Why do we allow ourselves to live with stupid laws?

Here’s a random thought I had while driving home: why do we accept the most stupid, nonsensical laws and “agreements” that absolutely none of us can possibly abide by?

You might be asking what I mean.

How many people have gone to jail because police found something in their car, when the only reason they were pulled over was a broken taillight? A cop sees someones taillight is out, pulls them over, and that somehow ends in an arrest for some other offense.

Police are supposed have a simple motto: To protect and to serve. If the police are going to pull anyone over for a taillight, it should be to say “Excuse me, your taillight is out. Just thought you should know. Okay, you’re on your way – be safe!”.

Lets prosecutors on the stand and ask them under penalty of perjury if they comply with stupid laws.

With all the people arrested for infractions that began as broken taillights, why haven’t public defender challenged the validity of the law itself? Turn straight to the jury and ask, “How many of you do a full walk-around inspection every time you start your car? Oh, that number is zero?” Then turn to the prosecutor and ask them the same question, under penalty of perjury. You’ll get the same answer.

How can such an inane thing even be on the books? And I’m not asking because I got pulled over – I didn’t. It just popped into my mind.

I’m sure there are other laws that could easily be challenged by a first-year law student—or better yet, someone representing themselves.

What about “license agreements”? Every few months, don’t we all get pop-ups on our phones about some new license agreement we must agree to? And those agreements aren’t just a few words – they’re literally 50 screens of small-print legalese. They know no one will read it. That’s why they include a button that says “Skip all this and accept.”

“You agree not to drink coffee on the third Friday of each month or else you’ll owe us $100”

But what happens if you break your agreement? No one knows. No one knows what’s in those agreements or what the penalty would be if we broke them. The agreement could say, “You agree not to drink coffee on the third Friday of each month or else you’ll owe us $100,” and every single one of us would end up getting a bill in the mail.

This isn’t just conjecture.

In 2005, a software company called PC Pitstop (archive.org link for posterity) added a clause in their license agreement that awarded a customer $1,000 simply for reading it. One customer actually read all 2,550 words (seven pages), discovered the clause and emailed the company for their prize. It took four months, but the prize was claimed.

Why aren’t we all violating our license agreements in the most egregious ways possible? Take it to court and ask the judge, jury, and prosecutor if they read any license agreement that comes their way?

Im sure there are hundreds more things we are bound to that aren’t worth the ink they’re printed with.

That’s my thought.

Once the smoke settles and MAGA is history, we should get our book of laws in order and toss out the ones that serve no purpose except to enable police charge and prosecutors try literally anyone they choose.