Reply #126: I do not mean to be engaging in that practice [View All]

[laughingliberal]

but it was quite frustrating all those years I was one of the most consistent workers in my field to keep hearing about how smokers miss so much work. How irritated would you be if you had been me covering for the nurses who were off work sick all the time and hearing how smokers miss so much work? And posts bashing smokers and overweight people are standard fare here at DU. I do not fault the OP for expressing some of the frustration this causes. I do feel it. Self righteous people spout off about smokers missing work all the time. As a smoker who didn't miss work and who covered far more than my share of work loads for non-smoking nurses who missed a lot, I feel it's grossly unfair.

I hate broad brushes, statistics or not. If you meet a smoker or overweight person who fits the statistics, fine. But it is the immediate aspersions cast on anyone overweight or who smokes to which I object. Broad brushes hurt people, needlessly. Period. We have found, in recent years, that redheads suffer more allergies than others and they have lower pain thresholds. Are they next? No telling which group will be the next target of our increasingly intolerant and authoritarian society.

As a long ago hero of mine wrote some years back "for the wheel's still in spin and there's no telling who that it's naming."