I posted on one of those internet social networking sites about the renewed movement/proposal to ban smoking in all public places in Austin. As of now, it's almost everywhere but there are a few bars/clubs that still allow it. I wrote about how I think it's a bullshit, nanny-state, do-gooder, run your life for you kind of thing. I don't smoke. It makes me cough and my eyes get all watery but, dammit, if I have any kind of political convictions, this is the kind of thing that I can't abide. People running other people's live down to the minutest details. But even past all that personal freedom crap - it's a fucking bar! You're supposed to smoke there. And drink. And watch rock and roll bands. The fact that people get so fucked up they puke on themselves is ok but damn you if you make me a bit uncomfortable. If you want smoke-free environment, go to the mall or something.
The point of this being, I got a number of messages back from my friends on there pleading the case for the smoking-ban. I just don't know what to think about this. I feel bad for them if a smoky bar is so awful that they can't go but I just can't see it. Yes, better ventilation would be great so as to clear some of it out of there but I always come back to the fact that we're talking about bars. If I wanted smoke free bars I'd live in LA or some other hell hole where they run your life for you.
This is just a concrete example of the political ideas that run a place like Austin. It's that fake-ass progressive bullshit thing. It's the "I know what's best for everyone" mentality. It's the people who protest the wall-mart going up because it's an ugly box-building, they're shitty to their workers, they bully competition, blah blah - bottom line is they know what's best and damn the people who would shop there anyway because they probably watch nascar and listen to Toby Keith.
I'm totally off ranting. Don't look for a whole lot of logic in this. Fuck it. It doesn't matter. They'll always win shit like this. Because they're well educated. And influential. And they know best.
Austin Anti-Anti Smoking website - http://www.keepaustinfree.com
posted by dm @ 10:00 AM
2 Comments:
I got pointed at this after I mentioned that I griped at you about the smoking post.
I'm sooo tired of bar-related "just so" stories that say things have always been this way at bars and that it's removing some vital part of "bar culture" if you disallow smoking. Smoking was--and to a certain extent, still is--a bourgeois habit of the rich who made slave-owning tobacco farmers richer. I think it's pretty funny that smokers who invoke a personal freedom to smoke are supporting an industry that has traditionally promoted anything but freedom.
I have some pretty deep scarring in my lungs from having pneumonia a couple of times when I was a kid. (Thanks for smoking, mom and dad!) If I go to too many shows it starts to hurt after a while. So, sucks to be me, right? I guess everything is right in the world just as long as people can enjoy their long draws on the corporate teat. Smokers have gotten to run my life for a while, so I don't think it's unfair that I feel a little pernicious glee when I get to return the favor. Thanks for the smoke in the face, here's my vote that says you don't get to do it anymore. Maybe if you could have been a little considerate, it wouldn't have come to this.
Love,
Your favorite nanny-do-gooder.
Colleen,
I hate smoking. Dated a girl that smoked once and it drove me crazy -- I hate everything about smoking.
But, I'm with Wisdom Teeth... the state sets a dangerous precedent when it seeks to protect us from ourselves. Today its smoking in bars, tomorrow its your favorite hobby/interest.
Your argument basically boils down to "two wrongs make a right..." (The part about corporate "evil" is exaggerated as well as irrelevant -- the same can be said for alcohol, coffee, cotton and most foods.)
Anyway, I think the solution is simple. There is no law saying you can't open up a non-smoking bar. If restaurants can voluntarily make themselves "non-smoking" then why can't bars?
If there is that much support for a non-smoking ban, then there should be consumer support for non-smoking bars.
In time, the market would equalize out and there would be enough non-smoking bars to satisfy non-smokers and enough smoking bars to satisfy smokers (and those that don't mind being in a smoky bar).
Problem solved. Nobody gets treated as a pariah, no one is coerced. Its the beauty of free markets.
Just my 2 cents (a random blogger passing by via the "Next Blog" button).
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