This is a frame from a 1961 Soviet cartoon called "The Key" (Ключ in Russian). It goes pretty hard.

  • SoyViking [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Leftists will hear "He who does not work, neither shall he eat!" and think "Yeah! Fuck the idle rich!".

    Liberal-conservatives will hear "He who does not work, neither shall he eat!" and think "Yeah! Fuck the unemployed!".

    We are not the same.

    • huf [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      i hear "He who does not work, neither shall he eat!" and think "oh god this is the shit narrative i was raised on from early childhood that teaches us to look down on and immiserate anyone who cannot work".

      i just hate this one.

    • wrecker_vs_dracula [comrade/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Even though in the film this frame is kind of a joke it really jumped out at me. Context is important for this sort of thing. In the Bible I take it to mean something along the lines of "make sure you cut stack enough firewood for the winter or else you might freeze". When Lenin invokes it I hear something more like "fuck the idle rich, and also we will need to get a ton of work done if the revolution is successful in order to build a durable socialist society". In this cartoon it is meant to poke fun at the older generation whose attitudes were shaped by growing up in the period of rapid industrialization and coming of age during the Great Patriotic War. The main character literally turns into a propaganda poster in this scene. “He who does not work, neither shall he eat!” hits different in the context of a society where there is both very little unemployment and very few idle rich.

    • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Agreed, although for a receptive audience it's a good way of highlighting (1) how socialism develops differently under different material conditions and (2) how dire the material conditions were in the early USSR.

      The goal is "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need," where everyone has (at minimum) basic human needs provided, period. But when you're a late-feudal/pre-industrial society that just went through the most destructive war in history (so far!) and are being invaded by eight capitalist powers, by necessity you need a war economy that will ask much more of its workers.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
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    2 years ago

    Some fundies love to zero in on that one Bible verse and the stuff about what is an abomination (while ignoring the ones that are downers, like not eating shellfish or not wearing clothes with mixed fabrics) so they don't have to love their neighbors or take care of the poor or any of that downer stuff. :capitalist-laugh:

    • HornyOnMain
      ·
      2 years ago

      or also that one in leviticus that anyone who eats stuff containing blood like black pudding should be stoned

  • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
    ·
    2 years ago

    “The Key” (Ключ in Russian) goes pretty hard

    I'll bet it's really clutch.