And people are constantly asking for things that are already laws - we need to actually enforce our laws so that bad ones can be removed also in my opinion.
And as time progresses, new laws are no longer common sense ("don't steal, don't murder"), but become increasingly cumbersome, while still acceptable ("don't drive a vehicle unless we license you for vehicle use") and ultimately problematic ("You can't own sulphuric acid"). Before too long, laws become criminal, and those must not be obeyed ("You have to believe this or that, or at least shut up about what you really think, because doing otherwise may hurt people").
Too many laws make everyone a criminal, for eventually, everyday, innocent behaviour becomes criminalised.
When you arrive at thoughtcrime, it already is too late.
That doesn't make the situation different. All of these bad laws have supporters. (Largely because charlatans in government, law enforcement, and media constantly exaggerate dangers, but that's beside the point.)
I hope you realize that is simplistic. Is the bar for enforcing such laws very high and do many often slip under it? Yes. And yet prosecutions under such laws are happening constantly.
Has anyone else noticed the trend of ever-increasing laws and ever-decreasing enforcement?
It’s not a good mix. We end up with a system that punishes people following the rules and doesn’t do anything about the many people breaking the rules. It also creates the sense of unfairness and general lawlessness — that laws are recommendations that can mostly be ignored.
My main problem with the current laws is that they could only be enforced effectively by extremely draconian measures. Same as my problem with the drug laws, really. Unenforceable laws just breed disrespect for the rule of law.
Whenever anything bad happens, there's always a cry for "there oughtta be a law against it!" and laws get crafted and passed when emotions are running high. This doesn't make for good laws.
Most laws are arbitrary and/or self-contradictory, yet we are still punished if we are caught violating them. In addition, there are so many laws, that most of us are constantly committing crimes (at a rate of three felonies a day).[1]
The problem is that these stupid laws are selectively enforced. There are so few people that are prosecuted that the normal population doesn't care enough to throw a fit. We would need an auto-prosecute system so that whenever anyone breaks a dumb law they are inconvenienced (at least), then enough people will be affected to changes things.
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