The Big Boo-Hoos

So you're not allowed to smoke in public places. So you’re not allowed to cover me in the ridiculously disgusting stink of your cigarettes. So can't openly disrespect everyone around you anymore and get away with it. So friggin what?

The world has improved thanks to the laws about smoking, which is something you cannot say very often about the world. What has not improved though are people's attitudes. Do these people who bitch and moan about the fact that they’re not allowed to indulge in their addiction while I'm trying to eat and breathe anymore seriously believe that they are right? Can you say delusional? Something doesn't have to be acceptable just because it's been the norm for a long time. Stoning used to be a pretty common practice (and still is in few places) as well as pedophilia, but people decided that it wasn't an acceptable social practice anymore.*

What about bringing dogs to restaurants? I've actually heard several people saying that it's unfair for dogs to be allowed when smoking isn't. The dogs in their vicinity were actually non-smelly and very quiet, but even if they very less like stuffed animals, how is that a valid comparison? A dog would probably not ruin your dinner by clogging your nostrils with smoke and inhibiting your other senses. Most dog people actually have the decency not to go to public places when their dog's a bit on the smelly side.

But let's say a lot of dog owners are not that considerate and that dogs should not be allowed in restaurants. Then I would ask people with small children to stay at home as well. Babies and toddlers are loud, they don't listen to commands, they are sticky and smelly and asking them to keep it down is neither socially acceptable nor very effective. Why bring your baby and the huge, super dynamic, jogging-mom friendly buggy it comes in to a restaurant down town at noon? Are you privileged to be less respectful because you're a parent? (Although at this point I should say that people who ignore women who are need help to get into a public transportation vehicle with a buggy should be punished with electroshock or something. We’d want there to be a learning effect, no?)

Also, there should be a perfume police. While I accept that tastes and apparently olfactory acuteness may vary, I don't see why I have to suffer every day because some broad had to bathe in her cheap or pseudo high-class brand perfume. It's rude and it's just as bad as stinking up the place where I'm having a meal with a cigarette. You might be entitled to your scent, but not to make me nauseous.

So, as you’ve cleverly deduced by now: There seems to be a need for some kind of regulatory force that makes sure that people make use of the common decency and respect they should have been taught as children, be it the law, rudeness police or random people. In any case: boo-friggin-hoo.


* (And please, anonymous guy living in your parents' basement, you're probably not even a smoker but still feel like you have to comment on the fact that comparing smoking to pedophilia is outrageous. I'm asking you: don't. Your throttled intellectual capacity can be relieved in more creative way than leaving anonymous and irrelevant comments on random blogs and forums.)