[thinkyfish]

"Such things are no longer jokes. They screw up entire lives." But should they screw up lives? Why should we put up with authorities that can't take a joke. This is the foundation of the culture of defiance that hacking was all about expressing.

[sandworm101]

They shouldn't, but they do. Just because a law or policy is wrong doesn't mean it isn't a solid reality that other people cannot afford to joke about. I'm not s fan of US drug policy, but I wouldn't dare carry a bag of false drugs just to make fun of police officers who cannot tell the difference.

[abledon]

> But should they screw up lives? Why should we put up with authorities that can't take a joke.

They key concept here is 'trickery', and how 'tricked' someone is on a spectrum. Society trusts our authorities to give their best efforts to keep our daily actions within the realm of 'the law'.

There is a spectrum of what one considers a 'joke'. If you tell an authority a dad joke, when they ask you a serious question, that is a fine place on the spectrum to joke with authorities. If you are giving them fake IDs to _trick_ them (and thus, trick society at large, who have delegated power to the authorities by vote etc...), that is not a good thing, to trick others you are living with, at the far end of the 'joke/trickery' spectrum.

[Aeolun]

> Why should we put up with authorities that can't take a joke.

Probably because the number of instances of people with real bombs has gone up. It’s not a joke any more because the real bomb isn’t the exception.

[jasonladuke0311]

Have they?