I'm wondering how many people answering this are in regular contact with people that they like and respect that smoke?

Two smokers I know are people who are about as far from 'selfish' in any other sense of the word as one could possibly imagine. They are people who always go the extra mile for others, who volunteer, who take responsibility, who are just all round great human beings. Knowing them has changed my view of smokers a bit. I still don't like the habit, but I no longer think of it as necessarily a sigil of stupidity or bastardliness.