>Isn't that what every government do? Remember that Al Capone went to jail because of tax issues, the government couldn't prove anything he was accused to.
Yes to varying extends and with varying frequencies. No government is perfectly clean in this regard though some are much better than others. Comfortably wealthy westerners who've never been harassed by any government or quasi-government institutions will happily write of their own governments small amount of it though because that's more comforting than realizing we do it too and having the tough discussion of where the line ought to be.
Twisting the law so you can jail a known criminal for a term that is unreasonable for the charges you can actually convict him on is surely a far cry from jailing political opponents over BS but it is on the same spectrum of odious government behavior and the fact of the matter is that HN types tend to draw the "here is where I stop looking the other way" line on that spectrum a lot closer to the "jailing dissidents" end than people who have adversarial contact with such institutions.
How does this help the point you are trying to make?
> doesn't stop comfortably wealthy westerners who've never been harassed by any government or quasi-government institutions
It comes across like a prejudiced assumption, and just hurts it. Flames others into an incendiary mess. Why are you so mad, who is it towards? Westerners? Dungeons and dragons of all things has been dealing with these ethics surrounding laws for years. Games. Your anger is misdirected at "hn types" because that is just a generalization.
Regardless, your principle stands. The ends justifying the means as a principle is despised for good reasons even if some laud it as well.
Yes to varying extends and with varying frequencies. No government is perfectly clean in this regard though some are much better than others. Comfortably wealthy westerners who've never been harassed by any government or quasi-government institutions will happily write of their own governments small amount of it though because that's more comforting than realizing we do it too and having the tough discussion of where the line ought to be.