For most it’s a coping mechanism. The fact that it’s much lighter than weed makes it so it won’t completely stop your day for a couple hours, but it’s also easier to access and use than anxiety medication.

Most people under capitalism already don’t expect to live long fulfilling lives, so the health trade-offs seem “acceptable” in the moment. I would probably not smoke if I had a more relaxed life or had any hopes of retirement.

I’m definitely it’s no longer viewed as a glamorous thing, though. We should treat it like it is, palliative for a dying society.

Hmmm you’re buying the hype which is percolating around due to the most straight edge/drug tested man alive cult of crypto guys who get high off the gas station substances. Nicotine makes you incredibly crabby and evil if you use it regularly, because you get cravings in your sleep which makes you fucking tired, and during the day you can basically time when the cigs guy around you will be in super evil mode if he hasn’t had a break. It’s a devil’s contract for restaurant workers because people KNOW you need the breaks or ELSE lmao, but they can use it like a carrot too so it goes both ways. Plus coffee releases the same enzyme that burns thru it so together they’re like crack. I like to get some good tobacco and go through all of it in a couple weeks and forget about it for a few years. But Mao is right smoking bad. “Mao smoking gif bad” - Mao

Smoking does not calm you or make you focused. Withdrawal causes distraction and anxiety. Relieving the craving returns you to baseline stress levels.

Counterpoint:

Even if tobacco was perfectly healthy, tobacco smoke smells utterly rancid, colours everything a sickly shade of yellow, ruins clothes, ruins cars and busses, and is by nature incredibly addictive.

We can probably do this exercise with most drugs/psychoactives. No matter what you use, our bodies are designed to find homeostasis, so we will always get used to whatever we use regularly. Although we can use almost all of these things for a little while without doing too much (permanent) damage, it is always better to try and find a way to live without them. Unless prescribed by a good doctor to treat a condition that is worse than the side effects, of course.

Tobacco IS shit for lungs. relative who smokes since he was 15 almost died of pulmonary disease, my dad is asmathic and it’s terrible for him. Cigarettes and the tobacco industry are also shit for the environment. Let alone all the forest/house fires they initate. Even planes were throw down by smokers. And a lot of smokers are jerks, I hate the smell and sometimes I am walking and have to dodge the freaking smoke cloud (IT’S SO ANNOYING, IF YOU WANT TO F YOUR HEALTH DO NOT HARM EVERYONE ELSE’S), and it infuriates me when they throw the coils to the ground. Also, addiction sucks. A friend of my mom is broke af and can’t stop buying them to save for food for her kid.

I’m allergic to tobacco smoke so you can already guess what I think about smoking tobacco.