That's right, hiding isn't the answer.
Though I find my ecig related interactions to be far more positive with smokers, there has to be some kind of middle ground somewhere in between hiding with the smokers and vaping wherever you damn well please.
I know you and some others disagree that vaping in restaurants and shops just isn't necessary, but maybe if that's what you want to do, then some kind of organized effort to recruit and create vape friendly venues with signage would be a better way than p'ing people off first then allaying their concerns later.
Acceptance with the general public would be better achieved with a top down approach, and getting local government onside will be better achieved with a bottom up approach.
The solution...start in the middle.
That's the difference between our attitudes. You presuppose that vaping is wrong and the vaper is needful of prior permission lest he be taken to task by some random anti-tobacco zealot. I don't approach it like I'm doing something wrong and I need to get permission first.
I don't vape "wherever I damn well please" either. If I'm asked not to by a responsible person, or if it's illegal or otherwise inappropriate, I won't vape.
In the absence of signage to the contrary, I don't assume it's prohibited to enter a store chewing gum or with a cup of coffee in my hand. I shouldn't have to ask prior permission for those things and I shouldn't have to ask permission to vape either. As long as I'm not being obnoxious about something, and it's not prohibited, I have every right to assume I can do it. If a store or restaurant, or whatever, doesn't want you to do something legal and inoffensive to reasonable people, I expect them to put up signage. Just like they put up signage about smoking or food or drinks, or any number of otherwise innocuous things.
You are endowing any random stranger with the right to create a disruption, based on his misconceptions and ignorance. Then, you are insisting that vapers conduct themselves in a way that ensures this tiny minority of whack jobs and control freaks and zealots doesn't get the chance to exercise this right you give them to cause a scene. Sorry, I'm not walking on eggshells just in case some ANTZ is around to cause a fuss. Unless they own the place, they have no more right to object to my vaping than I have to vape. If they cause a fuss, they deserve ejection, not me.
Vape friendly places are created. It doesn't take an organization to do it. Most places are vape-indifferent. That's o.k. too.
I don't know where you get this idea that you're pissing people off. If you are asked not to vape, and you stop, that's the end of it. Nobody is ....... If a proprietor is so anti-vape that he's going to get ...... at the mere sight of vapor, he'll have a no-ecig sign or something. That's perfectly within his rights. Heck, if they do it for everything else, why not e-cigs if they're against it? Proprietors put up no-smoking signs even when it was legal to smoke in public places. Why would they handle ecigs any different? If something is otherwise legal and not disruptive behavior, I expect to be notified if a premise prohibits it. Otherwise, I'll assume it's acceptable. I dont' equate smoking and vaping. Why should I assume that if you shouldn't smoke in a place, you also shouldn't vape there?
Maybe some vapers equate smoking and vaping. That's a remnant of the smoking mentality. I don't have it. I'm not smoking. Why should I observe the prohibitions and restriction on smoking?
As for the general public, like I said. The only people likely to get ...... off, or at least stay that way, are the ANTZ. Frankly, I couldn't care less about them. They are the enemy. They'll remain the enemy. No amount of appeasement or courtesy or consideration from us will make one iota of difference. I'm not interested in what their attitudes are. I already know. I'm interested in the smoking and non-smoking general public and there's no evidence to suggest they get angry just from the mere presence of vapor, as long as no one invades their space with plumes of it.
Like I have said before. If everyone who smoked anywhere and everywhere in 1950 was vaping instead, there would be no restrictions on public vaping today. Public smoking wasn't prohibited because people were annoyed with the aroma of coffee or blueberry pie wafting about in a transient puff of vapor. If cigarettes never existed and PV's were the only nicotine delivery device ever invented, all this would never even be a question. It would be no different than chewing gum. Only the hyper-sensitive control freaks would be offended.
