Can you remember when you were allowed to smoke on planes?

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136. false juxtaposition.

historically, this sort of argument usually points to the federal income tax as the flashpoint for ever-diminishing rights.

personally i find nothing special about the diminishing acceptance of smoking in terms of the greater trend of diminishing rights and freedoms and privacy. i do find the march of technology vastly more relevant; and in the case of rights in the workplace, the diminishing power of labor unions.

finally, a point of distinction: polluting the air others breathe, particularly if they would be greatly inconvenienced to avoid those areas, is not and never was a right. it was widely accepted as the norm, and was legally permitted, but not everything that is permitted is a "right". smoking on an airplane where other people then have no choice but to breathe it and perhaps suffer adverse effects such as migraines, allergic reactions, etc., is no more a right than is throwing your fists about on a crowded elevator where others might suffer adverse consequences from such gesticulation.

the line in both cases is when your actions harm others. you can wave your fists about in the privacy your own home or far away from others that might be harmed, and you could say that you have a "right" to do so (pursuit of happiness). but that right stops at someone else's nose, as the saying goes. similarly for smoking. arguably you have a "right" to smoke, up to the point it causes damage to others.


drug tests are rather different. again the march of technology has much to do with it. they would be given far more selectively if they weren't now so cheap and easy to administer. another factor there is the increasing power of (big) corporations. they are exerting control over their employee lives to an extent that wasn't possible for them when labor unions had more power.