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Comment by fermienrico | Hacker News Reader

That should not be justification for intimidation and flat out extortion.

You're phrasing this as if it is OK and should be the expectation.

Isn’t bribery the norm throughout time and place though? —and the kind of law and order we enjoy in the West, the exception?

It’s understandable that this makes people who aren’t used to it uncomfortable, so does going barefoot, or not using a toilet.

People are a product of their environment.

My point is, it’s easy to proselytize when you are a comfortable wealthy person, adapted to and living in a state with a functional justice system.

Replace extortion with rape. You'll quickly realize how absurd this argument is. They're breaking their own laws decided by their own people.

This is a ridiculous statement. I would venture to guess that you have smoked weed in a place where it was still illegal. But breaking that law is not equivalent to rape. That's a total false equivalence. Not all laws are equally just from each person's perspective. Minor corruption like this, while corrosive, is not viewed as negatively by the local population.

I would argue that the US allowing infinite money on politics and our forms of lobbying, regulatory capture, and rent seeking are way worse than this minor corruption.

Both rape and scamming have a perpetrator and a victim - who is the victim of smoking weed? This is less about the law, and more about the morality of victimising someone; legal harassment/threats would also fall into this category.

> They're breaking their own laws decided by their own people

Generally countries where petty corruption is rife aren't healthy democracies.

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