[mingmecca]

This is exactly right. There is so much give in the system, and there has to be, because enforcing all laws as written would be a truly dystopian scenario.

We don't want to live in the a world where it is impossible to get away with a 'crime'.

[vkou]

Instead, we are left in the world of selective enforcement, where most individuals are fine with ridiculous laws, because they are unlikely to be enforced against said individuals.

Unless they, to quote a Japanese proverb, stand up. The nail that sticks out gets hammered, and all that.

The result is a brutal, repressive system, that is very precise in its brutality - typically against minorities, troublemakers, or pretty much anyone who ends up on a bureaucrat's hit list. And nobody has a problem with this state of affairs.