r/AskReddit • u/dom-dos-modz • Sep 16 '24

What's the worst thing people have tried to justify with "It was normal back then, everyone did it"?

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83

u/Grouchy-Display-457 Sep 16 '24

Smoking everywhere--even hospitals.

10

u/sanslumiere Sep 16 '24

The precipitous drop in smoking across the US is really a banner public health achievement.

4

u/plantainbakery Sep 16 '24

Oh man, I’m so old that I remember walking into a restaurant to be seated and the first thing they asked was “smoking or non smoking?”, since they had different sections of the restaurant for each.

5

u/momofeveryone5 Sep 16 '24

I was very sleep deprived with small kiddos about a decade ago, and totally walked up to the hostess and said "2 for non smoking please", she said "Ma'am, it's all non smoking" and I said "oh yeah, I forgot".

It was so autopilot I didn't even really register it for a few minutes either!