A Dirty Little Secret

[alixtii]

You want to hear a dirty little secret? Here it is: there is no such thing as "legal" or "illegal."

You know the "stupid law" memes that sometimes get passed around? How it's "illegal" to drive with your windows down in some town in Winsconsin, or to eat chocolate ice cream on Tuesdays in some place in Florida, or whatever? I'm fairly sure they still eat pickles in front of children even when it is raining, and no one cares.

"Fanfic is copyright infringement" or "Chan is illegal" are meaningless statements. Nobody but the Forms in their Platonic Heaven really cares. Is going one mile over the speed limit on I-95 illegal? If so, how many pretty white girls with cop fathers have gotten speeding tickets for it? So here's my existential question: is a law which is not enforced really a law at all?

The dirty little secret of government (and I don't just mean political states, but anybody who makes rules, whether it be SixApart or my parents) is that there are plenty of rules which pretty much act as reductio ad absurdums (anyone know the real Latin plural?) of the process of law-making. Remember that law in, I think, Virginia which seemed to read as banning marriage altogether, not just homosexual marriage as intended? Obscenity or child porn laws which seem so broad as to outlaw classic literature might also fall here.

But you know what? The system doesn't fall apart. People who own Lolita don't get dragged from their homes. The laws get enforced in mostly sane ways--even when the laws aren't even written that way.

What it does do is create the potential for abuse. That dark-skinned guy nobody really likes who lives across the street? When you find Lolita in his house, he gets dragged from his home. Just not anybody else. It creates confusion because no one's sure what rules/laws they need to follow and which they don't. It creates disrespect for the law.

So don't (you nebulous hypothetical implied "you" which probably has nothing to do with anyone reading this, but let me get my rant on) tell me that what I'm doing is illegal, or against the TOS, or whatever. Tell me whether what I'm doing is illegal like jaywalking is illegal, or illegal like serial murder is illegal.

Comments

[tarimanveri.livejournal.com]

Reductiones ad absurdi? Or maybe reductiones ad absurdum, since "the absurd" probably can't be pluralized?

Anyway, excellent post. I'd never thought about laws about trivial things being the ones to get selectively enforced in ways that are discriminatory, but it makes tons of sense. I even admittedly do it myself these days at work, when I give out warnings more frequently to people who aren't home than who are... so:

Tell me whether what I'm doing is illegal like jaywalking is illegal, or illegal like serial murder is illegal.

Word.

[amyheartssiroc.livejournal.com]

Tell me whether what I'm doing is illegal like jaywalking is illegal, or illegal like serial murder is illegal.

Very good point.

[heyiya.livejournal.com]

Absolutely.

Thanks for articulating a lot of what I've been thinking throughout this mess.

It also says a lot about the dominant makeup of some sections of fandom that it doesn't occur to some complainants to make these distinctions between law and ethics, between what is legal and what is right.

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

Excellent point--and one with which I totally agree.

For example, my report of sexualized images of teenager girls in LJ ads--totally ignored (well except the LJ users who think I am totally Kewl!).

Hah.

The Texas sodomy law was thrown out for that exact issue (although I still heart the Texas lawyer who tried to say that heterosexuals who engaged in homosexual behavior would be arrested to, so it wasn't in fact discriminatory!)

And let's talk about Texas laws against sex toys.....

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

I find "illegal" a much less useful term than "immoral". I can figure out immoral for myself - I trust my conscience and my intelligence to tell me what it is. In general, I honestly tend to pretend laws don't exist. I have a billion opportunities to break laws every day when I wouldn't get caught/when no one would care. The question is whether *I* care. It means really being in tune with what I'm doing and insisting that I live, for myself, in a way that if everyone lived that way society would be better than it is now.

Not that LJ can take any such policy, of course. They've got to be dealing with laws. But one question I'd like to see both 6A and users discussing, seriously, without anger, and without bias, is the morality of erotic/pornographic stories and artwork involving children. And it's a shame, because ultimately the answer to "is it illegal like jaywalking is illegal or is it illegal like serial murder is illegal?" can be found in the question of morality. Is writing such fics/drawing such art more akin, morally, to jaywalking or to serial murder? Probably neither, so what's the closest parallel? What are the ramifications for society? What are the ramifications for ourselves? If that got talked about more maybe some of the muddle would clear a bit, I don't know.