Deacon

I was a smoker for about 20 years and quit in 2021 with Chantix.

For all but the last maybe 5 years of that, I just had cigarette butts on my mental whitelist. I was an otherwise very litter-conscious person who just didn’t consider butts litter because…? I never reasoned it out, and was like I suddenly realized I was fucking littering and then I became hyper sensitive about it.

On the one hand, yes.

On the other hand, even if it is unnecessary effort, spelling it out can be a form of rhetorical emphasis distinct from simply putting it in quotes.