More like lied about it. There was a time when enough people smoked that it just wasn’t an issue, it wasn’t rude to smoke in public because most everybody else was too (we smoked in hospitals back in the day). Then people started quitting in droves, then the quitters started griping. And they maybe had a point, society was changing and the behavior needed to match, it wasn’t really rude though, most public places still allowed smoking. Unfortunately now the non-smokers have turned into a bunch of psychotic whining ninnies, forced it so businesses CAN’T allow smoking, heck in AZ you can’t even smoke near a door you don’t own (20’ away from doors is the designated smoking area, sure hope you’ve got a big back yard because the area in it less than 20’ from your neighbors doors is a legally defined no smoking area). Really the rudeness pretty solidly comes from the non-smokers, they demanded the world not allow smoking, in a POLITE society we let property owners make their own decisions, but non-smokers didn’t like the decisions being made, so we are no longer legally allowed to be polite.
Agreed. What was rude was not to offer a cigarette to the other person before you lit up.
I worked at a TV store where we had an ashtray on every few TVs.
That Arizona ordinance doesn’t apply to private residences, so you are free to smoke in your backyard (or inside your home), no matter how close your neighbor’s door is.