There are a number of habits/activities which are life threatening and which people still indulge in - bungee jumping, swimming in coastal waters, sky diving, eating crap food, injecting heroin, snorting cocaine, over use of anti depressant medications and antibiotics, driving at high speeds - the list is endless and many are life threatening to both those around you and to the Emergency Services when they become involved. These days at least the use of tobacco has been banned from enclosed spaces - and quite often open spaces too. It took a long time in coming and was well overdue but continually castigating smokers is becoming somewhat boring. I smoke in my garden and 1 room in my house. My OH also smokes and he does the same. We are not endangering anyone else nor are we constantly seeking medical help for imagined or self inflicted problems. It's certainly true that it's not the best of hobbies and the fact that tobacco companies, following the reduction of sales in the 1st world, have targeted 3rd world populations is to be abhorred. This might not be a popular view in this day and age but then again, the same applies to some of the views which crop up on this forum. We are all responsible for our own wellbeing and for that of our planet. I'd suggest there is a hell of a lot more to worry about than this particular subject
There is an irony to criticising tobacco companies for targetting vulnerable people while sponsoring them to do so though. Same with people who take cocaine for a bit of a good time when they know the amount of child exploitation, human trafficking, murders, torture etc that their money is funding. It's very hard to avoid whataboutism with anything in life these days but some things are easy to cut out and would improve the world if everyone did.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Perhaps it's best to suspend judgement of commentors' personal habits and think of posts as "Confessions of a Gardener" - offered in confidence. If we land personal attacks on people for the way they live their lives, they are less likely to share and more likely to feel as if we are trying to shame them. People commonly drink and smoke and do drugs and other harmful things. Shouting at them doesn't usually change much. I smoked for ten years and drank heavily at college and it all seemed quite normal at the time.
For heavens sake what kind of a nanny state world are we making, If people would only read instructions and do as they are told all would be ok. Years ago my father was a caretaker at a large private school, when told by pupils or teachers the whereabouts of a wasps nest he would obtain Cymag poison from the local chemist, yes he had to sign for it but there was never any sort of incident in 25 years, I have heard on the radio that teenagers are to be bribed with a pizza or equivalent to get a covid jab.Oh boy do we have to be carried around now!!!
If we land personal attacks on people for the way they live their lives, they are less likely to share and more likely to feel as if we are trying to shame them. People commonly drink and smoke and do drugs and other harmful things. Shouting at them doesn't usually change much.
It's a sore subject. An extended family member is a vulnerable adult and has been exploited by drug dealers. He's now in huge amounts of debt, alcoholic, addicted to cocaine and in very poor health. He's been to hospital a few times but can't get any support from the NHS due to them being overburdened with similar cases locally already. None of which has anything to do with weedkiller though...
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
There is an irony to criticising tobacco companies for targetting vulnerable people while sponsoring them to do so though. Same with people who take cocaine for a bit of a good time when they know the amount of child exploitation, human trafficking, murders, torture etc that their money is funding. It's very hard to avoid whataboutism with anything in life these days but some things are easy to cut out and would improve the world if everyone did.
I wouldn't call it "sponsoring" as such - it's simply acceptance that someone has a particular addiction but is fully aware of the consequences and dislikes where it leads to. I would ( and have ) strongly advised younger people who have confided in me not to touch tobacco. Whether it makes any difference I don't know. What I will say tho is that during those conversations, I don't stand there with a lit cigarette and tell them it is a bad and expensive habit - as previously said I do not smoke around other people. You are right in that some things are easy to cut out - I'd suggest the excessive use of electricity, Bitcoin mining,fast food outlets, flying thousands of miles to "get a bit of sun", over population, buying stuff simply because it is in fashion ( and often produced by people less well off than ourselves ), dumping the appalling amount of food ( consumers and shops are equally to blame ) which is still edible. I could go on ! We all have our little foibles and rather than pick on one aspect, it would pay us to look at the overall picture and think what each of us could do to improve things within our capabilities.
"Same with people who take cocaine for a bit of a good time when they
know the amount of child exploitation, human trafficking, murders,
torture etc that their money is funding. "
Cocaine use really is a thing I can't get my head around - for all the death and destruction it causes, but I guess most users are not interested in provenance. It's quite amazing what we can put out of mind if we don't want to think about it.
An extended family member is a vulnerable adult and has been exploited
by drug dealers. He's now in huge amounts of debt, alcoholic, addicted
to cocaine and in very poor health.
We have a lot of alcoholism and drug addiction on one side of my family and it has caused so much havoc. I think it does make you think of drugs, alcohol (and fags) differently when you have seen people wither to horrible, long, drawn out deaths and mental collapse, as their organs fail one by one. It's hard to see 'jollies' as 'a bit of fun' after all that.
Maybe there is even a link to weedkiller for public health. My parents had asbestos damage in their lungs from work settings, but they didn't know it until the end, when they had scans. Born in the 1930s, they would never have thought to go to A&E and ask for asbestos checks.
It's very hard to sit and watch so many loved ones suffer so much from fully preventable illnesses and health destruction. You have to shrug, to some extent, and know that it was their choice, but that doesn't really make it easier to see the suffering. It's hard on the families.
It's always hard for people to deal with the death of anyone close to them - whatever the cause. Reports of thousands dying from the results of war, famine or lack of decent health care don't always impinge or at least not in the long term - it may make us think for a while and then our own life with it's various problems takes over pretty quickly. Watching someone gradually waste away to nothing - sometimes in acute pain - has a sobering effect on most people. It doesn't necessarily alter their habits or their way of life tho. I wonder whether one of the problems in the UK is that so many of us are shielded from the affects of drugs, gangs, racism etc. that we don't really understand what is going on in our cities and urban areas. Just seen your post @wild edges - your family member would seem to be one of many who suffer and are unable to get the help/support they need. Trouble is, I don't see what can be done unless we start realising how many people are affected and putting more effort and money into dealing with it. It's a subject for endless debate and differing views but you are right - nowt to do with weedkiller really
Bit coin mining 😱😱😱😱. That one really gets me, does more damage that weedkiller ever will. Power stations opening just to run computers what’s that all about. 😱😱😱😱😱
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Posts
These days at least the use of tobacco has been banned from enclosed spaces - and quite often open spaces too. It took a long time in coming and was well overdue but continually castigating smokers is becoming somewhat boring.
I smoke in my garden and 1 room in my house. My OH also smokes and he does the same. We are not endangering anyone else nor are we constantly seeking medical help for imagined or self inflicted problems.
It's certainly true that it's not the best of hobbies and the fact that tobacco companies, following the reduction of sales in the 1st world, have targeted 3rd world populations is to be abhorred.
This might not be a popular view in this day and age but then again, the same applies to some of the views which crop up on this forum. We are all responsible for our own wellbeing and for that of our planet.
I'd suggest there is a hell of a lot more to worry about than this particular subject
Years ago my father was a caretaker at a large private school, when told by pupils or teachers the whereabouts of a wasps nest he would obtain Cymag poison from the local chemist, yes he had to sign for it but there was never any sort of incident in 25 years, I have heard on the radio that teenagers are to be bribed with a pizza or equivalent to get a covid jab.Oh boy do we have to be carried around now!!!
You are right in that some things are easy to cut out - I'd suggest the excessive use of electricity, Bitcoin mining,fast food outlets, flying thousands of miles to "get a bit of sun", over population, buying stuff simply because it is in fashion ( and often produced by people less well off than ourselves ), dumping the appalling amount of food ( consumers and shops are equally to blame ) which is still edible. I could go on !
We all have our little foibles and rather than pick on one aspect, it would pay us to look at the overall picture and think what each of us could do to improve things within our capabilities.
Watching someone gradually waste away to nothing - sometimes in acute pain - has a sobering effect on most people. It doesn't necessarily alter their habits or their way of life tho.
I wonder whether one of the problems in the UK is that so many of us are shielded from the affects of drugs, gangs, racism etc. that we don't really understand what is going on in our cities and urban areas.
Just seen your post @wild edges - your family member would seem to be one of many who suffer and are unable to get the help/support they need. Trouble is, I don't see what can be done unless we start realising how many people are affected and putting more effort and money into dealing with it.
It's a subject for endless debate and differing views but you are right - nowt to do with weedkiller really
Power stations opening just to run computers what’s that all about. 😱😱😱😱😱