How to Properly Read and React to an "Official Warning"
I really need someone's help. This is no joke. Who out there can help me? After two letters threatening to open an investigation into my place of residence, a notice has arrived today alleging that one has in fact been initiated.
I should clarify that I do not need assistance in getting out of this situation. I only need help understanding how anyone could be so stupid as to submit to the bullshit in this letter. For anyone else who may receive one of these, I would like to break it down and expose it for what it is.
Let's start at the very beginning.
Fun fact: Did you know that if you write words in red whilst everything else is in black, it makes the words look more important and "scarier?" Clearly whomever designed this letter knows it. I also wonder why the word official is necessary in this sentence. If it was an unofficial investigation, there'd be no letter, therefore, I can only presume that the word has been added as a means of emphasizing the word "warning," and implying that there is some omnipotent authority behind this investigation. Well, it's not an authority I recognise, and neither should you.
To the Legal Occupier,
This is an official warning that we are carrying out an investigation of your address, We have asked you to contact us several times, but you have not responded. There is still no record of a TV License at this property.
Another fun fact. Whenever a letter begins with the words "To the legal occupier", it is likely nothing more than spam. It is a copy and pasted template that went out to thousand and thousands of homes in the hopes that some will be silly enough to buy into their bullshit. It's really no different from how an email phishing scam works. They don't expect everyone to fall for that shit, but they still make their money's worth if a fraction of the recipients do.
It is a criminal offence to watch or record live TV programmes on any channel, or to download or watch BBC programmes on iPlayer unless you have a TV License.
This is an interesting sentence only because it implies that one is exempt from the need for a TV-license if they are either deaf, or close their eyes when they turn the TV on. Perhaps this post will provoke a revision of their spam template.
How you can stop this investigation
Buy a license.. bla bla.. You can choose the payment option that suits you best.
How generous to allow me to pay to have my opinions shaped by propaganda, in any way I choose! I have recently started experimenting with fecal matter as a potential currency, so I shall use that option, as it suits me best.
Here's the good bit..
If we don't hear from you, our Enforcement Division will schedule a visit. Should the investigation find that you're watching, recording, or downloading TV illegally, you could be prosecuted. The maximum penalty is a £1000 fine plus any legal costs and/or compensation you maybe ordered to pay.
LOL.
If we don't hear from you, our Enforcement Division will schedule a visit.
Will you? Considering it is I who lives here, shouldn't it be me who schedules a visit? You can schedule away all you like, but it doesn't mean that I am going to open the door or even pause the TV(lol) to see who is knocking. This is a bullshit claim.
you could be prosecuted.
Could. Interesting. Not will be prosecuted. I wonder why that is...
The maximum penalty is a £1000 fine plus any legal costs and/or compensation you may be ordered to pay.
Haha. This is another silly attempt at a threat. If someone sends you a fine for £1000, or for £1,000,000, you simply put it in the bin and move on with your life. What are they going to do, send you another fine for not paying the fine? Lol. Fuck 'en.
you may be ordered to pay.
Lol. Ordered to pay.
The letter ends with a P.S message.
P.S. If you have recently bought a TV license, thank you. You do not need to reply to this letter.
I love how they add that sentence on the end as if it is in anyway related to the prior sentence. The simple fact is...
You do not need to reply to this letter.
But, put it right after that sentence and it implies that you do need to unless you bought a license. Clever cunts, aren't they?
People. Stop paying for silly shit. The day we all decide to stop caving in to intimidation is the day that they stop trying to steal our money so that they can use it to make TV and Radio that makes us dumber. Though, then they would just have to raise taxes so that they still have the funding for their propaganda.
On a more serious note....
Resteem to share this lesson with your followers.
Don't ignore that man. Its real deal. I hope they take food stamps incase I get it? Does it apply to black and white TV as well or is it just color TV? Anyways, once I get my share of empire from Nigerian Price, I will be able to buy that license.
This is hilarious
Are you trying to say that I am not getting my inheritance from the Prince. You are just jealous that you didn't take the opportunity and i did.
In the video, no one accepts his deal, so how do we know it's scam?
Exactly
LOL
This is mail fraud and you ought to initiate something in that regard, because anyone using mail as the means to intimidate or extract money is liable, plus that isn't a warning but a threat as a warning doesn't come o your mailbox but is in place somewhere for a obvious and clear purpose to warn of danger, where as a threat is delivered to the person.
Yeah but this is essentially the government anyway, so they're not going to be in too much of a rush to hold themselves accountable.
If you don't stand up to them, who will, if not now, when? Or, do you expect bullies to hold themselves accountable?
TV licence law is as ridiculous as they come.
I wonder though, as someone who doesn't watch TV, would I (hypothetically, since I'm not in UK) have to pay that license in order not to feel bullied and not to have someone break into my residence and ask silly questions like--but what do you do on your laptop then?
Erm.. read.. stuff..?
Or worse go about snooping around in my devices, which is the worst violation of privacy. I mean this blue beyond blue laptop of mine is an extension of me, I cringe even if I have to let a family member do something on it.. not because I'd have anything exciting to hide, but just because it feels like a violation of my boundaries.
I have been thinking about this a fair bit as of late, given my beliefs on the true motivations behind blockchain tech. A question I have began to ponder is; do you think that the concept of privacy existed before the concept of property?
It's not even about the property, but the idea that someone has the right to cross my boundaries just because I don't want anything to do with them and their "product" in the first place seems ridiculous beyond belief. It's the definition of bullying.
The chicken came before the egg, but wait, what about the dinosaurs / I'll have to get back to the drawingboard.
Hahaha First time I’ve laughed out loud on Steemit. Way t’ be! This was brilliant.
Cock... hahahhhahahahaha
I am very glad you enjoyed it too. I always feel like I find my posts far funnier than anyone else.
Yeah, we get these letters in Ireland. It's brilliant. Just to think how many people actually run to the post office to pay these crap bills after a letter like that. They're almost as funny as the dog warden's warnings...I had one at my door once when I had my neighbour's 4 puppies to re-home. He couldn't take care of them, so I took them. The warden told me he'd take them...I told him: "No, they will be re-homed by me, not the pound." He then replied: "I will come back in a few weeks and if you still have them, I will take them." UHMMMM, you and which army? Jeez...just because you're wearing a blue suit, it makes you feel like you're above everyone else? I wonder.
I agree wholeheartedly. If he had been wearing a yellow suit I might have understood his position.
Fuck off lol. Orange is the new blue right?
A TV license, now that's a new one to me lol. And I thought the US had the corner on inane licenses.
How's the roadtrip going?
Lounging at Paul's- Do you have discord up?
yes
Yeah, they've been sending some cute stuff to me as well. Like what to do if a crisis or war arrives in Sweden. Propaganda, stating that you shouldn't believe in propaganda. That made my day. I look forward to whatever they're planning. I will be, prepared. So stop buying propaganda people. That's all I can say.
I think you are someone else may have told me that before. That is pretty fucked up. Could potentially be fear porn I guess, but I am with you- it's all about being prepared for anything. Though I mean mentally prepared.
ah i do miss england!
I'm in Scotland. But where did you fuck off to then?