Sadly, they're right.

Thoreau refused to pay his taxes in an area where slavery was practiced because he violently disagreed with the concept of chattel slavery.  They threw him in jail, and he still refused.  That is civil disobedience. 

I cannot remember when I ever engaged in such.  I don't believe it will do any good. 

I also tend to pay little to no attention to laws I find fucking stupid, or completely unjust. 

PJ Media's Roger Kimball wrote a piece responding to Jerry Bowyer, discussing the myriad of ways Americans do exactly what I do.  Bowyer listed several paragraphs' worth of instances; then he told us why we do it. 

When we built our bathroom, we paid a contractor who was working on proving his credentials to be licensed (i.e., was unlicensed) in cash.  When we purchase guns from a local gun store where the owners know us, we pay cash to avoid sales tax (easier for us, easier for them).  We do things like this a lot to avoid sales tax, and to avoid having to pay a lot of stupid little city fees (did you know that, if you "do the work yourself," you don't have to pay for licensing fees?  What, did you think you didn't pay those fees for contractors you hire "above the table"?)

We still use a drop-rail crib, and it will be carefully packed away into storage for our children, instead of disposed of as an "unsafe" banned item.

We ignore speed limits where the roads aren't patrolled for speeds we feel are reasonable and prudent.  Yes, we use safety belts and buckle the kids into car seats, but not because we're forced to by law.  We do it because it's smarter, and definitely safer for the kids. 

So, why do we ignore things the government requires of us?  Why don't we revolt in ways that will be noticed, ways that the starry-eyed idealists are sure will change the world? 

Well, Bowyer thinks civil disobedience is based on the belief that things can be changed, that government can be challenged and changed for the better.  This ain't it:

What I’m talking about is not based on hope; in fact, it has given up much hope on social change. It thinks the government is a colossal amoeba twitching mindlessly in response to tiny pinpricks of pain from an endless army of micro-brained interest groups. The point is not to teach the amoeba nor to guide it, but simply to stay away from the lethal stupidity of its pseudopods.

The amoeba does not get smarter but it does get hungrier and bigger. On the other hand, we get smarter. More and more of our life takes place outside of the amoeba’s reach: in the privacy of our own homes, or in capital accounts in other nations, or in the fastest growing amoeba avoidance zone ever created, cyberspace. We revolt decision by decision, transaction by transaction, because we believe deep down that most of what government tells us to do is at bottom illegitimate.

 Amen.

God help us.