well that cigarettes are horrible things, that I am in fact addicted to them, and one day I will probably die from them. Even with that knowledge, I CHOOSE to smoke; I choose to kill myself in this way. Furthermore, I disagree with the government’s attempt to outlaw smoking in public areas because it takes away from the individual’s right to choose to smoke or not in these public areas. Without our free will, we are merely slaves to those in power, and I completely disagree with that. I am not a slave to the government, I am not a slave to the tobacco companies, and I am certainly not a slave to cigarettes. Once again, I am a smoker because I CHOOSE to be a smoker.
@crackcannon - Amen to that. “Truth” is a big scam, intended to actually boost the sales of tobbacco among young people. It’s too obvious.
people say cocaine is a choice, but if you’re addicted to it, doesn’t that rule out choice?
Its always a choice. Everything you do is a choice. Why act like its not? This question sounds ignorant, and very biased.
smoking is just one of the many choices we have in life,
just like putting a gun barrel against the roof of your mouth and pulling the trigger.
i work in a smoke shop, and oh man you wouldnt believe how many customers HATE me because im always telling them how much healthier they would be if they stopped smoking, but then i remind them its their choice on how they like to die and i need a paycheck anyways, so its best they keep on keepin on. lol
Honestly, I’m looking into Livejournal and a few other places because of this stupid retarded bullshit on here. you people fail at what you’re doing.
@interludekacie - best of luck on quitting. believe urself; YOU CAN DO IT!
@The_Chaotix_Factor - that’s a very good answer!!!
Please sign the petition! https://www.dafoh.org/Home_Page.php
Publications about unethical and forced organ procurement practices mainly reported from China and summarized in the Kilgour & Matas Report triggered the wish in the medical community to found the medical organization Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) that will look particularly into illegal and unethical forms of organ harvesting. Membership is free for medical doctors and medical professionals.
DAFOH considers any form of organ removal that jeopardizes the donor’s life and welfare, or which pursues to end a donor’s life in order to obtain an organ for transplantation or other reason, to be unethical organ harvesting. This is in contrast with donating an organ for transplantation with consent.
In this regard the systematic organ harvesting practices in China are of major concern for medical doctors worldwide.
DAFOH seeks to bring unethical medical practices to public awareness, to initiate further investigation and to promote ethical practices in medicine.
For all you people saying “go away, you’re annoying, i choose to smoke, etc.,” think about this. The choice that you make is a choice that’s affecting people besides yourself. Smoking is not as personal as you seem to think. When you make a choice to smoke, you take away my choice. Here’s a question for you, Truth, and for all you people who force your choice on other people: How many people die everyday due to a condition caused or aggravated by second-hand smoke? Essentially, how many people are murdered at the hands of nicotine junkies? There are millions of people who suffer from asthma, smoke allergies, lung cancer, and other respiratory illnesses. Every time a smoker decides to light up, he or she is hurting everyone who made the smart choice.
@MytyGodd333 - Go ahead and kill yourself with cigarettes… just do it somewhere where you aren’t killing the people who were smart enough to not start.
@caesar_whit - I’m staying up too late on xanga — It’s big tobacco’s fault!
No one forced me to smoke a cigarette, yes, it was a choice. I had full control over it, no one else. You don’t just get addicted to something right away.. it takes effort of the user.
I realize that smoking is a horrible thing to do, and I appreciate the effort you all are making to reduce smoking. However, I’m not a big fan of this question. One can certainly make an argument for it being a choice. Even if one does become addicted, the point can still be made that many have chosen to quit.
Instead of bringing up questions like these that probably don’t help much, and make people argue against you, why not keep hammering all the statistics and facts that we know very well. It’s obvious that smoking is horrible, can lead to almost any type of cancer and other serious health problems, affects the way your face and teeth and fingers look, makes everything you’re around smell horrible, is disproportionately used among poor people who hardly have the money to spend on all these cigarettes, increases the costs of healthcare for everybody, etc. Basically, you could just try to make people look like total idiots for even CONSIDERING smoking. Few people would even think about disputing this.
smoking is a choice. i dont smoke but i used to chew. its really not that hard to quit. sure i havent been quitting in awhile but a few weeks the cravings arent that bad. atleast not as bad as tv makes it sound. its more psychological than anything. sure i get the craving but it goes away when i do something else.