NDP ‘anti-fossil fuel advertising’ draft legislation – worthy of both the 1956 Soviet RSFSR Criminal Code or the other end of the political spectrum
February 13, 20247:15 AM Terry Etam2 Comments
Comedian Yakov Smirnov reminisced in 2014: “As a comedian in the Soviet Union, I was censored by the “Department of Jokes.” Well, actually it was called the Humor Department of the Censorship Apparatus of Soviet Ministry of Culture. I think they were hoping that by the time you finished saying their name, you’d be too exhausted to tell more jokes.”
The CIA, bless their hearts, translated the 1956 Soviet RSFSR Criminal Code, which you may know as Ugolovnyy Kodeks RSFSR if you run in such circles. It is a fascinating read, full of concepts like social danger, counterrevolutionary crimes, odd qualifiers (“This section shall not apply to persons who commit crimes in a state of intoxication.”), etc. Crimes against the Soviet system had their own preeminent status, as somewhat comedically noted (comedically because I did not have to live under it…):
You might wonder what kind of weirdo would go rummaging through such a document. I can’t answer that question specifically, weirdness has many stripes, but I can say that I know I did, and you may measure that as you will. The machinations of the old Soviet system have long been fascinating. It was somewhat startling then to read some recent proposed Canadian legislation and have a tiny voice sear through my brain saying “You’ve seen this before somewhere.”
Yakov Smirnov again: “So, a communist party official goes to a factory and says to one of the workers, ‘If you had a glass of vodka could you work today?’ The worker said, ‘I guess I could.’ ‘If you had two glasses of vodka, could you work?’ He said, ‘I guess I could.’ ‘If you had three glasses of vodka, could you work?’ He said, ‘I’m here, aren’t I?’ That joke did not pass.
https://boereport.com/2024/02/13/ndp-anti-fossil-fuel-advertising-draft-legislation-worthy-of-both-the-1956-soviet-rsfsr-criminal-code-or-the-other-end-of-the-political-spectrum/
