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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   33576 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 12, 2025

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but their vagueness is largely organic and downstream from the fact that any stricter standards would make the enforcement of the rules pointless because any intelligent lawyer or other actor could rules-lawyer their way out of it.

Ah yes, the classic we can't tell them the rules because then we wouldn't be able to jail/ban/disappear the people we don't like. It's bullshit when forum mods/jannies do it and it's bullshit when the law does it (a lot more so) too.

If the intent of the EO is to focus on strict liability regulatory crimes, then it will be a move away from straightforward application of the letter of the law and towards first a prosecutor's and then a jury's impression of your internal mental state at the time you did the actus reus.

For lesser regulatory offences (like speeding), strict liability and modest fines works very well in practice, as long as the rules are sufficiently simple relative to the complexity of the regulated activity that all drivers can know what the speed limit is with ordinary effort.

You still need an actus reus. If you remove “strict liability” you are just adding a new element government must prove; not changing the predicate to something wishy washy.

If there's a high and specific mens rea requirement like "corruptly" or "willfully," you can get away with less specificity in describing the actus reus

Sure of course. But if all they are doing is adding a mens rea requirement, then there is less chance of randomly being jailed.

I mean if you want arbitrary power and think that's necessary to maintain your society, at least have it say in black and white that's how it goes, don't go about pretending you have limited government. That's the worst of both worlds, you don't even get the benefit of unquestionable authority.

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