this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2026
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There have been, like, five societal things that have improved since the 90s, and banning smoking in basically all public spaces is one of them.
I can't even imagine air travel before the smoking ban. Mega yuck.
I’ve lived through both eras.
Take all the tech companies away from the far-right, raise taxes on the wealthy, break up the media monopolies, overturn citizens united, ensure one full-time income can support a small family, restore actual journalism, make universities places for education and research again….
And you can smoke wherever the fuck you want. Do it in my living room for all I care.
Sorry, but this is a really ableist take. Not everyone is healthy enough to tolerate secondhand smoke; I would rather live in a literal 1984-style dictatorship than somewhere that smoking everywhere was normalized. There's not a political system out there worse than feeling like you have the flu every day for the rest of your life.
Are you perchance a race and gender that hasn't historically been persecuted under fascism? There are a few things worse than a flu.
I think you're underestimating the flu a bit there. Pretty hard to fight the power when you struggle to remain upright. At least if you're healthy under fascism there's, like, a chance things will get better. I can't imagine a fate worse than being sick all the time and unable to do anything about it because, ya know, you're too sick to do anything about it.
RIGHT, your comfort is what's most important. Blocked. 😀
Okay then.
I recall reading that in some ways air quality was better when smoking in airplanes was legal because they had to cycle air through the outside through ventilation systems.
Now they don't so the air is more stagnant and circulates germs etc.
I have no idea if that's actually the case, or if so, if that's actually better. But it was a point I hadn't considered.
In hindsight, it feels like the sort of "study" that a tobacco company would put out. Like a petrol company funding one that says "climate change is good actually!"
It's not like anything was stopping the airlines from continuing to run the ventilation systems even after smoking was banned on flights.
But think about poor old $$$
It wasn't pleasant. I was a kid and didn't fly much. but I did experience it.
Because everyone smoked everywhere, you were at least used to it. Airplanes are super well ventilated, not enough to make it pleasant, but enough that you weren't feeling like you were going to die when they all lit up.
Once hitched a ride and the driver and his wife where heavy smokers that they even had the air on recycle instead of taking in fresh air. 2nd worst ride ever, I got out as quick as I could.
what was the 1st worst?
I got a ride from a courier who was driving as if the van was on fire. He looked at his watch and said "lunch time!". Then he held the steering wheel with his knee, and grabbed a 'Hoegaarden Wit" (beer) from behind his chair. Opened it with the bottom of his lighter and drank the whole bottle in one go. Did not blink an eye, grabbed another from behind the chair and repeated the process. Then only said "So !" and acted like it was perfectly normal. I jumped out when he halted at a traffic light. Looked back but It was an un-marked white van otherwise i'd happily reported him to police and his boss.
My mother was a heavy smoker and slight of build, in the winter she'd crack the window 1/4 inch and not any further until i was steadily coughing.
Jet's are different than cars though, they cycle air/heat from the engines at pretty high speed. The cabin air is continually refreshed/pressurized.
Also smoking bans are so usa centric. Going to Europe is insane because they are so insanely rude with how they smoke compared to the usa
Wiiiide variety over Europe. You gotta specify
I've been in a good few European countries and it hadn't differed in any.
Oh I guess that covers all of 'em then.
The UK has very little smoking in public.
Germany had a shit-ton, though it has decreased quite a bit.
It was enough of them that I felt comfortable making a generalization
I remember flying into Germany in '06 and being able to light up anywhere in the airport, went back in '13 or '14 and they had little booths.
I was in Germany in the early 00s and I hard associated the Frankfurt airport with the smell of smoke. Went back a few years ago and I almost didn’t recall things because that olfactory link wasn’t there anymore.
Depends where, and sometimes it varies wildly in the same country.
Hamburg, I didn't see a single smoker. Berlin, fucking rife with them
Not just US. A few years back japan banned it in restaurants (but not bars) and public buildings unless there's an actual smoking room in them.
Japan's smoking situation has gotten so much better over the last few decades. Which is good, because it used to be everywhere.
Continental Europe maybe but as a Briton it's pretty shit to be a smoker here. Extremely expensive unless you go black market, you have to stand outside in the pissing rain in virtually all cases, and people can be very judging about it.
Source: ex smoker