• UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 hours ago

      Sophistry was such a hated practice in ancient Greece that sometimes sophists got stabbed and the local authorities would just look the other way because their bullshit artistry was that repulsive.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 hours ago

      That’s how gambling can be both illegal in Japanese prefectures but also pinball parlors are mysteriously across the street from special vendors that will offer cash for the pinball prize items.

  • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    18 hours ago

    If a poor person tried this same argument, especially the “randomly and by chance aren’t the same thing” they’d have the book thrown at them and be held in contempt of court for.insulting the judges intelligence.

  • Beaver [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    18 hours ago

    As unbelievable as it might sound, in the USA justice system, if a lawyer knows their client is guilty as hell, they are not supposed to just pretend otherwise and make up crazy legal theories in court to try to get them off the hook. Lawyers who make such grossly bad-faith arguments like this in front of a judge are supposed to get disbarred.

    • LanyrdSkynrd [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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      17 hours ago

      I read all of the written opinions from my home state’s Supreme Court(it’s a weird hobby, I know), which includes any appeals of state bar disciplinary actions. It takes a lot to actually get disbarred, and it’s almost always for repeatedly doing things that are cut and dried no-no’s, like misappropriating client funds. The bar disciplinary board and the judges who hear the appeals are all lawyers and they cut an incredible amount of slack for this kind of stuff. This argument, while dumb, wouldn’t even merit a reprimand.

  • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    19 hours ago

    It’s insane to me that so many people seem to have a concept of legal loopholes informed entirely by like non-specific-pop-culture. As if it’s magic incantations that get power to fuck off instead of like a purposefully built system.

    Here’s a hot take: all the sovereign citizens and equivalent in other nations are just the average persons general ideas about how the law works cranked to 11. Basically everyone believes in the magic incantation, they just overshot a bit.

    • KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      18 hours ago

      100%. There’s a pervasive sort of belief that laws are discrete, literal things carved into the very ontology of existence instead of fuzzy guidelines enforced or ignored at the arbitrary whims of the legal system which also has no actual obligation to know the laws and whose will is still considered legitimate even when it is directly breaking the law or making up imaginary ones that don’t exist but some dipshit cop thinks they do. Like it’s just straight up these civic cult brainworms that legislatures are doing some sort of magic ritual to create Law and this then becomes some sort of real and true binding principle to be unfailingly carried out by reliable enforcers.

      Dial up that belief even further and it becomes like the civic cult’s version of numerology and prophesy through analyzing the holy texts, where they believe so wholly in legal literalism that they start to think it’s a magic system and they’re wizards who can exploit its literalness and nature of being fundamental to reality to their own advantage.

      • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        8 hours ago

        You just need to serve jury duty twice to know that what goes on in a courtroom really boils down to whatever the judge thinks should go on and any deviation from what should be going on is resolved by you “filing a complaint” and hoping someone cares about your complaint.

    • Cysioland@lemmygrad.ml
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      15 hours ago

      I mean, some liberals do kinda act as if the world operates like that. The whole “rule of law” shit etm.

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    19 hours ago

    Gober argued there’s a difference between "randomly’ and “by chance”.

    What’s the difference?

    -–

    Edit

    It’s been ~17 minutes and I’m almost disappointed in Hexbear. There’s been no snark that one is an adverb and the other is a prepositional phrase.

  • DragonBallZinn [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    17 hours ago

    At this point. I genuinely want to ask Elon Musk what he’s playing at?

    To me, he’s more of a liability to the right than an asset. Literally scamming republicans in particular when back then at least his “brand” was pretty bipartisan so he can grift both sides.

  • Asafum@feddit.nl
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    19 hours ago

    “but… But… Your honor we’re just doing what we do for all politicians! Biased judge!! We don’t bribe politicians, we pay them a salary as they work as advisors for us after they serve us working in government! How is this different!? A loophole is a loophole!!”