Putting smoker’s housing at risk goes too far

The anti-smokers crowd is pressuring landlords and governments to adopt no smoking policies in multi-unit dwellings. They want to control the smoker’s behaviour even in the privacy of their own home.

The fact is, no smoking policies subject over 5 million Canadians who choose to smoke, 20% of the adult population, to a form of discrimination that would not be tolerated against any other minority.

Anti-smoker crusaders are determined to eradicate smokers from the face of the earth. That’s not a wild exaggeration or a paranoid allegation. The anti-smokers have publicly declared their intention. And, they are prepared to use any form of punitive coercion to further that end. And, that includes threatening the housing of low income wage earners, seniors, and others on fixed incomes if they refuse to quit smoking.

Non-smokers appear quite content to allow this kind of rampant discrimination; after all, it’s for the smoker’s own good, isn’t it? Besides, don’t smokers kill their babies, their spouses and the family pet with their secondhand smoke? Doesn’t the very sight of a smoker corrupt our young people, forcing them into a life of degeneracy and degradation?

The government has approved an anti-smoker campaign to “de-normalize” those who choose to smoke, to paint them as something abnormal and sub-human. In so doing, they have contributed significantly to an escalating, open hostility directed at smokers. They contribute to the active discrimination of smokers in all aspects of life: housing, employment, adoption, etc. And, they appear unwilling to take any action to stop it.

But, there’s another group contributing greatly to the open warfare being waged against those who choose to smoke.

Smokers themselves play a key role in efforts by anti-smoker crusaders to relegate smokers to the role of second-class citizens. Too many guilt-tripping smokers have allowed themselves to be shamed into embracing the bullshit and bafflegab of their persecutors.

They’ve done nothing wrong; they have nothing to feel guilty about. It’s their home; they are free to engage in any legal activity they choose. And, if they choose to smoke in their home, that is their decision, not their neighbour’s.

The intention of no-smoking policies is to deprive smokers of the respect and dignity to which they are entitled as human beings, simply because they smoke. So why do some smokers whimper and whine about the discriminatory policies while bending to the will of those who bully and harass them?

These bigots are judging 20% of the adult population, not by their accomplishments, contributions to community, or character, but by that one factor which separates them from the majority; whether or not they smoke. That’s prejudice. And no one should have to tolerate it.

Secondhand smoke is little more than a controllable nuisance.

But, the fact is, the anti-smoker element in society doesn’t want secondhand smoke controlled; they want smokers controlled. They are offended by the very sight of someone smoking. And, when it comes to multi-unit apartment buildings, they’re offended by the very thought of someone smoking, whether they can be seen or not

No smoking policies designed to dictate what people do in the privacy of their own home have to be self-enforcing. Unless the government is prepared to give police the authority to break down doors with a battering ram and raid private homes on suspicion of smoking, such policies are practically unenforceable.

Their efforts to force smokers to quit can work only if smokers accept these intrusions on their privacy and personal liberties; only if they willingly participate in their own persecution.

I know what you’re thinking; you can’t fight city hall. The anti-smoker fanatics have money and power, and they have government on their side. That’s defeatist bullshit. Free men have been fighting oppression and tyranny since the dawn of time; and winning.

Anti-smoker crusaders, and the misinformed politicians who support them, are conducting an experiment in behavioural control. Their propaganda techniques and tactics of fear are those of other would be dictators throughout history.

Smokers have a right, some might even say, an obligation, to resist.

If you want to quit; do it. If you need help; get it. But make it your choice, not theirs.

I have a few remaining thoughts on this topic and the anti-smoker brigade’s concept of “self-policing” no smoking by-laws in my next post.