28 Things That Are Moral But Illegal
Or maybe they're bewildering. Just bewildering, meaningless words supported by a state's tremendous force for no apparent reason. Here are a few examples of things that many would consider sensible -- indeed morally upstanding -- but are nonetheless rendered a a criminal act by a random string of letters on a certain page in a certain book.
1.
Pirating content that has been abandoned and can't even be purchased any more. E.g. an out of print book, or a game that isn't sold anymore.
2.
Where I live, euthanasia. Having had to watch a relative waste away as they could no longer eat properly, had no clue who they were or who anyone else was, and was just so scared…how is making them live or wait until they starve/dehydrate the moral choice?
6.
Imagine going to war at 18 for 2 and a half years and you come back home, but still can’t go get a beer.
7.
As an American doctor who takes Medicare, I am not allowed to waive fees for procedures or charge a patient less than what our officially set rates are, even if they don’t have insurance. I’m also not allowed to ask a doctor from a different practice what a certain insurance company pays them for a service, as this has been deemed “anti-trust.”
8.
Taking broken apple products, salvaging the parts that still work, and then selling the refurbished parts to someone in another country.
9.
Grabbing thrown out clothes from clothing stores/furniture/appliances, brand new stuff that just didn’t sell or was out of season. Truly wasteful and probably a terrible. My mom used to drive behind strip malls with me as a kid and we’d find all sorts of good stuff, Pier 1 Imports used to have some good stuff, so did Burlington Coat Factory.
10.
In Japan? Recycling someone's garbage without permission. Touching their garbage at all. You could use a discarded couch and save it from the garbage dump, but be arrested for it.
11.
In Russia now: talking about PEACE and STOPPING WAR. Lots of examples when people are getting arrested because it counts as "justification of Nazism" or "humiliation of russian army and special operation". Savage.
13.
Donating unsold/uneaten food to shelters at the end of the day at a fast food joint i.e. the donuts at dunkin, we’d have to throw them out every night.
14.
In many countries speaking out against the malicious and corrupt actions of the government would certainly fall under the category of moral but illegal.
15.
In Germany: putting your empty beer bottle next to the trash can in cities instead of into the trash can. It's in principle littering, but it makes it so bottle collectors don't have to crawl through the trash (there is a deposit on the bottles).
17.
In my state, KY, it is illegal to marry the same person 3 times. So I would say that would qualify as moral but illegal.
20.
Sharing medication. I understand that it can be dangerous in some circumstances. But, for example, I work in childcare, and if a child was dying of an asthma attack, I wouldn't be allowed to share my inhaler to potentially save their life. Most people with asthma use the exact same medication, and I don't think a couple of pumps of inhaler would endanger anyone unless they're severely allergic. If I was ever actually in that situation, I think I'd struggle not to share mine. Having the life-saving medication right there and not being allowed to use it seems crazy to me.
21.
You can be fined 135 € for giving food to (non-ukrainian) refugees in Calais, France. The irony is that the fine for giving food to pigeons in the same city is ~100 €.
25.
Lemonade stands. Your child's lemonade stand can teach them valuable lessons and are pretty harmless but can be shutdown without permit and department of health inspections.
26.
A city in my state was having a city cleanup, where they put stuff on their curb to send to the landfill, Fridges appliances couches etc. the city workers reminded everyone it was "illegal" to take these instead of letting the city workers pick them up.
27.
Any form of nonviolent resistance. If you're born into a country where the government has arrogated to itself a monopoly on violence, you really have no option except nonviolent resistance/protest.
28.
Refilling parking meters for other people. Years ago, I worked in an affluent town where parking spots where at a premium. This town also had a notoriously efficient parking enforcement troupe. As I mentioned this was an affluent town, so the real crimes (domestic abuse, assaults, etc.) were rarely reported to keep property values high… I digress. Sometimes I would get to park a block or two out of my way to park on a residential street that didn’t require a permit. Otherwise I would be forced to feed the meter two dollars for two hours, then after four dollars for four hours if you didn’t move your car then you would find a citation on your windshield without exception. So, I would take the change out of my cup holders when I had some and feed meters I saw going low in my walk to work. One day this parking attendant saw me from across the street feeding a meter, and shouted for me to stay where I was. She darted towards me completely ignoring the crosswalk (haha). Asked me if that was my car, I asked, what did that matter? She persisted in my answering her question, but ignoring mine. So, I just told her I had to get to work and went about my day. The NEXT day it was like a sting operation, I fed two quarters into a meter I saw had only twenty minutes remaining. No sooner did I turn the handle than she came up behind me from the side alley. She’s shouting at me like I had smashed storefront windows with Molotovs. Next thing I know she is berating me about how much I was costing her personally and the town in lost revenue by doing this for the past few weeks. She wrote me a damn citation for almost a hundred dollars. I of course went to the magistrate to fight it and he dismissed it without a thought. Felt good until she found out what car was mine and was Johnny on the spot with parking tickets from then on. Fun Fact: The town soon after raised enough money to install digital solar powered meters. So they could just automatically fine you the microsecond the time limit lapsed. However, by accident I realized that the machines where inoperable on overcast days. So, on my way home from work (town was almost deserted by 9pm) I took egg and charcoal from the kitchen I worked and would rub that s**t on every meter I walked by. Never once was I stopped for vandalism.
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