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.
#1
Politicians making medical decisions, they really do make cr*ppy doctors
Image credits: daltonfromroadhouse
#2
Increasing the volume on commercials by 20 goddam decibels.
Image credits: jcro8829
#3
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.
Image credits: PsychoSemantics
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.
#4
Subscription to an emailing list without a previous email confirmation.
Image credits: ZealousidealTillV
#5
Siren sounds on the radio.
Image credits: 9681468046
#6
This used to be illegal but advertising for prescription only drugs.
Image credits: BoredWeazul
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).
#7
Child beauty pageants.
Image credits: getthephenom
#8
“Convenience fees” for paying taxes and bills online.
Image credits: menege1293
#9
Clipping puppy tails and ears.
Image credits: Hulkemo
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.
#10
I think paparazzi should be illegal to be honest.
Image credits: Altruistic_Ant_236
#11
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.”
Image credits: thrww3534
#12
Breeding dogs that are no longer healthy.
Image credits: Katulobotomy
#13
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.
Image credits: Spizam71
#14
The predatory practices of the U.S. Healthcare system.
Image credits: HellaHellerson
#15
Fireworks, so many injuries every year and basically selling explosives to morons.
Image credits: siciowaThe9
#16
Cops can lie to you, but you cannot lie to them.
Image credits: randomatic
#17
Ticket touters. So many people won’t get to see their favourite artists now + people will end up playing to empty stadiums as the cost of living grows.
Image credits: PeanutButterCallisto
#18
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.”
Image credits: Jasminestl
#19
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.
Image credits: Bardsie
#20
Free trials that auto charge when they run out.
Image credits: gecalab740
#21
Insider trading by elected officials. Absolutely blatant abuse of power and funneling of wealth.
#22
Being in p*rn at the age of 18. Let’s raise that age by at least 21 please (I would prefer 25, when the woman/man has a entire developed brain).
#23
Civil asset forfeiture.
#24
reproductive coercion but especially stealthing.
Getting pregnant by an unsuspecting man who is then forced into either fatherhood or worse, a nice extra income through child support.
#25
Funding their own charity group to evade their existing taxes
#26
Forcing women to give birth.
#27
piercing newborns ears because it looks pretty to you
#28
The space of a seat in a economic class plane.
#29
I work in the ER. The amount people have to pay in co-pays for ER visits. My sis in law has to pay $250 per ER visit and she’s been really sick lately, is up to $750 now (3 ER visits) All while we get drunks and hypochondriacs on state insurance coming into the ER daily for free, for them. The system is so broken.
#30
Paternity fraud and baby trapping. They’re sex crimes and should be treated like any other sex crime.
#31
Unskippable ads on youtube
#32
Being a MAP(Minor Attracted Person) and spreading that it’s ok to be one and refusing to go to see a psychiatrist/therapist.
#33
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.
#34
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.”
#35
Almost everything politicians are allowed to do, create laws and somehow trade stocks that are involved in said policies????!?!? Strange I go to jail if I do s**t like that.
#36
American anti-abortion organisations protesting outside my country’s clinics and hospitals. Go away you f*****g cretins. Your views aren’t welcome.
#37
Tax exemptions for religious institutions. How is that not a violation of separation of church and state
#38
Bribery. Sorry, I mean lobbying.
#39
Not being able to unsubscribe to something using the same method you used to subscribe.
#40
Payday loan companies.
#41
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.
#42
People marrying minors.
#43
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.
#44
Those stupid f*****g mini game ads for mobile games.
#45
Forced overtime.
#46
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).
#47
Overselling a plane and putting people who BOUGHT tickets on stand by.
#48
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.
#49
false advertisement of big food companies (For example: foods claiming sugarfree but actually contains sugar)
#50
For profit prisons.
#51
Unnecessarily bright dipped headlights.
#52
Hiding ingredients in food by calling it “natural flavors”.
#53
Declawing cats. I’d rather have my cats scratch my face off then ever putting them through that much pain.
#54
Predatory Lending. This includes aggressive service charges/fees/etc.
#55
People serving more than 3 terms in the Senate or 5 terms in the House.
#56
Releasing balloons. Pretty littering
#57
Nestlé
#58
Ticketmaster. How is that not scalping?
#59
Governments being able to take land when ever they want to.
#60
Credit reporting on student loan debt. Withholding transcripts for past-due student balances.
#61
Government bailing out banks and airlines with taxpayer money
#62
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
#63
Infant circumcision
#64
Those predatory vehicle loan places for people with bad credit where you can be charged like quadruple what the car is worth and if the loan defaults the car can be sold over and over to more poor suckers.
#65
Crypto Pump and dumps
#66
Having more than 15 items at the “15 items or less” checkout counter.
#67
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
#68
Factory farms
#69
All the lies told in political ads.
#70
Forcing a man to pay child support when he was pretty clear he didnt want the kid.
#71
P*rn. It isn’t healthy to be addicted. Stop making excuses. I can’t stress this enough.
from Bored Panda https://ift.tt/14wvcQi
via IFTTT source site : boredpanda
