Sheryl WeikalIf we're to have any shot of getting out of this, I really need my fellow white people to get past our apparently hardwired belief that something being illegal means it's impossible.
Because I keep having the same conversation over and over again.
Just from today:
"I don't believe Trump is doing that because it's illegal and that means he can't do that."
"I don't believe what Trump is doing is illegal because if it was, he couldn't do it."
"The only people who can break the law are illegals because they are already illegal." 😵💫
"There's never been a warrantless search. That's impossible. The Fourth Amendment prevents that from happening."
"I don't understand how this isn't stopped because courts aren't allowed to not follow the law."
Hell, someone told me today I should call the media because they legitimately thought they were the first people in US history to have their constitutional rights violated. I swear to G-d they thought it had never happened before.
And I really think this is a big factor in why we're here.
Oh, one more common denominator? Yes, they were all white and cis. They also all ran their legal questions by AI first.
Solitha@theleftistlawyer I'm white and cis and honest to every single deity that might exist, the stuff you relate makes my brain hurt.
Then again the last time I was in a jury pool one woman seriously demanded to know if the jury would be informed of any and all excluded evidence.
J. R. DePriest 
:EA DATA. SF:My wife was on a hung jury about 25 years ago because a white lady "felt in her heart" that the Black male defendant was guilty.
There were no Black people on the jury.
In Memphis, TN.
❄️SnowyIn❄️ 🇨🇦🚫🦻Excellent thread that all USians should read because the rest of the world is worn out from yelling the exact same information to US Americans!
Perhaps they will listen to a fellow USian.
Good luck. (I mean that sincerely)
fan boy 🪭
nullagentI swear average americans need to be required to go to court and just watch a couple different types of hearings.
Judges are constantly OK-ing shit the average person expects to be illegal. Even more often judges just straight up fuck up, don't know the law or just don't care.
People make fun of DMV employees, but just wait until you get a load of judges 😅
Frank Going AntiFa - 🇺🇦@theleftistlawyer
Yeah, that type of cognitive dissonance is usually associated with cults. That is why I wish the MAGAt movement would get to the mass suicide part of their process. Then the rest of us decent people can clean up the mess and get on with our lives.
Yeah, that type of cognitive dissonance is usually associated with cults. That is why I wish the MAGAt movement would get to the mass suicide part of their process. Then the rest of us decent people can clean up the mess and get on with our lives.
TL Jordan@ballista11
Like their dear leader, they are far too egotistical to kill themselves.
Like their dear leader, they are far too egotistical to kill themselves.
@dulcedemon
That is what a lot of people said about the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX.
That is what a lot of people said about the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX.
Well, I'll happily stand corrected once they are all gone.
Greyshley @theleftistlawyer "what do you mean you're being murdered thats illegal people can't do that"
Dark Phoenix 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇬🇱🇵🇦🇵🇸🏳️🌈@theleftistlawyer
hell, speeding is illegal, but I am willing to bet that 95% of licensed drivers, at one time or another, have exceeded the speed limit.
hell, speeding is illegal, but I am willing to bet that 95% of licensed drivers, at one time or another, have exceeded the speed limit.
Jef Poskanzer@Darkphoenix @theleftistlawyer As a cyclist I can assure you it's 100%
Paul Wermer, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
dbrand666@Darkphoenix @theleftistlawyer
"That's not _illegal_. That's just something _they_ do to take more of _my_ money."
"That's not _illegal_. That's just something _they_ do to take more of _my_ money."
:: Asta ::@theleftistlawyer do they believe the ... whatever the term (reverse?) would be, as well? that is, that if something happens, it must be legal? because that would explain so much
EDIT: oh jesus, apparently, yes
EDIT: oh jesus, apparently, yes
Dan@aud @theleftistlawyer the bewildering part for me is that it's so clearly and easily disproven. like.. have they never done something illegal? you can do something illegal in the privacy of your own home right this second, you don't even need help from a friend FFS
or do they just cling to the presupposition that the in-group can never be guilty of misdeeds and are suddenly having to grapple with the fact that they are not part of that in-group?
Randall Lee@theleftistlawyer The prisons are full of people that did illegal shit. Their mistake was not being a rich asshole when they did the impossible thing that put them in prison.
Rachel@theleftistlawyer on top of that, legal does not mean it is just.
"He shouldn't keep doing that, it is illegal"
Legislation, court ruling, etc is actually it is legal now
"Fuck."
"He shouldn't keep doing that, it is illegal"
Legislation, court ruling, etc is actually it is legal now
"Fuck."
arceuthobium@theleftistlawyer it’s their fundamental worldview though. To a conservative “criminal” is a personality trait. Criminals are still criminals even if proven innocent because they’re guilty of something else anyway. Good people can’t be criminals, if they break a law then the law is at fault.
Lieschen Müller@theothersimo @theleftistlawyer yes this is at the heart of it. And being poor (disabled, racialised, any other kind of different) is already against the *norms*, so… they must be criminals!
Jay@theleftistlawyer Just out of curiousity, have you ever asked any of these people what they think “free will” means?
LevkaLaws? That’s how we got all those people to stop taking drugs, isn’t it?
Law enforcement? That’s the guys who nailed Jesus to the cross.
caneToad 
@theleftistlawyer All a matter of perspective. The old "For us the rights, for them the law" thinking.
And we're the good guys.
Kat S@theleftistlawyer Related: conflating "disincentivise" with "prevent."
I have tried and failed to explain to a member of my own family that legal consequences are predicated on somebody having actually done the thing in question, which does not satisfy my understanding of "to prevent."
Ari "Two Elements" Jackson@theleftistlawyer
Omgs, right? So tired of these folks and their "shock". 🙄
Omgs, right? So tired of these folks and their "shock". 🙄
Ölbaum@theleftistlawyer Conversely, something being legal doesn’t automatically make it okay.
I was pointing out to someone that the US has a serious democracy problem, what with all the gerrymandering and voter suppression, and they were like “but gerrymandering is legal.”
Magnus Ahltorp@theleftistlawyer I made the mistake last September of replying to a post on Mastodon with 'I see a lot of people that say “this person can do this”, and “this person can’t do that”, referring to legality. You are far from the first, society and Mastodon are full of them.'
No one understood and I of course got derided.