Reply #361: As a non-smoker, and one who dislikes cigarette smoke, I disagree here

[LeftishBrit]

I think once personal choices are defined as 'privileges', one is on a slippery slope. To me, at least, a 'privilege' means something that one is granted by someone in authority who can take it back at any time. I don't think that choices like smoking (which is not, by the way, a choice that I'd make, or would advise others to make if I'm asked), should come into this category.

I think that there need to be some restrictions on when and where one can smoke, just as there are on almost any activity that one does in public (one can't drive on the wrong side of the road, or sing in the library, or stand on the table in most restaurants). Smokers should be considerate. So should everyone. Although I get involved in the smoking debates myself (and have probably annoyed people on all sides of it by now), I am sometimes a bit surprised at the amount of energy that's devoted on DU JUST to smoking vs. anti-smoking, as compared with all the other activities where different people's needs can come into conflict. In real life, for example, I've observed much more frequent conflicts over noise and attempts to restrict it than I have over smoking and attempts to restrict it.