Mr. Asthma

Question:

>    Politics, as they say, makes strange bedfellows, and >    anti-smokers come in a strange mix indeed:  politicians, >    paternalists, profiteers, puritans, collectivists, conformists, >    fascists, bigots, former smokers and even some smokers.  If you >    are in bed with the anti-smokers, you might want to have a >    closer look at those whose agendas you are furthering.  A little >    introspection wouldn’t hurt, either. >    Anti-smokers have failed to grasp the broader message of the >    Third Reich.  Instead of racial eugenics, they are now >    practising the moral variety.

I consider myself a libertarian to the extent that I believe anyone can do whatever they want as long as they don’t HURT anyone else.  I have no desire to tell anyone how to live their own life–I just want to live my own life without interference.   Unfortunately,  some smokers don’t understand or don’t want to understand that they ARE hurting others.   There are many bars and other places we can’t go to because others insist that they must smoke RIGHT THERE AND RIGHT THEN,  regardless of how they affect others.  What gives smokers the right to deny US the right to enjoy the same establishments?   My fiancee nearly had to be rushed to the hospital because people around her were lighting up relentlessly.   I remember sitting at a concert–this place had no non-smoking section (like that would have done much good anyway) and smoke was drifting our way,  and we were sitting there hoping and praying that we wouldn’t have to leave early just because somebody near us wanted to light up. If you want to smoke in your own home,  if you want to smoke outside away from crowds,  then puff away–I could care less.  Beyond that,  why must you live in denial of the fact that your actions affect other people? Most smokers I’ve met have much more courtesy than that. What I find interesting is that US ASTHMATICS are the ones BEING GASSED by second-hand smoke and this zealot WANTS TO CALL US NAZIS? –Clearwater

Response:

: >I’m pissed at the Fascist bullshit I see being posted here by : >fucking health Nazis like Henry Hansteen, Bruce Watson, T.R. : >Braxton, and Steve Jungerson. : : You are seriously misusing the words ‘Fascist" and "Nazi", and : cheapening the experience of those who suffered under those regimes. Do : you REALLY think your experiences with nonsmokers are comparable to : what happened in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s? : : Hm. I see alt.revisionism in the header. Maybe you do. Yes, and we here in alt.revisionism have enough wackos running around making up stuff about the Holocaust (we have one guy who claimed that there were no gas chambers, but a few Jews were gassed using a hose and mask). Keep this in alt.smokers, dammit! [Follow-ups trimmed]

Response: