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Sitting in traffic is unhealthy, eating junk food is unhealthy, living with excessive heat is unhealthy, poverty is unhealthy, too much water is unhealthy. Lot

Sitting in traffic is unhealthy, eating junk food is unhealthy, living with excessive heat is unhealthy, poverty is unhealthy, too much water is unhealthy. Lots of things are unhealthy. Some of those are many degrees worse than others, and some only in certain context.

zwnow 1y ago
Some things you can actively avoid though. And inhaling smoke on a regular basis is one of them. I'm particularly sensitive about this topic because I live in a country in which my tax money is used to finance treatment of illnesses that people self inflicted due to smoking.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- dijit 1y ago
  I hear you, and I agree. For me, though, some amount of harm is built-in to our condition. We will eat junk sometimes, we will be sedentary sometimes- we might even overindulge sometimes. For me, marijuana is recreational, like alcohol. If a recreational session of marijuana is better for humans than a recreational session of alcohol, then I would actively promote that- since we are all keenly aware of how prohibiting all recreational unhealthy things goes in reality. “Perfect is the enemy of good”, in this case I might say that “perfect is the enemy of improvement”; maybe theres a better quote for exactly this. Knowing that its better on your lungs than smoking, which was socially acceptable 20 years ago, goes a long way to helping. Though I also agree with other commenters, its a low bar and the frequency of recreational drug use vs casual smoking is an apples to oranges comparison
  - zorobo 1y ago
    > If a recreational session of marijuana is better for humans than a recreational session of alcohol, then I would actively promote that- Well it's not: if someone smokes near me, I am smoking with him. Not so with alcohol.
    - btreecat 1y ago
      Smoking near you, and forcing you to actively consume second hand smoke are not the same. It's bad practice to equate an offensive order with drug consumption.
- eru 1y ago
  Eh, I want to agree with you because smoking is disgusting to me, but honestly in most countries is so heavily taxed these days that smokers are a net fiscal positive, even if the NHS pays for their health care.
  - Dibby053 1y ago
    What about life expectancy? If smoking makes you die 10 years earlier, that's ~10 years of pension savings for social insurance. Sure, an unlucky few may get lung cancer at 50 and cost a lot of money but most smokers will die, retired, of cheap ailments like COPD or hypertension without fully realizing their social security investment.
    - eru 1y ago
      Yes, public pensions make smokers even more fiscally positive on expectation. (However in my adopted home we don't have public pensions like that. Your pension pot is yours, and if you keel over, your heirs get it. But smokers are still fiscally positive. I brought up the NHS as a short-hand for any kind of healthcare system where the general taxpayer foots your medical bill.)
- trust_bt_verify 1y ago
  And I’m sure there are those who cringe when they see you but into a sweet for the same reasons. People optimize for lots of things in their life that are not always health, and that’s ok.

zwnow 1y ago

Some things you can actively avoid though. And inhaling smoke on a regular basis is one of them. I'm particularly sensitive about this topic because I live in a country in which my tax money is used to finance treatment of illnesses that people self inflicted due to smoking.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
dijit 1y ago
I hear you, and I agree. For me, though, some amount of harm is built-in to our condition. We will eat junk sometimes, we will be sedentary sometimes- we might even overindulge sometimes. For me, marijuana is recreational, like alcohol. If a recreational session of marijuana is better for humans than a recreational session of alcohol, then I would actively promote that- since we are all keenly aware of how prohibiting all recreational unhealthy things goes in reality. “Perfect is the enemy of good”, in this case I might say that “perfect is the enemy of improvement”; maybe theres a better quote for exactly this. Knowing that its better on your lungs than smoking, which was socially acceptable 20 years ago, goes a long way to helping. Though I also agree with other commenters, its a low bar and the frequency of recreational drug use vs casual smoking is an apples to oranges comparison
- zorobo 1y ago
  > If a recreational session of marijuana is better for humans than a recreational session of alcohol, then I would actively promote that- Well it's not: if someone smokes near me, I am smoking with him. Not so with alcohol.
  - btreecat 1y ago
    Smoking near you, and forcing you to actively consume second hand smoke are not the same. It's bad practice to equate an offensive order with drug consumption.
eru 1y ago
Eh, I want to agree with you because smoking is disgusting to me, but honestly in most countries is so heavily taxed these days that smokers are a net fiscal positive, even if the NHS pays for their health care.
- Dibby053 1y ago
  What about life expectancy? If smoking makes you die 10 years earlier, that's ~10 years of pension savings for social insurance. Sure, an unlucky few may get lung cancer at 50 and cost a lot of money but most smokers will die, retired, of cheap ailments like COPD or hypertension without fully realizing their social security investment.
  - eru 1y ago
    Yes, public pensions make smokers even more fiscally positive on expectation. (However in my adopted home we don't have public pensions like that. Your pension pot is yours, and if you keel over, your heirs get it. But smokers are still fiscally positive. I brought up the NHS as a short-hand for any kind of healthcare system where the general taxpayer foots your medical bill.)
trust_bt_verify 1y ago
And I’m sure there are those who cringe when they see you but into a sweet for the same reasons. People optimize for lots of things in their life that are not always health, and that’s ok.