How do you respond to polite criticism?

[dragonpuff]

I'm just curious to see how other people here respond when their vaping is politely criticized in casual settings. I know there's a lot of information you can share with someone who is less informed, but what do you say if you only have a minute or two?

Today I was standing in a small group: me vaping, one smoking, and two nonsmokers. One of the nonsmokers commented that "they proved that the vapor from those is hazardous." I said, "how so?" They said that chemicals were found in the vapor. I chuckled a little and said something like, "yeah, nicotine maybe! They haven't found much else. Not like cigarette smoke, there's tons of chemicals in that! This is much safer than smoking." Then the other nonsmoker chimed in and agreed with me, affirming that it is much safer than smoking. The first person backed off, and the subject derailed shortly after. I consider that conversation to be a win for me.

How do you respond to polite criticism in casual conversation?

 

[stevegmu]

I was recently on vacation and a tourist asked me if e-cigarettes are dangerous because she heard they can cause water to gather in the lungs- a cigarette dangling from her lips, by the way. I was enjoying a Pilsner Urquell and didn't want to be bothered, so I laughed and said, yes, e-nic can cause wet lung...

 

[xena222]

I have wondered how other people deal with this!! I have had mostly more positive than negative comments so far, but mostly from people who know me and would be happy with anything that makes me not smoke....but I haven't vaped in public a lot....I do get some weird stares around here when I do....it bothers me a little, but not enough to smoke.

 

[rbrylawski]

I'm polite, but won't just smile and not say anything. I think you handled your situation nicely. I've had many people, from strangers to my next door neighbor who smokes Marlboro Reds heavily, tell me e-cigs are dangerous. To a stranger, I'll just say they are far safer than a cigarette, but to my neighbor who chain smokes, I told him if thinking e-cigs are dangerous helps him justify the planned suicide mission he is on, more power to him. But I also suggested he do some research on the subject and even offered to let him use one of my older ego-T's I had sitting around. He didn't take me up on my offer as he's clearly not ready to give up death sticks.

I've also had some strange things happen. For example, I work in an office building next to a hotel. I still don't vape at my desk and do enjoy going outside like I used to do when I smoked. Often, smokers will walk up to me and out of the blue whip out a pack of cigarettes and offer me one, saying I must be dying for one. I ask them why they'd think this and several have said they have a buddy who's trying to quit by vaping, but they always bum smokes. I just thank them, tell them I haven't had a cigarette in two years and really don't miss or want one.

Ps: At the hotel there's a young man who works as a valet, who smokes and has asked me lot's of questions about vaping. I could tell he was interested and I asked him if he'd like to try it. I ended up giving him the ego-T with a clearomizer and some juice and he seems to really like it. He said he's bummed a few cigs in social situations with buddies at bars, but for the most part, I may have converted my first smoker to vaping!

 

[WillyZee]

I just tell em ... keeps me off the smokes

 

[dragonpuff]

I was recently on vacation and a tourist asked me if e-cigarettes are dangerous because she heard they can cause water to gather in the lungs- a cigarette dangling from her lips, by the way. I was enjoying a Pilsner Urquell and didn't want to be bothered, so I laughed and said, yes, e-nic can cause wet lung...

I had another (brief) conversation today which started with someone saying "that's gonna kill you someday," and I said, "how so?" He took a deep breath and said, "if we were meant to breathe water, we would have gills." I said, "well yeah, but this isn't water. It's propylene glycol, the same stuff they use for stage fog." He chose not to continue arguing with me and changed the topic

Now that I think about it, I should probably have mentioned that we breathe water vapor all the time, it's in the air...

 

[Schwiggiddy]

I hear a lot of people saying "I heard on the TV/Fakebook that those things are bad for you!" Without really disagreeing, I look at them incredulously and say, "Worse than cigarettes?" They give me a blank stare. Probably because, NO, they've really never heard that, all they've heard is BT/BP propaganda. And since it's clear they've never really thought about it themselves, they really have no response. It's fun, usually.

I make it pretty clear: Do I think my vape is 100% healthy? No, nothing I ingest is. Is it better for me than smoking? There's no way it couldn't be, as long as I trust the source of my juice (usually Highbrow btw, naturally flavored is best flavored). I honestly think all the artificial flavors are worse than the nic.

 

[iamthevoice]

I've had a couple people give me second glances, but nothing more than that. I've had a few smokers ask me questions actually, and I did my best to provide as much information as I could. I keep thinking I should have some drip tip covers handy; nothing like trying it out to convince a smoker!

 

[Just Me]

I have tried with several people, but I have found that you can't fix stupid.

My brother (age 72) was SHOCKED AND APPALLED, pointing at my mod in my own home at my kitchen table, thereafter yelling at me: "Do you know how dangerous those things are????????" He is a retired employee of a government contractor, BTW...

Two others were friends/acquaintances of mine whose grandsons were experimenting. One was concerned that her grandson (age22!) was vaping. Supposedly now he has given it up. The other one told her grandson, "If you want to smoke, just SMOKE!"

I'm like...ARGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dissonance]

Blow a cloud of vapor in their face and wait for the fake coughing, then laugh.

Seriously tho... I work at a B&M and get questions/comments like that all the time... I do my best to educate them, saying that most of the tests run were either in improper conditions (like hooking up a CE5 to a vacuum, giving it more power than it should, and let it run til the tank is dry with no stops), improper equipment/juice (Like the study that showed heavy metals in vapor from "popular" e-juice brands that turned out to be some no-name brands from China), or just plain incorrect (Like the old gas studies that showed leaded gasoline was perfectly safe, simply because it was funded by a gas company and they would only pay for someone reporting results they wanted). Every once in a while I get that person that read it online so it must be true and I'm horribly wrong, but that's when I just drop it and go back to whatever I was doing.

 

[Ed_C]

Yeah, I have a hard time not rolling my eyes when anyone starts out with "they" said this or "they" found this out. I sometimes ask who exactly is this "they" that you speak of?

 

[KODIAK (TM)]

Polite? The criticism I encounter is still ignorance regardless of tone. Doesn't matter how it's presented I still give them a dose of the truth.

Seriously. I'm tired of it. Be it politics, e-cigs or whatever... if they present to me some matter-of-fact, overzealous and asinine comment without any more understanding beyond a casual headline they picked up somewhere then I figure their brains are in dire need of "un-washing".

 

[Bunnykiller]

Im a bit more harsh.... I tell them Id rather be shot with a 22 instead of a 44mag

 

[HauntedMyst]

When someone says "Those ecigs are bad for you" I just say "You are right. And they have a tendency to explode. Hold my hand, I want you next to me when it goes off"

 

[dragonpuff]

Polite? The criticism I encounter is still ignorance regardless of tone. Doesn't matter how it's presented I still give them a dose of the truth.

Seriously. I'm tired of it. Be it politics, e-cigs or whatever... if they present to me some matter-of-fact, overzealous and asinine comment without any more understanding beyond a casual headline they picked up somewhere then I figure their brains are in dire need of "un-washing".

When I say polite, I mean gentle in tone and manner, as opposed to aggravated finger-wagging (there should be a law against that btw ). Ignorance is the nature of being human; we are all ignorant until we are informed. And inform we do, as I'm seeing here in this thread

 

[FinchX]

Most of the polite remarks I receive are usually questions about vaping, rather than some form of attack or misinformed claim. Those are generally the exact opposite of polite.

In either case, I simply keep my calm and attempt a brief education, giving personal testimony on how my health has improved over the past two years without analogs.

I did get rude once... Simply because of their initial comment, which was to say when they got near me, "Oh Christ... one of you.. can you please puff on that s**t so the smell doesn't come my way?!"

I took a nice loooong puff, looked at them and exhaled directly in their face, then said "this S**T, smells better than cigarettes, don't you think?? Be glad I'm not sucking on one of those ..."

 

[TamiP]

I like your response. If someone who is SMOKING like in your example says something to me, I have a similar reaction... I say well, so far there's no real proof that there is anything more harmful than nicotine which by itself is similar to coffee which I also drink large amounts of. however, that thing in your mouth is KNOWN to be a coffin nail. Or something along those lines, depending on how magnanamous I'm feeling at the moment and who the person is to me.

However, if someone who is smoking, or not smoking either way, asks me a serious quesiton about vaping becuase they appear to really want to know, I am happy to tell them all I can about them.

 

[k75srider]

I reply in what ever tone I'm spoken to. I will lower myself to there level so that they might understand me. I will try to educate if that is what they want. But it is real hard to fix stupid, and I'm surrounded.

 

[TamiP]

When someone says "Those ecigs are bad for you" I just say "You are right. And they have a tendency to explode. Hold my hand, I want you next to me when it goes off"

.

Too funny.

 

[TamiP]

One was concerned that her grandson (age22!) was vaping. Supposedly now he has given it up. The other one told her grandson, "If you want to smoke, just SMOKE!"

I'm like...ARGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

there are simply no words... wow