I want to devise a virusTo bring dire straits to your environmentCrush your corporations with a mild touchTrash your whole computer system and revert you to papyrusI want to make a super virusStrong enough to cause blackouts in every single metropolis’cause they don’t want to unify usSo fuck it total anarchy and can’t nobody stop us-Del the Funky Homosapien, Virus, from Deltron 3030 (2000)
Do you have respect for the law? Fucking why? Some laws are good guidelines for being a good person, like no passing in a school zone, pay the taxes that fund social programs libraries roads etc. But if it ain’t one of those laws? Who could possibly give a shit, that’s worth listening to?
Do whatever the fuck you want, whenever you want, however you can. If the government says “penalties now,” well, fuck the government. They have to catch you first. Now. Tall talk coming from a bitch that almost never commits crimes because I’m afraid I’ll get caught, but still. I think part of the despair of living in a land where laws are unjust is the feeling you will be subject to those laws. That isn’t always true, strictly speaking.
This is one of the great ways blue states can protect people from shitty federal decrees. Commit to non-enforcement, like they did with marijuana. There’s precedent for this. But on a personal level, same thing. Who’s going to bust you for shielding immigrants from ICE? Anybody whose opinions you value? Anybody you’ll feel so sad about disappointing? Didn’t think so.
If you’re brave enough to risk the consequences, you can do all sorts of excellent things. And there are places and situations in which getting busted is massively unlikely. Try to arrest somebody for sodomy in Haight-Ashbury at this point in history, see how far that gets you. Try to throw somebody in federal prison for jailbreaking their modem to prevent youtube ads, see how well that goes over with the public – assuming you could detect that they’d done that in the first place.
Part of the catastrophizing I’ve heard sounds like, “if it’s illegal to be me, i’ll just have to do what they say and stop existing.” That is just weird, guys. Another part is the idea there will be death camps for trans people, which is very unlikely for other reasons. But even if some flavor of that happened, were you planning to save them the effort by offing yourself? Were you planning to walk up the chute like a cow to a slaughterhouse?
Given how many people violate traffic laws every day on every road in the country, it’s hard to believe you’re all that passive and law-abiding. It’s time for the “be gay, do crimes” slogan to be put into action. Although you’re probably already driving too fast in school zones. Not that crime. The other one. Yeah, you got it.
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“Yellow Tape”
That’s what my wife calls it.
When my wife and I were dating we visited the Mathai Botanical Gardens one February. It’s a good place to get warm in Michigan, walking around their tropical greenhouses. There was some work being done, and there was yellow caution tape strung up to keep people out of the area. At the time we passed that area there was no one working, there was a bunch dirt, pots, a pallet and a small forklift, but no one around. So, seeing an orchid I wanted to look at closer, I stepped over the yellow tape to get closer.
My wife couldn’t do it. Even when I explained that the worst which could happen is that we would be asked to leave the area if the people came back to work, she couldn’t cross the yellow tape.
The laws of society are optional, we agree to usually abide by them as part of the cost of living in a society. Breaking the laws has consequences, but there are also consequences for following the laws. The consequences for following a law may not fall on you, but those consequences can destroy lives. In most cases crossing the yellow tape will just result in a request to leave.
Sometimes, because such things are often put in place for your own safety, crossing the yellow tape may result in an injury to yourself or others. So thinking about why the yellow tape exists is important before crossing it. Yet, on occasion the yellow tape is not used for safety or guidance, but for no other reason than to exclude. On those occasions, the moral choice is to cross.
There is nothing wrong with generally abiding by the yellow tape. It can be comforting knowing the rules and living by them. But all actions have consequences, including following the rules. Being aware of the consequences of an action is more important than blindly following a rule. I stop at all stop signs not because of the law that says I should stop, but because the possible consequences of blowing through a stop sign includes hurting myself or others. The law is there for those people who do not consider consequences.
Laws are guidelines to be aware of, but they do not replace thought.
big time. it is interesting where we draw our lines – how intimidated we are or aren’t. i’ve gotten a talking-to by a cop, one time as a child, but nothing else. might feel different if i’d ever been arrested or shot at.
Easily the hugest piece of yellow tape around these days is copyright. Yo ho yo ho …
real.