Here Are The 50 Worst Legal Things That Should Be Illegal, As Shared In This Online Thread
Just because something is technically legal doesn’t automatically make it good, moral, or fair for consumers and regular folks alike. It might mean that the law simply hasn’t caught up to reality, that there are glaring flaws and oversights in the legal system, (or that sneaky lobbyists conduct clandestine operations to sway the system in the favor of their multi-billion dollar clients).
There are tons of small things that annoy us in our day-to-day lives. Like receiving unsolicited email subscriptions. Being unable to unsubscribe from spam without jumping through more hoops than a show dog. Being forced to pay a ‘convenience’ fee for, well, pretty much anything. As well as realizing that the person you helped vote into political office isn't fulfilling the promises they made. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of some truly unpleasant practices that are still prevalent in 2022.
User u/cucutz fired up a very interesting discussion on r/AskReddit after they asked the digital crowd to share their thoughts about completely legal things that should become illegal. We’ve collected the most interesting insights to share with you Pandas. Scroll down to read them all, and don’t forget to upvote the posts you agree with. Have the redditors missed something that you think is atrocious and needs to be banned? Be sure to share your opinions in the comments, Pandas.
This post may include affiliate links.
Forcing women to give birth.
Increasing the volume on commercials by 20 goddam decibels.
One of the things mentioned in the r/AskReddit thread concerns receiving unsolicited emails. And it's a great example showing us how the lines between privacy and vulnerability to marketing have become blurred in recent years.
Look, we’ve probably all been there: you start getting emails from random people, clogging up your inbox with paragraphs about weird products, news that you never wanted to get, and offers that simply don’t interest you. The fact of the matter is that your email can end up on some ad or PR agency’s list without you having come into contact with them at all in the past. It happens far more often if you’re even a semi-public person and your contact info is visible somewhere on a company website or on social media.
Child beauty pageants.
Gross and probably the reason of a lot of mental health issues as adults.
Politicians making medical decisions. They really do make cr*ppy doctors.
Remember when it was first suggested (by a politician ofc) that instead of terminating, an ectopic pregnancy should be re-implanted into the womb? Which is medically 100% impossible, but they insisted that it's possible, and this is still an existing myth in some circles? Yeah.
Declawing cats. I’d rather have my cats scratch my face off then ever putting them through that much pain.
We’d all probably love it if we were expressly asked if we’d like to subscribe to email lists from a company before they start sending us their newsletters like a bolt from the blue. And sometimes, the ‘unsubscribe’ function (which might take up to several steps) isn’t enough to get them off your back. They keep contacting you. Over. And over. And over again. In short, unsolicited mass marketing is annoying, and unsolicited bulk emails are the devil.
In the United States, for example, it’s perfectly legal to send out unsolicited commercial emails. There are some restrictions, however. Meanwhile, anti-spam laws appear to be stricter in the United Kingdom, and breaches of regulations can lead to fines of up to 500k pounds (around 568k dollars).
Not being able to unsubscribe to something using the same method you used to subscribe.
It all comes down to the need for stricter privacy and information-sharing laws. It feels like a huge invasion of privacy when someone you don’t know starts offering services you don’t need. We see enough ads on billboards and on the TV, thank you very much.
Don’t get us wrong, the people sending those marketing emails are just doing their jobs and we’re sure most of them are perfectly decent folks. But boundaries have to be drawn. When you get an email, you expect it to be important, informative, or entertaining. What you don’t want is to have your time and energy wasted by a poorly-disguised ad.
I think paparazzi should be illegal to be honest.
Stop liking their pictures and they go away… but people want these pictures. Bit like factory farming and cheap clothes… if there wasn’t a demand then it would go away.
Catching wild animals and selling them as pets. Hermit crabs, parrots, and many fish still fall in this category and are going extinct because of it.
It should be illegal to blatantly lie to voters while running for political office. We call it fraud and jail people for lying in order to gain financially. Yet we call it normal and allow politicians to lie in order to gain votes for political offices, offices which not only benefit them financially but also give them enormous amounts of power to benefit and detriment others.
Then we wonder why political office seems so often to attract the most fraudulent, sociopathic, and dishonest among us. We basically have a neon sign over our political system saying, “If you enjoy committing fraud and are a pathological liar, please apply here… we will let you deceive as many of us as you possibly can for more money and power than you can dream of.”
If I lie in a job interview and get caught out, the company has the right to fire me… should be the same in politics. Don’t do it!
Overselling a plane and putting people who BOUGHT tickets on stand by.
Tax avoidance by the rich and by corporations.
Amazon avoided £150m in corporation tax in the UK one year simply because their sales are booked in Luxembourg.
American anti-abortion organisations protesting outside my country’s clinics and hospitals. Go away you f*****g cretins. Your views aren’t welcome.
People marrying minors.
If children under 18 are too young to venture into contracts, too young to smoke, too young to drink and too young to vote, then they are too young to marry.
Fireworks, so many injuries every year and basically selling explosives to morons.
I like watching fireworks but is it really necessary for them to sound like a nuclear warhead has detonated inside my ear? I think they should ban the bangers altogether. Think of all the poor terrified animals that don't understand that it's just for fun.
Veterans with PTSD DO NOT need us celebrating with imitation gunshots
Load More Replies...
I'd also like to add that our armed force veterans who have experienced unimaginable traumas and are suffering from PTSD find unexpected, unregulated firework displays terrifying. If it was bonfire night and New Years Eve only, that would be manageable but in the UK it seems that every night from Oct - Jan some idiot nearby is setting off fireworks from 4pm - 2am. I don't believe in an all out ban (although secretly I'd be thrilled if that went ahead!) but I feel only professional displays should be allowed. If fireworks are to be sold to the public then they should be soundless.
Aye, last bonfire night, my PO at Cadets who almost certainly has PTSD was shaky as f**k
Load More Replies...
Terrifies domesticated and wild animals, not to mention the pollution. I see nobody talking about the pollution here, just wanted to bring that out.
I used to be pro fireworks and loved doing them. Until some teens killed a beaver in a local park by throwing explosive in. Somehow, that story destroyed my liking of it all. In my city the damn banging goes on for weeks!! At New Year many young men go totallyy crazy, battle firemen, burn cars. It's nuts. Yes, sure, illegal, but who is going to stop them? I want the whole stuff gone, at least in cities! A few public fireworks that people can go look at and that's it.
Yes. I wish Germany would stop Silvester fireworks. We only buy the really small things for the children.
Wow, in Poland New year's Eve it's also called Sylwester 🤔
Load More Replies...
As a 3rd generation Pyrotechnician, NO. If you can’t understand that you have bought a explosive and it is highly dangerous, or nobody was smart enough to teach you this, then that’s all on you. They come wrapped in packaging that’s covered in warnings. Usually brightly colored warnings… Seriously, if you don’t know that something that goes BOOM, is bad for you, that’s all on you.
I spend most of the holidays that involve fireworks in my closet in a god damned fetal position because asshats can't figure out that this s**t bothers Vets. Literally the people that have faught and been injured so you can still be an asshat. F**k fireworks and the asshats that go with them.
My problem with fireworks is a little more abstract than most. In the UK, anti-littering laws are such that even if a child in a pushchair drops something onto the pavement and the person pushing the chair doesn't notice, that person could, if seen by a police officer or council warden, be liable for an £80 on-the-spot fine. And yet at least three times every year my local council puts on huge firework displays which results in the burnt-out casings of rockets landing randomly in streets, gardens, etc, but apparently that doesn't count as littering.
That would be 1605 and the Gunpowder Plot feat. Mr Guy Fawkes plus chums
Load More Replies...
In Australia only formally approved by the government fireworks can be set off and there are many regulations
Never mind the way it annoys the s**t out of residents and scares the same out of their animals.
We have to have some sort of natural selection the stupid don't survive
Not to mention the trauma to animals and war veteran's that suffer emotionally with each explosion. I was 9 months pregnant with my son when the 4th of July came around. Neighbors were setting off loud fireworks. With each "BANG" my stomach jumped. To this day, loud fireworks make my son hide (He's 31.) I moved into a nice quiet apartment in his teens across from a college stadium. Guess how thrilled I was when the president of the college thought that the AFROTC should set off a cannon every time the home team scored a touchdown..... :(
Right now Portland Oregon and Vancouver Washington are under a smoke plume with hazardous air due some idiots starting Nakia Creek fire with fireworks. In 2018 much of our scenic Columbia Gorge burned when some teenager threw fireworks off the trail. So much damage caused by allowing the sale of fireworks.
Where I live they also shoot off their guns on July 4th. At 2 AM in the morning! The continue to do so for a few weeks afterwards.
Already illegal in Australia, unless you have a licence, which is extremely hard to get.
You know what happens when fireworks are banned? Hawai’i happens. Yeah, that’s right. We have them banned here and it’s about as useful as the drug war has been. There’s now a even bigger flow of illegal boom booms now because, yep, they are illegal now. Houses going boom from people building them, storing them unprotected, etc. Etc. Fireworks usually going off somewhere every night, why? Bradah got to test em brah.. people would argue it’s better, allot would disagree. It’s boring, so it’s gotten even more dangerous now. Congratulations.
In Sweden it's quite common for the city to hold a fire works display for new years eve. It's way more magnificent than any by private people, it's at set time, it's safer and in pretty much everything better than private fireworks. I think I'm some places they do laser shows or drone shoes now too. But I think we should outlaw fire works for people without a licence. A licence should include everything you need to do fireworks safely, but even then you should need permission from the city to use them. So they are only used for special occasions. That way there could even be some kind of app/website so people with ptsd can be informed on when and where they need to be wary. It would also be better for the environment, animals and safer in general.
Most are illegal in the state I live in, but people just go to a neighboring state to buy what they want.
Ah, yes, just take away a fun activity for the people who know how to use them because of a few bad apples, totally makes sense
I hate to say it, But i love fireworks!! Always have and Always will!!!
Load More Replies... My entire city just banned them except for one or two large shows that are put on every year... I am so happy!!!
I lived in Texas for seven years and the only time we did fireworks was Fourth of July. And hardly anyone did non-company shows becuase it was so dry everyone jsut went to the mall parking lot and watched. But I recently moved to utah and we do fireworks like every other month. They do fireworks for Pioneer Day, birthdays, Fourth of July, and like every holiday in between.
And not just to prevent injury or for consideration of veterans with PTSD (thanks Cassandra Beveridge for making that point already). Pets, farm animals and wildlife can be stressed, physically injured (either directly or due to their fear response) or even die as a result of fireworks. When members of the public can set off fireworks on any night (or day, some people weirdly set them off in daytime), there is no way pet owners can do anything to help reduce their pet's stress. People might be able to prepare pets, livestock or themselves for organised publicised fireworks displays, but wildlife can't.
In my country there’s a festival that starts either in October or in November and the amount of crackers burst in one night is ridiculous. I lose so much sleep because of that
Where I live it's illegal for private citizens to buy fireworks. Unfortunately some people just nip to the next territory over to buy them instead.
Tipping! Restaurants and other businesses shouldn’t be able to get away with holding their customers “socially hostage”. People shouldn’t be forced to provide the salaries of employees they did not hire, simply to avoid looking like an a-hole. The practice is criminal.
Some American corporations - and it’s ALWAYS the greediest ones - are trying to import it into New Zealand. Luckily everyone hates it so it hasn’t taken hold.
Tax exemptions for religious institutions. How is that not a violation of separation of church and state.
For profit prisons.
Corporations owning single family homes
Also, sale of my data. I should not have to opt out for a company not to sell my data I should have to opt in
Contracts signed by parents on behalf of their child still be enforceable once the child comes of age.
Taylor Swift and Lilly Allen are the big famous examples of this, but it happens to loads more who don't get big enough to get the media attention.
They did not sign the contract. Forcing an adult to live by the rules in the contract they did not agree should be classed as a form of slavery.
Also, making it so hard to get out of conservatorships. I saw a Netflix episode on this (before the Spears one happened) and it was heart breaking and so frustrating. These people were so obviously of sound mind.
Family vloggers, and any other kind of of making kids famous on social media. They have no privacy, no protections in place, nothing.
Some Place Under Neith podcast just did a fantastic series about this and I really recommend giving it a listen.
I know of a few families that have done this and the kids grew up being unable to tell the difference between online reality and offline reality. They also have absolutely no respect for other people's privacy or boundaries.
This used to be illegal but advertising for prescription only drugs.
Insider trading by elected officials. Absolutely blatant abuse of power and funneling of wealth.
Government bailing out banks and airlines with taxpayer money
Depends on the airline. Spent a bunch of money doing stock buybacks? Yeah.....no thanks. Had decent financial practises and got screwed over? Doesn't sound that bad. Banks almost always fall into the first category.
Gerrymandering. How the hell is it just for a politician to pick their constituents? It results in more extreme candidates and disenfranchised voters who got packed or cracked.
Congress owning stocks in any industry or company they regulate, take money from, etc. Corporations donating to political campaigns. Advertising prescription drugs to customers (the US is one of the only places this is still legal).
Illegal in Germany (and probably the EU/ Europe, but I can‘t say that for sure)
Paternity fraud and baby trapping. They're sex crimes and should be treated like any other sex crime.
Absolutely and yet another reason men should be responsible for their own birth control.
When I go to a doctor and they suggest a test or procedure (an X ray for example), I should know how much I will be obligated to pay. I declined a procedure today the doctor suggested because I had no clue what it would cost ( I have insurance). It’s like going to a restaurant where the menu has no prices, except the “food” helps keep me “not sick or dead.”
People serving more than 3 terms in the Senate or 5 terms in the House.
Political campaign donations. All Political campaigns should be free to run. No one gets to advertise. Network TV Aires debates in prime time paid for by the taxpayer.
And just think how much nicer campaign season would be for the public if politicians could only afford a few campaign ads for a month or two rather than bombarding us with billboards, tv and youtube ads, website pop-ups, radio ads, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum for the entire year before an election. Not to mention that politicians might actually focus on doing their jobs once elected, rather than getting into office and immediately turning around to campaign for re-election.
Predatory Lending. This includes aggressive service charges/fees/etc.
Looking at mortgage companies that tried to get me into an adjustable rate-mortgage in 2010, right after the 2008 financial collapse, in which adjustable-rate mortgages played a big part in. I walked out of a few offices when they even mentioned it. Didn't even say anything, I just got up and walked out.
Payday loan companies.
this one definitely they are all predatory there have been tougher regulations brought in that capped the amount of interest and charges they could charge and a lot of companies went under because of it which shows that's how they made their profit if its a few days before payday and you need the help they can be not so bad bud they make it easy to get loans i had trouble before it was my own fault for taking them out in the first place but they made it so easy and at one point i had 5 loans with one company they should be illegal they are basically legal loan sharks.
Sending catalogs to my house without my permission. The quantity of paper that is wasted is unreal. We call to have them cancelled but they keep coming. I have to pay to have my trash collected where I live, so basically those companies are forcing me to pay to throw away their garbage that they created unnecessarily and there is nothing i can do.
Those stupid f*****g mini game ads for mobile games.
yeah either just let me play 3 levels and decide if I want to buy it, or make it chargeable upfront. I do not want to ever see adverts. Even worse: I pay for an app and it STILL shows me ads???
Factory farms
Disgusting, awful, and greedy. It makes me so sad and angry. Humankind are the worst predators on the planet. What can I do to refuse to support factory farming? Are there certain things I shouldn't buy so that I am not promoting this sick practice?
Big Pharma advertisements for medications.
Medicine should be something you research yourself or consult your doctor about.
It shouldn't be pushed by a goddamn commercial with puppies and butterflies while a family is laughing and playing in the sunlight, only for someone to rattle off 30 side-effects in a low voice, followed by someone saying "Ask your doctor about this."
Infant circumcision.
Subscription to an emailing list without a previous email confirmation.
Note: this post originally had 71 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
televangelists, they are not men or women of god they are profiteers, i am not religious at all but i have read the bible and no where does it say you have to pay to get in to heaven
Can I add dumb-tedious-clueless-stupid-idiotic activists? People who glue or cement their hands to the road, blocking traffics, ruin arts, endanger others. Are they ill-informed, following trends, have nothing better to do? At some point there should be serious consequences for this kind of stupidity
Artificial sweeteners in EVERYTHING including non-diet items. Give me the sugar, I don't mind paying for it, but stop using artificial sweeteners, they don't solve the obesity crisis and they make people with chronic illnesses, like myself, very very sick. At least give us a choice!
I had to stop drinking several of my favorite NON diet sodas because they put in artificial sweeteners.
Load More Replies...
People demonising others. I'm talking the extremists of any kind of group i.e. religuous people, vegans. If you don't obey their rules, you're not only beneath them, but actively disgusting. Extreme vegans I have to say are probably the worst for this because they are so damn smug about how "it's better for the environment". Actually, no. It's unsustainable for large amounts of the population, and a complete switch to a vegan diet overnight would ruin food security. Not to mention the majority of cute farm animals they're "saving" would go extinct without severe human intervention. And the worst kind of religious extremists (not including. like. terrorists) are those who use their religion as an excuse for bigotry or their own personal views. I'm not saying religion or veganism are bad. Just people need to stop demonising others because they don't agree. That's not going to convince them to agree with you, all it does is make you look like a pompous twat
This does of course go both ways, people in these groups should not be demonised for their choices either
Load More Replies...
I know this isn't a "law" or anything but I'm talking about American school dress codes. I don't think every school does this but mine does: Females can't show their shoulders because it's "distracting" but they can have half their boobs sticking out for the public to see. Just saying, why???
Most of these already are illegal in my country. The US suuuucks.
Well this entire list was disturbing…I’m surprised that MLMs weren’t included unless I missed them.
Phone companies filling their stuff with bloatware. You don't go and grab a shopping cart and have it filled aready with all the own brand of the store so why should phones be filled with their c**p
Cinemas where you have to sit through 15 to 20 minutes of ads and trailers before the movie starts. Also people who show up late and make a big deal out of finding seats.
Trying to tie people to personality profiles like DISG etc. No it is not possible to predict people's behaviour by letting them take a 25 minutes test or watching their behaviour for a while. All it does is creating a self fulfilling prophecy by cementing a prejudice and focusing attention to behaviour that confirms the prejudices about them. Please stop this nonsense. There are countless trials that have shown there is no validity in the popular personality tests. It's pseudoscience and it hurts you and the people you interact with because it limits the way you look at them and interact with them.
televangelists, they are not men or women of god they are profiteers, i am not religious at all but i have read the bible and no where does it say you have to pay to get in to heaven
Can I add dumb-tedious-clueless-stupid-idiotic activists? People who glue or cement their hands to the road, blocking traffics, ruin arts, endanger others. Are they ill-informed, following trends, have nothing better to do? At some point there should be serious consequences for this kind of stupidity
Artificial sweeteners in EVERYTHING including non-diet items. Give me the sugar, I don't mind paying for it, but stop using artificial sweeteners, they don't solve the obesity crisis and they make people with chronic illnesses, like myself, very very sick. At least give us a choice!
I had to stop drinking several of my favorite NON diet sodas because they put in artificial sweeteners.
Load More Replies... People demonising others. I'm talking the extremists of any kind of group i.e. religuous people, vegans. If you don't obey their rules, you're not only beneath them, but actively disgusting. Extreme vegans I have to say are probably the worst for this because they are so damn smug about how "it's better for the environment". Actually, no. It's unsustainable for large amounts of the population, and a complete switch to a vegan diet overnight would ruin food security. Not to mention the majority of cute farm animals they're "saving" would go extinct without severe human intervention. And the worst kind of religious extremists (not including. like. terrorists) are those who use their religion as an excuse for bigotry or their own personal views. I'm not saying religion or veganism are bad. Just people need to stop demonising others because they don't agree. That's not going to convince them to agree with you, all it does is make you look like a pompous twat
This does of course go both ways, people in these groups should not be demonised for their choices either
Load More Replies... I know this isn't a "law" or anything but I'm talking about American school dress codes. I don't think every school does this but mine does: Females can't show their shoulders because it's "distracting" but they can have half their boobs sticking out for the public to see. Just saying, why???
Most of these already are illegal in my country. The US suuuucks.
Well this entire list was disturbing…I’m surprised that MLMs weren’t included unless I missed them.
Phone companies filling their stuff with bloatware. You don't go and grab a shopping cart and have it filled aready with all the own brand of the store so why should phones be filled with their c**p
Cinemas where you have to sit through 15 to 20 minutes of ads and trailers before the movie starts. Also people who show up late and make a big deal out of finding seats.
Trying to tie people to personality profiles like DISG etc. No it is not possible to predict people's behaviour by letting them take a 25 minutes test or watching their behaviour for a while. All it does is creating a self fulfilling prophecy by cementing a prejudice and focusing attention to behaviour that confirms the prejudices about them. Please stop this nonsense. There are countless trials that have shown there is no validity in the popular personality tests. It's pseudoscience and it hurts you and the people you interact with because it limits the way you look at them and interact with them.
