"...If the government stopped enforcing laws tomorrow and forgot to warn people, and you broke a law, would you probably be able to figure out that they'd stopped enforcing them?"

"It would... probably depend on what law."

"Okay. I think I would like to know what the laws where you would probably notice are and how you would notice."

"It would also depend on how I broke it, actually. Because part of enforcement is making sure to find out without waiting to get a report. If I found somebody nobody was expecting home for ages and murdered them, then a government enforcing the law would find out about this, even if nobody saw me. A government that did not enforce the law might not notice. But if I parked my scooter on the front steps of the capital building and the government was not enforcing the law I might not notice the difference between that and the parking robot not having come by yet."

"...Can I maybe... describe some things I have experience with, in case that helps you figure out what I'm asking?"

"Sure, go right ahead."

"Okay, so, as an oversimplified model, if you're in Hell, there are things that make the demons angry. If you make the demons angry, they'll probably drag you away from what you were doing and boil you, or if they're not very angry they might just hit you. If you try to fight them when they do those things, they'll do the same things plus some more things. Usually you would learn what makes them angry by doing things and discovering that they're angry. If they're not watching, they'll look in at random times. On the other hand, also as an oversimplified model, in America, there are cops. They come cause problems but I think they're kind of random about it? So if someone is causing a bunch of problems, more problems than having cops around, you could call them, but they might shoot you instead of the person you were hoping they'd deal with. I can't vouch for the accuracy of that part, I never met the cops. What I can vouch for is that Congress doesn't do very much? Like, the whole time I've lived in America, Congress has never come to drag me away to be boiled, and I'm not sure if there even are things they'd care about or if they're just not actually watching. They didn't do it when I got beaten up, they didn't do it to this guy who I kind of suspect was committing lustful sins by himself, and they didn't do it for theft. Apparently what the laws are was so unclear that there were people arguing about it? Like, some people were arguing about whether some human beings are illegal. I think. But people said that America had laws and I'm not sure if they were lying or if they meant something by that. And now you're saying laws are about helping people who got hurt? Or that the government can have to follow them? I don't think I really get what kind of thing you're talking about, I'm not getting - if I do something, then what's the percent chance the government will come hurt me and how will they do that?"

"How long have you lived in your early-2000s America?"

Shrug. "I dunno, it depends on how you count and I also lost track of time. I don't think it's been more than a few years or less than a month."

"Okay... I'm not from an Earth, but I think Americas are usually more functional than that. I wanna refer you to someone from an Earth who'll be more able to tell if your Earth is weird or if your lens on it is weird. Okay?"

"...Fine? Sure."

The horse person swaps out for a human guy. "Hey. She was summarizing so I don't know if I have all the details but 'no human being is illegal' is a political slogan about people entering the country without government permission and being called 'illegal immigrants'."

"Well, I didn’t think anyone asked permission for me to be there and Congress still didn’t come drag me away to be tortured."

"Congress doesn't directly do any legwork. They argue about what the laws should be and if enough of them agree then the thing they agree on is officially the law, but it's other people's job to see it actually put into practice, and a lot of those people, and a lot of Congresspeople too, are really really bad at their jobs. One way they're bad at their jobs is they guess based on visible ethnicity if somebody's likely to be an illegal immigrant and you look white."

Shrug. "Okay."

"In Vanda Nossëo, people with important jobs are almost all very good at them. This means that while officially laws in early 2000s America aren't that different, they wind up being implemented and talked about really differently."

"...Okay. So you’re saying it’s more like Hell?"

"...there's no torture, Vanda Nossëo doesn't do that literally at all."

"...So then when things are illegal, does that mean that anything happens to you if you do them or not?"

"Yes. Just, the thing is never torture. Sometimes you have to pay money. Sometimes you just get a warning. Sometimes you get put in jail. Sometimes you get banned from being in whatever place you broke the law in, or near the person you broke the law, uh, at."

"And if you decide you don't want to be in jail or you do want to be in whatever place - I guess you just can't decide that because - huh. No, I guess the people who don't like alcohol would be mad at you if you hired the yeerks to keep people in jail. Right?"

"The... people who don't like alcohol... yeah, no, we don't use Yeerks for that. Just like, doors, and force fields, and magic."

"Oh. And if you hurt someone the government will try to fix it?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. I don't think I care about your laws. No offense."