# What's the worst thing a person can do and NOT break the law? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 3, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438 "2019-05-03T20:09:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/21 "2019-05-03T21:26:03Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > What leaps to my mind is gaslighting somebody with intent to make them literally go insane. Which is not something I’ve done, I promise. Narcissists and sociopaths leave a trail of suffering in their wake and a lot of what they do isn’t illegal. Emotional and verbal abuse generally isn’t a crime. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/22 "2019-05-03T21:26:08Z")
Buy the patent on a useful drug and raise the price by 50 times ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/23 "2019-05-03T21:33:43Z")
Crafting laws and regulations that are _designed_ to be gamed/exploited exclusively by thw very most elite, at the expense of the lower income segment of the community or society? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/24 "2019-05-03T21:43:32Z")
Yeah, the persons who create the law have a way bigger license to be assholes than the rest of us. Revoking regulations that prevent predatory lending behavior is _way_ worse than gaslighting a person to insanity, murdering them, and then eating their corpse. (Which I promise I haven’t done.) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/25 "2019-05-03T21:54:56Z")
Murder is still illegal. But only if you get caught. _Jan had told him many times It was you to me who taught In Jersey, anything’s legal Long as you don’t get caught_ ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/26 "2019-05-03T22:02:43Z")
I think that the guys who took pictures, laughed and mocked him while a man was drowning some years ago were pretty bad. Although this behavior would have been a crime where I live. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/27 "2019-05-03T22:03:55Z")
This may seem like a political answer, but on the other side this is the President of the US stating his stance on this very issue: “Yes, I do have an absolute right to pardon myself, but I’ll never have to do it because I didn’t do anything wrong and everybody knows it,” So it seems like anything goes, there is no limit. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/28 "2019-05-03T22:24:03Z")
I think it’s definitely true that “change the laws so you can do something really bad that’s currently against the law” is going to win this, because it encompasses every possible bad thing. So it might be more useful to consider the law as it is right now. I’d say: there are a number of ways to kill someone legally. Lots of those are good candidates for being the worst thing you can do. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/29 "2019-05-03T22:38:47Z")
Arguably, bringing your children up to fear eternal punishment in hell. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/30 "2019-05-03T23:04:58Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > Arguably, bringing your children up to fear eternal punishment in hell. I’ll take that and raise it to teaching entire communities to bring their children up to fear eternal punishment in hell. However bad of a thing you can legally do to one person, there’s probably a way to ‘mass produce’ your wickedness by encouraging others to follow in your footsteps. for example it’s not legal to commit murder, but it _is_ legal to create and promote stuff like inceldom, which has a completely unsurprising tendency to spawn murderers. It’s legal to become a major politician and announce that second amendment solutions would be really neat. I suspect that for whichever specific act we decide is the winner here, the worst _person_ will be the one who can get hordes of others to carry the act out at his behest. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/31 "2019-05-03T23:35:53Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > A person of respectability in the community (priest, police officer, community activist, etc) in their 50s+ having sex with someone who barely hits the age of consent (16-18) is legal but pretty bad. First, it’s not something that I would do but what if they love each other & get married. In 15 years, she’s early 30’s & he’s late 60s. While not common that’s not unheard of. What was the age difference between Hef & his girlfriends? I think it was even bigger than that. There’s a helluva lot of money & influence buying in politics. Of course the politicians write the laws so that a lot of it is legal. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/32 "2019-05-03T23:59:02Z")
While I was in high school, I was on the mailing list of Cecil Todd, founder of [Revival Fires Ministry](http://revivalfires.us/). He once sent out a flyer to his teenaged minions, informing us that the worst sin was sex outside of marriage. My faith was already getting a little shaky, and that helped finish it off. A few years later, I was told that Revival Fires had left Joplin, with Cecil abandoning his wife for his secretary, and that they took quite a bit of Revival Fires money with them. Revival Fires is an ongoing money raiser today, with Cecil’s son Tim at the helm. According to my minister father, the unforgiveable sin is hardening your heart against the Lord. But it’s legal. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/33 "2019-05-04T00:31:14Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > True, but trespassing someone is beyond trivial, then you can’t go there anymore. If you want to shop there (or Sam’s), you have to play their game. [Bit o’ Hijack] I’m still kind of freaked by that usage of the verb “trespass”. I suppose we’ve covered that here (we cover everything else! ;)) but I don’t know the Board’s general opinion. I looked it up on about six dictionaries and didn’t find that definition. I do understand that general usage, no matter how ridiculous it may seem, becomes the definition (and I will literally die if anyone disputes this. 😃 ) but I can’t escape feeling a bit icky when I read it. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/34 "2019-05-04T00:44:42Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I looked it up on about six dictionaries and didn’t find that definition. [try here](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trespass), under Verb, #6. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/35 "2019-05-04T01:43:28Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > First, it’s not something that I would do but what if they love each other & get married. In 15 years, she’s early 30’s & he’s late 60s. While not common that’s not unheard of. What was the age difference between Hef & his girlfriends? I think it was even bigger than that. > There’s a helluva lot of money & influence buying in politics. Of course the politicians write the laws so that a lot of it is legal. But she isn’t in her 30s, she is 16. Legally a 45 year old police officer can sleep with his 16 year old step daughter in many places. But it’s still pretty bad. Maybe not downright evil, but pretty immoral. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/36 "2019-05-04T02:07:06Z")
Did you ever read Steinbeck’s _The Winter of Our Discontent_? I knew an actual human being who tried to replicate one of Ethan Hawley’s machinations. Unlike Hawley, this person was not driven to attempt suicide, nor did he show a glimmer of redemption when it was all over. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/37 "2019-05-04T02:22:26Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Buy the patent on a useful drug and raise the price by 50 times You win. I wouldn’t put them in the number one slot, but people refusing to vaccinate their children for any reason other than a valid medical condition belongs somewhere on the list. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/38 "2019-05-04T15:03:11Z")
Declare war? Yeah, maybe not the worst in all circumstances, but… ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/39 "2019-05-04T15:20:08Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > What about the stuff that Enron was doing? It was apparently within the law, at least mostly, but it harmed a whole lot of people, to varying degrees. I think some kind of economic shenanigans should be the winner. Killing someone is bad but destroying the livelihood of thousands or millions is much worse. If you were in a position to redo 2008 you could cause thousands of deaths and cause psychological damage to a generation. Enron is certainly in that class and much more doable by a single person then a 2008 redo would be. Even if you only destroyed a town that would be terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438/40 "2019-05-04T15:21:15Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > [Bit o’ Hijack] > > I’m still kind of freaked by that usage of the verb “trespass”. I suppose we’ve covered that here (we cover everything else! ;)) but I don’t know the Board’s general opinion. > > I looked it up on about six dictionaries and didn’t find that definition. I do understand that general usage, no matter how ridiculous it may seem, becomes the definition (and I will literally die if anyone disputes this. 😃 ) but I can’t escape feeling a bit icky when I read it. Look it up in a [legal dictionary](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/trespass). Actually, I’m not sure what the issue is. I just pulled up it’s entry in [dictionary . com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/trespass) and it’s right there. Part 1b states that it’s to wrongfully enter someone else’s land. Very similar to the Cornell law definition that defines it as “knowingly entering another person’s property without permission”. Yes, when it comes to dealing with the police ‘to trespass someone’ generally means you’re revoking their permission to be on your property. I don’t know if there’s an actual definition that makes that syntax correct or if it’s just cop speak that’s become common. Actually, I see now that someone posted a wiki link that supports phrasing it like that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-thing-a-person-can-do-and-not-break-the-law/833438.md?page=3)