I’m not talking like the laws of physics, yes those exist in nature. I’m talking about manmade laws.
Laws are a social construct! They mean nothing unless someone enforces them!
In the book Lord of the Flies, when the kids are on a desert island with no adults, there’s some inertia initially where they still behave as if adults are watching. Until it dawns on them that nobody is there to enforce the rules and they can do whatever the fuck they want, then there’s chaos.
People still behave as if the law is just some natural force that exists regardless of enforcement. No matter how many times they see the law broken without consequences. No matter how many times cops ignore crimes or prosecutors drop cases they shouldn’t or judges make a bad ruling, some people still have this blind faith that when something illegal happens, it will be punished. Or some even seem to think people in power physically can’t break the law.
I had a fight with someone cause they were posting some shit about how ICE “can’t” enter houses without a warrant and I replied with the meme about how robbers can’t legally take your stuff without your consent. Sorry but ICE can and do do things the law says they “can’t”.
And sorry, but Trump can and probably will interfere with elections and stay in office for as long as he lives and invade other countries and commit full on genocide if nobody stops him.
And people act like it’s an inevitability that Trump and the other fascists will face nuremberg trials. Sorry but it’s not an inevitability. The nuremberg trials happened when other countries successfully invaded Germany and put an end to the regime. It’s not going to happen automatically. It’s only going to happen if there’s revolution or war. Maybe a newly elected government will prosecute these clowns, but I doubt it.
The law is made up. It doesn’t exist in nature. The only thing protecting your rights is a social contract. It is not inevitable that justice will be served. This isn’t just in the Untied States. All over the world, laws are enforced inconsistently. Nothing guarantees the law will work as it is supposed to.
Humans are natural creatures. Humans created laws.
Bees are natural creatures. Bees create honey.
If honey is considered natural, then so too are laws.
Ah one of those “technically everything man-made is also natural” people. You’ve completely missed the point. The point is the law doesn’t exist independently of people enforcing it. It isn’t some natural force that will enforce itself. It only exists if people enforce it
But laws DO continue to exist even when not enforced. Just look at some of the crazy old state laws that say things like “it is illegal to eat ice cream on a Tuesday while wearing jeans”. No one enforces those, yet the laws are still clearly on the books. Trying to claim they don’t exist is just absurd.
But their existence is meaningless without enforcement. You’re actually proving my point. Are people going to jail for eating ice cream on Tuesday wearing jeans? Then it’s exactly the same as if the law didn’t exist. It means nothing in practice until some stupid cops and prosecutors decide to enforce it. There isn’t some natural force making people obey these laws. They don’t exist in practice.
I’ll concede that the law is ineffective, but it most certainly exists. It could be used to threaten someone. That’s only possible if the law exists.
You can’t choose to not enforce something that doesn’t exist.