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Comment by jleyank | Hacker News Reader

Overly broad title - the rule of "law" is doing just fine at lower levels. Just ask anybody with excess melanin or X chromosomes how the law's doing... At the highest level, no, there's no law at the moment, only whim's.

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The rule of law generally refers to societies where everyone is subject to the same set of laws. China, for example, does not and has not had the rule of law. Instead they have rule BY law, where laws are simply to control certain people’s behavior.

Nor has Russia, North Korea... and many others. Now the United States, which once stood apart as a beacon of liberty and due process, has chosen to dim that light. The rule of law has given way to rule by law - where laws are no longer shields for the weak, but weapons for the powerful. The light on the hill has not just flickered; it has been extinguished, not by foreign enemies, but by domestic choices. The world watches, not with hope, but with a growing sense of betrayal.

You missed the point. At the LEO level, laws are definitely being enforced

That you have the means to make that distinction inside the justice system illustrates the dichotomy. In places that never had the rule of law to begin with, what you described is the standard expectation of the individuals living it. To question it, or to comment on it at all, would be akin to asking a fish “how’s the water”? If it could talk, it’d respond, “what the hell is water”?

You missed the point. Enforcement of laws is irrelevant for the question whether a society has "rule of law" or is just ruled by laws. "Rule of law" is a specific concept, it does not mean that a society has laws and executes them.

You may have heard of "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law", this is the quintessence of it. There is no king above the law, if there is the rule of law.

The point of the comment, I understand the point of the article and the point of no king above the law if there is rule of law.

The comment was about the abuse of “law” towards minorities. So go learn about how police departments are trained to seek and destroy these communities.

What you’re describing is also an example of the absence of the rule of law.

“Rule of law” means the laws are applied equally and fairly to all, regardless of status or authority.

Then it’s been absent for 30 years.

Longer, for sure.

It’s a lovely concept but has literally never existed in the US or literally anywhere else in the world—ever.

This book from 2011 describes how it's been that way for basically forever.

https://www.amazon.com/With-Liberty-Justice-Some-Equality/dp...

With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful - by Glenn Greenwald

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