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Comment by dqpb | Hacker News Reader

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This may violate the HN policies about name-calling or shallow dismissals, but is also either derogatory to actual idiots or factually incorrect.

>factually incorrect

Einstein smoked, so I would agree with this. ;p

Einstein is a strong counterexample, but to account for changing times, there are some notable non-idiots more recently:

https://josephcrusejohnson.blogspot.com/2017/10/morris-chang...

Not that I agree with OP but... I don't think Einstein lived in a time where the harms of smoking were so well documented.

My mother was a cardiovascular pharmacologist and worked with many people who knew at the time that smoking was bad for your health (70s, 80s, 90s). She smoked for decades, but she observed that the doctors and phds she worked with that specialized in the heart and lungs were more likely to be smokers.

She quit many years ago and is still around, thankfully.

but it was still inhaling smoke which we are clearly not meant to do. That was OP's point. It wasn't that we shouldn't smoke because of the things we've learned since.

People are very rarely only or all one thing. People who smoke make an idiotic decision about on specific behavior. How many of your decisions have to be idiotic to make you an idiot? Before you answer, how many of your actions have to be good to make you a good person?

What if I told you that cigarette smoke imparts a flavor and relaxing cognitive effect that some people enjoy in moderation while being aware of the health effect?

Unfortunately it seems like it's almost impossible to "enjoy in moderation"

I'm not sure how culturally-specific this is, but as a foreigner living in France, I notice the majority of smokers I meet are those who smoke exclusively while drinking. So to that extent, they appear to have sufficient will-power to resist most of the time, but the lowered inhibitions and the mental association between alcohol and smoke I guess are overwhelming.

I wonder what the tangible negative effects are of smoking 4-5 cigarettes a week like this compared to 4-5 a day? I also wonder to what extent this is a French phenomenon.

My family has a bi-weekly game night. Once every couple months someone will bring cigars and almost everyone partakes. Most don't smoke regularly. Seems like cigar smoking actually is enjoyed in moderation more so than cigarettes.

Cigar smokers typically do not inhale the smoke, unlike cigarette smokers

I don't understand why that matters. The end result is nicotine in your system.

How so?

Look everybody, this guy is smarter than Bertrand Russell!

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