Smokers (men who smoke especially) are fundamentally weak, here is why.

One of the most famous brand of cigarette (Credits to Hans, from Pixabay)

What? you got rage baited by my title?

Well, since you are here, give me 7 minutes (or maybe more if you are a slow reader) to prove to you that smokers (men especially) are adults with a bitter, expensive and harmful pacifier (yes, a pacifier, like those made for babies lmao).

Okay, let’s start with something we are all familiar with.. and that is the phrase “Hey, I need a smoke to relieve my stress!, can’t function without it fam, at least I get my job done!”. I would consider this as a fallacy in biological science and also an intellectual fallacy (fancy way to say this is a dumb argument).

Yes, I understand at this point you want to debate me by saying “Nicotine is proven to heighten your senses and focus”. But let’s hold on to that argument for a moment (or maybe discard it, you won’t win). In simple words, so that you can understand me better, A cigarette does not alleviate baseline stress, it merely temporarily satiates the chemical withdrawal created by the previous one.

Let’s say there’s a non-smoker that operates with 100% mental capacity, and then he decided to smoke. Which in turn, make him feel a “high” after the nicotine hits, but he hasn’t realized yet that he willingly gave up his 100% mental capacity, because in the next several hours, he would be feeling a withdrawal. This can be referred to a situation where he is operating in a 70% mental capacity! This means, that a smoke break does not (in the end) boost the smoker to 120% your power, it simply drags you back to 100% (the point where he hadn’t started smoking yet, doing this regardless, is as useful as using a fork to eat a soup).

I’d argue that when you smoke, you are essentially paying a super mega massive corporation to induce a state of neurological anxiety in your brain just so that you can pay them again to temporarily remove it! (ever wonder why their high ranked executive officers won’t consume their own products? yeah, you get my point).

A rational, genuinely (like fr fr) “strong” man (or women too… I guess?) does not finance their own mental enslavement. Believing that a chemical dependency, an addiction in later stages, is a legitimate stress management tool that are acceptable by society, and therefore I would say that this believe is simply illogical.

For the sake of giving my own view on my own essay, I would like to tell you that I consider “dependability” as a the core metric or standard of a man’s value. A man is ultimately, at the end of the day, all things considered is judged by his capacity to remain functional, stoic and effective during a high stake crisis.

Imagine a scenario where there is a critical financial obstacle, a sudden family emergency or a even a hard brutal work day. The man who processes these problems internally without being dependent with bad, harmful substances are the only one that can stand resolute.

A man who must step outside every two hours to suck on a piece of paper with a bitter weed inside it just to calm his temper or to stop his hands from shaking is NOT DEPENDABLE. He is a LIABILITY, his resilience is rented (lmao rented, a funny word to use in this case) and the lease expires every half an hour (or maybe several hours I don’t know, I don’t smoke).

In stark contrast, a smoker’s dependability is entirely conditional, let’s say if the supply chain of cigarettes (or cigars, vape, anything bad you inhale) is disrupted, his or her emotional regulation immediately begins to collapse, you wouldn’t go anywhere near those people would you? (or maybe if you’re intellectually challenged you would lmao).

WHICH brings us back to the baby PACIFIER (I wrote it at the top, if you have already forgotten). Why do we give babies, infant their pacifiers? Of course it is because they lack the neurological ability to soothe themselves. When they feel discomfort, they throw a tantrum…… similar like a smoker who is in a state of high withdrawal, they become irritable and agitated until they can get something in their mouth. They also work similarly, with forced deep breathing, repetitive hand-to-mouth movements, and the desperate need to hold on to something. Only difference is a pacifier wont give you lung cancer and other terminal diseases (maybe you have to change your cigarette to a pacifier lmao).

Okay, in the end, I would say that true strength and true human autonomy is considered by whether or not your mind are controlled by an external chemical. I consider men who are resilient are those who faces their stress, failures, nightmares, and reality completely raw and unmedicated. I am not saying that you can’t have a coping mechanism, I am merely implying that there are an abundant choices of coping methods you can try instead(I love to pretend to be batman for example lmao). Until you can endure your hard, bitter life without relying on a harmful substances, I would argue that your tough exterior is merely a fragile, bad show of facade.

In the end, if you are addicted to smoking (or anything really), you are not the master of yourself, and your life, you are simply a slave to hedonistic pleasures, megacorps and a lit cigarette.