Being part of a nation is something most of us never question. Yet the top 10 people featured here have spent their lives without any country to call home, navigating a world that assumes everyone holds a passport. Statelessness robs them of travel documents, social services, and even the simple right to a legal identity.

Why These Top 10 People Matter

The ten individuals below illustrate the many ways a person can end up without citizenship—whether by bureaucratic mishap, political exile, or a deliberate renunciation. Their stories shed light on a hidden human‑rights issue that affects millions worldwide.

10 Vasily Babina

Vasily Babina, now 58, only discovered in February 2017 that he was still technically a citizen of the Soviet Union—26 years after the superpower dissolved into a dozen independent states. His lingering Soviet status was never intentional; he was behind bars when the USSR fell apart. At the time, he was serving a sentence for robbery, burglary and murder, and the authorities had no intention of freeing him.

The prison where he served his term eventually came under Russian jurisdiction, and Russia abolished the death penalty six years after the Soviet breakup. Instead of execution, Babina’s sentence was converted to 26 years of imprisonment, and he finally walked out of the cell in February 2017. That moment was the harsh awakening that he was now stateless, because the country that had issued his documents no longer existed.

A Russian court acted swiftly, labeling him an illegal immigrant and ordering his placement in a migration detention centre. Russian officials have shown little interest in keeping him, preferring instead to push him toward Kazakhstan—his birthplace—despite his family residing in Altai, Russia.

9 Mike Gogulski

In 2008, Mike Gogulski marched into the U.S. embassy in Slovakia and formally renounced his American citizenship. He then set fire to his U.S. passport, effectively erasing any proof of nationality. Gogulski is widely believed to be the only living person who has deliberately rendered himself stateless.

His motivation stemmed from deep dissatisfaction with the way the United States is governed. He argued that no one ever asked him if he wanted to be an American citizen in the first place, so he chose to opt out entirely.

Without a passport, Gogulski cannot travel beyond the European Union. He also cannot obtain another passport because he lacks a country to issue one. Instead, Slovakia provided him with a stateless person document that functions as his de‑facto ID, while his EU residency card doubles as a driver’s licence.

8 Mehran Karimi Nasseri

Mehran Karimi Nasseri was originally an Iranian national. In the 1970s, after he openly opposed the Shah, Iran stripped him of his citizenship and expelled him. Seeking refuge, he applied for asylum in several countries before Belgium finally granted him refugee status.

Under European Union law, his refugee status entitled him to settle in any member state of his choosing. He opted for the United Kingdom, but British officials denied him entry and sent him to France after he misplaced the briefcase that contained his identity papers.

The French authorities found themselves in a legal bind: they could not admit him because he lacked documentation, yet they could not deport him because there was no nation to send him back to. Imprisonment was also off the table, as he had entered France legally.

Faced with no viable alternative, French officials left Nasseri to linger in the departure lounge of Charles de Gaulle Airport. He remained there, living among the terminal’s benches and vending machines, from 1988 until 2006.

Efforts were made to secure fresh refugee paperwork from Belgium, which would have cleared his way into France. However, Belgian law required that he physically appear in the country to obtain the documents, and the same law barred any refugee who voluntarily left from returning.

In 1995, Belgium amended its regulations, allowing Nasseri to re‑enter on the condition that a social worker supervise his stay. He refused this oversight, insisting on the UK as his only acceptable destination. Consequently, he stayed put in the airport until deteriorating health forced a French hospital admission in 2006. By 2008, he finally received legal permission to reside in Paris.

7 Sonia Camilise

In 2008, Sonia Camilise suddenly discovered she was stateless after the Dominican Republic—where she had always believed she was a citizen—refused to grant her citizenship. The denial stemmed from her inability to produce documentation proving her Haitian father’s legal residency in the Dominican Republic at the time of her birth.

Haiti also rejected her claim, insisting she was already a Dominican citizen. Haitian law at the time prohibited dual nationality, leaving her in limbo.

Camilise had spent her entire life in the Dominican Republic, never having set foot in Haiti. Her mother, also born there, could not help. Without recognized citizenship, she could not pursue higher education, get married, or obtain a passport to leave the country. The lack of a passport meant she could not even apply for one, trapping her in a bureaucratic dead‑end.

6 Eliana Rubashkyn

Born in Colombia, Eliana Rubashkyn was originally known as Luis Rubashkyn. After realizing she was intersex—possessing both male and female chromosomes—she underwent hormone therapy that suppressed male hormones and activated female ones, resulting in breast development and a female presentation.

While studying at Taipei University in Taiwan, officials asked her to update her passport. She travelled to the Colombian consulate in Hong Kong, as Colombia lacked a diplomatic mission in Taiwan. Hong Kong airport officials initially barred her entry, citing the gender listed on her Colombian passport as “he.” After a protracted negotiation, they allowed her in, but without her passport, leaving her stranded for months in the city’s streets and even a shipping container.

The United Nations eventually granted her “gender refugee” status, but this designation stripped her of Colombian citizenship. Many nations also turned her down because they required full sex‑reassignment surgery—rather than just hormonal treatment—to qualify for refugee protection. In 2014, New Zealand finally offered her asylum, yet she remains stateless there, only becoming eligible for citizenship after five years of residence.

5 Muhammad Idrees

Muhammad Idrees became an unfortunate casualty of the fraught India‑Pakistan relationship. He spent a decade in an Indian prison after overstaying his visa by a mere three days. Born in India, he later migrated to Pakistan following his marriage, acquiring Pakistani citizenship.

In 1999, he travelled back to India to see his ailing father. The father died shortly after his arrival, and Idrees inadvertently exceeded his visa by three days. When he requested an extension, Indian authorities swiftly detained him, suspecting him of being a Pakistani spy.

He was sentenced to ten years in prison and fined a paltry $9.17 for the visa violation. Upon release, he attempted to return to Pakistan, only to be turned away because Pakistani officials no longer recognized him as a citizen. They claimed he had been disowned by his family after separating from his wife. Moreover, his Pakistani passport had expired back in 2003, rendering it useless. Consequently, Idrees found himself stuck in India, without a nation to call his own.

4 Eun‑ju

Eun‑ju’s citizenship status remains a mystery, as neither North Korea nor China acknowledges her as a national. Her mother and grandmother, Park Hyeon‑sun, were North Korean refugees who fled to China. There, her mother married a Korean‑Chinese man. In 2006, her mother vanished while attempting to migrate from China to South Korea, and her father died in a 2007 accident.

After these tragedies, Eun‑ju and her grandmother stayed in China until 2012. Park eventually secured asylum in South Korea by traveling through Laos and Thailand, motivated by a daughter’s cancer diagnosis. While Park received South Korean citizenship, Eun‑ju was left behind.

Park petitioned South Korean authorities to grant Eun‑ju citizenship, but Korean law prohibits issuing citizenship to individuals without a living parent, even if a grandparent is alive. As a result, Eun‑ju cannot enroll in a regular school, open a bank account, or receive medical care. She does attend an alternative school, yet she remains barred from taking any official qualification exams.

3 Sze Chung Cheung

Sze Chung Cheung, the son of a Belgian mother and a Hong Kong father, finds himself without citizenship from either nation. Born in Hong Kong, he initially held Belgian citizenship, which he later lost because Belgian law requires citizens born abroad to either reside in Belgium between ages 18‑28 or formally declare their intent to retain Belgian nationality before turning 28. Cheung missed both requirements.

He is not the first Belgian born overseas to lose citizenship. In 2006, twins Marc and Louis Ryckmans, also born in Hong Kong, faced the same fate. Their father was a Belgian‑Australian, and their mother was Chinese. The twins were denied citizenship by Belgium, Australia, and Hong Kong. Australia initially classified them as Chinese due to their birthplace, then switched to British because Hong Kong was still a British colony at their birth. The twins eventually regained Belgian citizenship after a court intervened in 2013.

Cheung’s situation mirrors these precedents, leaving him stateless and navigating a complex web of nationality laws without a clear path to citizenship.

2 Frederick Ngubane

Frederick Ngubane’s story is a poignant example of accidental statelessness. He claims South African nationality, but South African officials dispute his status. He asserts that both of his parents were South African, yet he lost his birth certificate—the primary proof of citizenship—when a taxi he was traveling in was hijacked.

Ngubane’s early life saw him leave South Africa at age three with his mother for Kenya after his father’s death. His mother was tragically murdered in 2002, after which he followed a friend from Kenya to Uganda. When that friend died in 2008, Ngubane decided to return to South Africa in 2009.

He approached the South African consulate in Kenya, requesting a visa, but was told to apply directly at Home Affairs in South Africa. Upon arrival, he was admitted using his birth certificate, only to lose it during the same hijacking incident. Without the certificate, South African authorities refused to issue a visa, and they declined to help him obtain a duplicate. Moreover, Kenyan, Ugandan, and Tanzanian consulates denied any record of his schooling, leaving him without residency permits or any recognized nationality.

1 Maha Mamo

Maha Mamo was born in Lebanon to Syrian parents, yet she and her two siblings are stateless. Lebanese law requires that a child’s father be Lebanese for the child to acquire Lebanese citizenship, a condition her father did not meet. Simultaneously, Syrian law refused to recognize her because her parents’ inter‑faith marriage—Christian father and Muslim mother—was not officially acknowledged by the Syrian government.

The absence of citizenship imposed severe restrictions: the siblings could not work, travel, or even purchase a SIM card. Their fortunes turned in 2014 when the Brazilian embassy in Lebanon granted them humanitarian visas and travel documents, providing a lifeline.

Nevertheless, they faced a new obstacle: they had no contacts in Brazil. A compassionate Brazilian family, introduced by a mutual friend, agreed to host Maha and her siblings despite never having met them. Their story is one of many; Brazil has extended humanitarian visas to over 8,000 Syrian refugees since 2013, offering a rare beacon of hope for stateless families.

Throughout history, the U.S. government has managed to keep secrets hidden from the public. When they finally lift the veil, the revelations often leave us stunned and a little uneasy. The fascination with clandestine programs—think Area 51, MK‑Ultra, and countless other hush‑hush projects—has become mainstream, and the appetite for these hidden stories shows no signs of waning. In this “top 10 u” rundown we’ll walk you through ten of the most unsettling experiments the government carried out on its own people, complete with the gritty details that make each case a true eye‑opener.

Why the Top 10 U Experiments Matter

Understanding these experiments isn’t just about satisfying curiosity; it’s a reminder of how power can be misused, how ethics can be sidestepped, and why vigilance is essential. Let’s dive into the dark corners of American research history.

10 Tuskegee Syphilis Study

The U.S. Public Health Service launched the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study in 1932, enrolling 600 African‑American men—399 of whom already had syphilis and 201 who were disease‑free. The men were never told they were part of an experiment; instead, they were told they were receiving free medical care. The true purpose? To watch the natural progression of untreated syphilis so researchers could document its stages without interference from penicillin or other treatments.

Originally billed as a six‑month project, the study dragged on for four decades. Even after penicillin became the standard cure in the 1940s, the men were deliberately denied the drug. In exchange for their silence, participants received free health exams and burial services. A lawsuit eventually forced the government to provide burial benefits to surviving participants, but the damage to trust was already done.

9 Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study

During the 1940s, the federal government turned the Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois into a makeshift laboratory, infecting over 400 incarcerated men with malaria. The goal was to test experimental antimalarial drugs, but the twist was that the prisoners themselves acted as both subjects and record‑keepers, documenting symptoms and outcomes on their own.

The inmates were given the chance to reduce their sentences by volunteering for the study, and they even voted on who among them would qualify for sentence reductions. While the promise of a shorter term was tempting, the experimental medicines often produced irreversible side effects, leaving many with lasting health issues.

One of the most notorious participants was Nathan Leopold—infamous for the 1924 murder of Bobby Franks. Leopold later recounted that prisoners accepted the risks with a grim sense of duty, believing their sacrifice might benefit society. Despite the moral quagmire, the study was hailed by some as a vital step toward a malaria cure.

8 Navy‑Sponsored Beef Blood Transfusions

In 1942, Harvard biochemist Edward Cohn partnered with the U.S. Navy on a covert project aimed at discovering a potential biological weapon. The plan involved injecting 64 prisoners with cow blood, hoping to isolate a mysterious protein that could be weaponized during wartime. The outcome was catastrophic: every subject injected with bovine blood suffered fatal reactions.

Although the original experiment failed, Cohn’s subsequent work with human blood led to the isolation of a pure protein that later proved invaluable for treating shock patients. The dark origins of the research were buried under the eventual medical breakthrough, illustrating how even the most dubious beginnings can yield life‑saving discoveries.

7 Plutonium Testing

When the Manhattan Project was in full swing during the mid‑1940s, the government faced a pressing question: what would the long‑term health effects of plutonium exposure be? To answer this, a series of secret experiments were conducted on unsuspecting citizens, many of whom were already terminally ill. Participants received injections of radioactive plutonium, often without any explanation of what they were being given.

Because the term “plutonium” remained classified until after World War II, those involved never knew the true nature of the substance coursing through their veins. While most subjects did not die directly from the injections, the sheer secrecy and willingness to expose civilians to ionizing radiation sparked lasting controversy and deep mistrust of governmental research practices.

6 WWII Mustard Gas Experiments

In World War II, the U.S. military embarked on a series of mustard‑gas experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of gas masks and protective clothing. Roughly 60,000 soldiers—predominantly white men, but also Japanese‑American and African‑American servicemen—were exposed to the lethal chemical in both controlled chambers and outdoor field tests.

Field trials released the gas in open environments, allowing researchers to monitor its impact on clothing, equipment, animals, and even water sources. Some soldiers were deliberately left without protective gear, while others endured hours of exposure in sealed chambers, with tests repeated daily until dangerous physiological reactions manifested. The program’s lack of oversight and blatant disregard for soldier safety remain stark reminders of wartime ethical lapses.

5 Operation Midnight Climax

Under the umbrella of CIA Project MK‑Ultra, chemist Sidney Gottlieb spearheaded a series of mind‑control experiments using LSD and other psychoactive substances. One especially bizarre offshoot, Operation Midnight Climax, turned safe houses in San Francisco, Marin County, and New York City into covert laboratories. Government‑hired prostitutes lured unsuspecting men into these rooms, where they were dosed with LSD while agents observed their behavior behind two‑way mirrors.

Recording devices were hidden in the rooms, disguised as electrical outlets, capturing every twitch and utterance. The atmosphere resembled a raucous party more than a scientific study, with agents sipping cocktails as the subjects’ minds unraveled. Although the CIA eventually deemed LSD too unpredictable for intelligence work, the operation exposed a shocking willingness to violate personal autonomy for the sake of clandestine research.

4 Operation Sea‑Spray

In September 1950, the U.S. Army conducted a covert biological‑warfare test along the San Francisco shoreline, dubbed Operation Sea‑Spray. The experiment involved dispersing a lethal strain of bacteria into the city’s air and water supplies without informing any resident. Six separate releases were carried out, each designed to gauge how quickly the pathogen could spread through a dense urban population.

The fallout was tragic: dozens of citizens fell seriously ill, and several, like Edward Nevin, succumbed after the bacteria migrated from a urinary tract infection to his heart. The government’s conclusion—that coastal cities were vulnerable to biological attacks—came at the cost of innocent lives and widespread panic.

These incidents forced public health officials to reckon with the ethical ramifications of testing weapons on unsuspecting civilians, a debate that still resonates in modern bio‑security discussions.

3 Operation Big Buzz

In the summer of 1955, the United States launched Operation Big Buzz, a massive entomological experiment that released millions of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes—vectors for yellow fever—into parks across Savannah, Georgia. Though the insects were not infected with the disease, the goal was to track how far and how fast they would travel, effectively mapping a potential biological‑warfare delivery system.

Government agents disguised themselves as health‑department officials, meticulously recording bite locations and frequencies as the mosquitoes dispersed into nearby suburbs. The operation revealed that even uninfected insects could be weaponized by simply spreading disease‑carrying pathogens later on.

Big Buzz was just one of several related studies, including Operation Drop Kick (another mosquito trial) and Operation Big Itch, which released disease‑bearing fleas to evaluate their mobility and biting patterns. Together, these projects underscored the U.S. government’s relentless pursuit of unconventional warfare tactics, often at the expense of civilian safety.

2 Willowbrook Experiments

From 1956 to 1970, the infamous Willowbrook State School on Staten Island became the backdrop for a shocking hepatitis‑research program. Institutionalized, mentally disabled children were deliberately infected with hepatitis in order to test experimental treatments and vaccines. The researchers justified the mass inoculations by claiming the virus was already rampant in the facility, arguing that the children would contract it inevitably.

Children who had not yet shown symptoms were intentionally exposed to the disease by the staff, who then administered experimental drugs—many of which proved fatal or caused severe side effects. The ethical breach was stark: the subjects could not consent, and the experiments often resulted in death or long‑term health complications.

1 Measles Vaccine Experiment

Between 1990 and 1991, the Centers for Disease Control embarked on a controversial measles‑vaccine trial aimed at determining whether the vaccine could replace natural antibodies in infants. Thousands of babies in developing nations were injected with the experimental formulation, only to experience severe immune reactions that resulted in numerous deaths—exact numbers remain unclear.

Undeterred, U.S. officials continued the study domestically, administering the same unapproved vaccine to over 1,500 African‑American and Hispanic infants in Los Angeles. The trial persisted until alarming mortality rates among African children—who were dying up to three years after vaccination—forced a halt.

The CDC later confessed that many parents were never informed that their children were receiving an experimental drug that had not yet secured FDA approval, highlighting a profound breach of trust and informed‑consent standards.

As a college student passionate about uncovering hidden histories, I hope this roundup sparks curiosity and encourages vigilance against future violations of ethical research practices.

Over the ages, writers, philosophers, and politicians have fashioned a parade of images for the “ideal citizen.” In reviewing these archetypes, we see that not every one lives up to the lofty label—some are even downright chilling. This roundup of 10 personifications history shows the full spectrum, from lofty philosophers to grim totalitarian prototypes.

10 Ubermensch

The concept of the Ubermensch—sometimes rendered as “superman,” “overman,” or “beyond man”—became inseparably linked with the Third Reich and Nazi propaganda. To the Nazis, it symbolized everything they deemed pure and admirable about the Aryan race, while casting everything else as degenerate.

Although the term first surfaced in Nietzsche’s 1880s treatise Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the philosopher had been playing with the word since his teenage years. He never offered a crystal‑clear definition, leaving it open to interpretation.

Nietzsche envisioned the Ubermensch as a tangled figure: capable of tyrannical impulses yet ultimately rising above them to cooperate for the greater good. He saw this archetype as a balance of opposites—reason and passion, order and chaos—harmonized within a single individual.

In tandem with this balancing act, the Ubermensch assumes total responsibility for the world, refusing to blame any external force—be it God, the Devil, Christianity, or Judaism. The true Ubermensch would own every choice and its consequences.

Further, Nietzsche painted the Ubermensch as a free‑thinking global citizen, able to guide humanity’s evolution. He would discard the shackles of nation‑state identity, embracing a universal humanity. This lofty vision made the Nazis eager to appropriate the term for their own ends.

Ironically, the Nazis also invented the opposite, the Untermensch, twisting Nietzsche’s notion of a “sheeplike” ordinary person into a dehumanized class deemed worthy only of death.

9 The Randian Hero

Ayn Rand’s novels deliver a thunderous declaration about success, industry, and the human condition, giving rise to the archetype known as the Randian hero. These characters stand far from the traditional American ideal of self‑sacrifice and communal good.

Instead, they embody the ultimate capitalist magnate—towering tycoons who sit atop massive fortunes, caring only for themselves. Their moral compass points inward, with no room for altruism.

Rand famously asserted that a man’s first duty is to himself; for the Randian hero, that duty is absolute. Greed becomes a virtue, not a vice. Unlimited wealth is celebrated, and any means to achieve it are deemed acceptable, promising happiness without pain.

8 The Knight Of Faith And The Knight Of Resignation

Søren Kierkegaard draws a sharp contrast between two existential heroes: the knight of infinite resignation and the knight of faith. He illustrates their differences through the mythic tales of Agamemnon and Abraham, each forced to contemplate the sacrifice of a child.

Agamemnon, faced with the choice between his daughter Iphigenia and his people, opts for the collective good, surrendering his child to restore the winds needed for his army. This act makes him the knight of infinite resignation, bearing the weight of the world alone and accepting his grim role without protest.

Abraham, by contrast, receives a divine command to sacrifice his son Isaac. Yet, unlike Agamemnon, Abraham approaches the ordeal with unwavering faith, willingly walking toward the altar. In Kierkegaard’s narrative, his faith averts the tragedy, showcasing the knight of faith’s willingness to trust an unknowable higher purpose.

Both knights represent extremes of bravery. The knight of faith invests everything in a transcendent goal and an unseen authority, while the knight of resignation embraces solitary responsibility, shouldering the world’s burden by himself.

7 Junzi

In Confucian thought, the junzi stands as the benchmark of personal virtue. Originally denoting the son of a noble, the term evolved after Confucius to signify anyone striving toward moral excellence.

The ultimate aim is the shegren—the sage—an almost saintly figure. Since most people cannot achieve this pinnacle, the junzi serves as the next best aspiration, embodying the highest attainable moral standard.

The junzi must embody five core virtues: benevolence (ren), knowledge (zhi), trustworthiness (xin), righteousness (yi), and ritual propriety (li). These guide behavior toward family, community, and the state, contrasting sharply with the self‑serving xiaoren.

In practice, a junzi masters the proper ways of conduct—whether honoring ancestors, observing rites, or behaving responsibly when drinking. He knows his duties and acts in harmony with his social station.

6 The New Soviet Man

Born in the revolutionary fervor of 1917, the New Soviet Man was cast as the embodiment of communist ideals—a template for every citizen to emulate. Its roots trace back to Nietzsche’s Ubermensch, but it was reshaped to fit Marxist‑Leninist doctrine.

Lenin argued that only by shedding old social constraints could the masses forge a new, higher type of human being. This New Soviet Man was imagined as an inexhaustible source of energy, mastering emotions so that raw feeling would no longer dictate actions.

Trotsky described this emotional mastery as a “higher biological type,” and he warned that anyone refusing to conform would be deemed a failure, a lesser being compared to the ideal.

By the 1920s, under Stalin’s direction, the archetype shifted toward industrial might. The New Soviet Man became a tireless factory worker, a cog in the massive Soviet machine, whose labor was essential to achieving the promised utopia.

5 The Political Soldier

When Britain’s National Front fell under the sway of radical right‑wing elements, the notion of the Political Soldier emerged, championed by Derek Holland in his 1984 pamphlet of the same name.

Holland called for an elite cadre of warriors who placed their spiritual and religious convictions above all else, ready to die for their cause. He likened them to Roman centurions and Crusader knights, suggesting that only death could halt such devotion.

He positioned the Political Soldier against a perceived alliance of communism and capitalism, championing support for Libya and Palestine while demanding the expulsion of Zionist Jews and the silencing of certain media influences.

Also referred to as the Warrior Saint or Herald of a New World Order, the Political Soldier was portrayed as a pure, admirable figure. In a 1994 update, Holland reiterated the call for holy war, describing these men as disciplined, single‑purpose fighters willing to sacrifice everything, even detonating bombs, to confront capitalists, Freemasons, communists, and Zionists.

4 Mussolini’s Fascist New Man

With Benito Mussolini’s rise, the Fascist regime sought to forge a New Man—a citizen molded to embody fascist virtues. These individuals were to be rigorously drilled, hardened in combat, and physically sculpted into the ideal.

The regime even erected a central stadium surrounded by nude athletes from every Italian province, a visual testament to unity and the pursuit of the ideal. Beyond battlefield prowess, the New Man was expected to possess an unflinching willingness to restore Italy’s soul at any cost.

This archetype was a study in paradox: contemplative yet daring, authoritative yet beloved, realistic while dreaming of future possibilities.

Drawing inspiration from ancient Greece and Rome, the Fascist New Man combined military virtues with a cultural mission, with Mussolini viewing himself as the architect shaping a blank canvas of citizens into his envisioned masterpiece.

3 The Philosopher King

Plato’s seminal work The Republic tackles an age‑old query: what makes a ruler truly great? Through Socrates, Plato proposes the philosopher king—a leader equipped with both wisdom and practical skill.

The philosopher king perceives truth without distortion and applies that knowledge to any circumstance. He revels in learning and despises falsehood, seeking to guide his city with enlightened insight.

Plato acknowledges that many philosophers are corrupted by their upbringing. Yet, with proper education, a philosopher can evolve into both teacher and ruler.

He outlines a rigorous curriculum: poetry, music, mathematics, astronomy, harmonics, and physical training. Additionally, the study of dialectic leads the philosopher king toward the Form of the Good—a continually expanding understanding that enlightens all it touches.

Plato warns that the populace may resist such a ruler, so the philosopher king thrives best when founding a new city, constructing it from the ground up, and instilling appreciation for knowledge and the Good.

2 The Utopian Socialist New Man

The socialist vision of a New Man took a curious turn in the 1950s, when China reorganized society around a communal ideal. In this model, everyone worked together, theoretically laying the foundations for a new, collective humanity.

Charles Fourier, a French utopian socialist, identified monotony as the chief obstacle to success. He proposed phalanxes—work units where labor rotated with military precision—allowing individuals to thrive and communities to flourish.

Fourier imagined that, within such harmonious societies, men and women would grow to astounding heights—215 cm (seven feet)—and enjoy lifespans of 144 years. Their bodies would become remarkably resilient, capable of regenerating teeth, and after sixteen generations, they would develop a functional tail.

This tail, boasting 144 vertebrae, would enable swimming like fish and climbing trees with ease. Most intriguingly, the tail would end in a tiny hand, allowing its bearer to play musical instruments in a wholly novel fashion.

1 The Unknown Citizen

Pulitzer‑winning poet W. H. Auden penned the satirical piece “The Unknown Citizen” in 1940, profiling the archetypal state‑approved man, designated JS/07 M 378, on a monument erected by an anonymous government.

The poem notes that the Bureau of Statistics never logged a complaint against him. He led a compliant life, working steadily, enjoying a drink now and then, maintaining a handful of friends, reading newspapers, and he was insured when he fell ill.

He purchased modern comforts, never overspent, supported peace in peacetime and war in wartime, married, had an appropriate number of children, and embodied the ideal everyday man.

Auden’s chilling conclusion suggests that true happiness and freedom lie not in changing the world but in being a nameless, faceless cog in society’s vast machinery.

Welcome to our top 10 ridiculous roundup of the most eyebrow‑raising taxes you can actually find on the books of governments around the globe. From daily fees for scrolling through your favorite apps to historic laws that could see a pet shot, these levies prove that when it comes to taxation, creativity knows no bounds.

10 Social Media: Uganda

Uganda introduced a social media tax on June 1, 2018. The highly controversial tax requires citizens using social media sites and apps like Whatsapp, Facebook, and Twitter to pay 200 shillings ($0.05) per day of usage. Citizens are not required to pay the tax on days that they do not use the apps or sites.

Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda, stated that the tax was necessary to counter the threat of gossiping on social media. When he first promoted the tax months earlier, he stated that the money recovered from the tax would allow the nation to “cope with the consequences of gossiping.”

The tax is not popular in Uganda, where citizens have accused the government of encroaching on their freedom of expression. The introduction of the social media tax is not the first time that Museveni has clamped down on social media. In 2016, he suspended access to all social media sites during elections due to claims that people used them to spread lies.

9 Blogging: Tanzania

Do you want to blog in Tanzania? You had better be ready to dole out $440 a year to the government. Thanks to a new law passed under the Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations on March 16, 2018, the Tanzanian government requires all online content creators to get a license and pay an annual tax.

The law does not apply to bloggers alone, although they are the most affected. It also applies to social media users, online forum members, creators of videos and podcasts, online radio and television, and subscribers to online content.

Besides the tax, bloggers and creators of online content are also expected to register with the Tanzanian Communications Regulatory Authority and agree not to post offensive content like pornography, nudity, violence, hate speech, fake news, and content that contains “bad language” or could just cause annoyance.

Initial registration costs 100,000 Tanzanian shillings ($44). Thereafter, the bloggers and online content creators will pay a license fee of one million Tanzanian shillings ($440) starting from the year in which they received the license.

The license is renewable at the same rate every year. Defaulters are liable for a fine of at least five million Tanzanian shillings (about $2,500), 12 months imprisonment, or both.

8 Dogs: Switzerland

Do you live in Switzerland and own a dog? You had better be paying your annual dog tax, or your dog could get shot. The tax has no fixed rate and is dependent on the size of the animal. Depending on the municipality, guide and rescue dogs could be exempt or eligible for a reduced tax.

As expected with any tax, people sometimes avoid paying it. To ensure compliance, authorities of Reconvilier village, which has 280 dogs, threatened to shoot any dog whose owner refused to pay the tax. At that time, the tax in the municipality averaged $48.50 a year.

The municipal authority did not come up with the threat to kill the dogs. A law from 1904 actually allowed the government to kill dogs of owners who refused to pay the tax. Dogs of defaulters were killed from that time until the 1960s when the law was relaxed. However, the village of Reconvilier was strapped for cash, forcing its authorities to bring back the law.

Ironically, Pierre‑Alain Nemitz, the man who headed the village council, started receiving death threats after the village council issued the threat.

7 Religion: Germany

Catholic and Protestant Germans are expected to pay a certain tax on their income to fund their churches. The tax amounts to 8–9 percent of their capital gains (the profits from selling assets). It is collected by the government and given to their churches. This generates considerable income for both churches in the country as 30.8 percent (24.7 million) of its citizens are Catholics and 30.3 percent (24.3 million) are Protestants.

The only way to avoid paying the tax is to officially leave the church. However, this comes with some disadvantages. Any German who officially leaves the Catholic or Protestant Church automatically loses some perks, including the right to a religious burial, use of state‑funded day cares, or access to all church‑owned and some state‑owned schools.

In addition, Catholics can’t make confessions in church or receive communion. They would also forgo the anointing of the sick unless they are close to death.

Nevertheless, some Germans are willing to lose these perks just to avoid paying the tax. Over 100,000 Germans officially leave each of the churches every year. In 2014, this figure almost reached 200,000 in each church after the government closed a loophole that had permitted citizens to avoid the tax because they did not have to report their capital gains.

6 Breathing: Venezuela

Venezuela does not actually tax people for breathing per se. However, it has imposed a special “breathing tax” of 127 bolivars ($20) on passengers flying out of Maiquetia International Airport in Caracas. The government stated that the tax was necessary to offset the cost of the newly installed air filtration system at the airport.

According to the Ministry of Water and Air Transport, the air filtration system sanitizes and deodorizes the airport and stalls the growth of bacteria, thus protecting the health of all passengers. Many Venezuelans mocked the tax on social media. To some, it was enough evidence that the airport was broke and desperate to raise money.

5 Smartphones And Tablets: France

In 2013, France was considering the introduction of a special tax on smartphones and tablets. The tax, which would be 1 percent of the value of the device, would be used to fund the creation of French films, music, and pictures. The tax is based on the cultural exception policy that was introduced in 1993. Under the policy, French broadcasters were expected to pay a cultural tax to fund and promote French cultural projects.

However, with the proliferation of the Internet, many broadcasters are bypassing traditional media to reach their audiences. This meant that they did not pay the tax, which was intended to protect French culture from the influence of US films.

The proposed tax was included in a budget law that the French parliament was to consider in November 2013. However, there is no further news as to whether the law was passed.

4 Bribes, Stolen Goods, And Other Illegal Income: United States

Are you a US citizen with an illegal means of income? Or you just received a one‑off bribe? US federal law demands that anyone who receives a bribe report it as part of their income and pay the applicable tax.

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) demands that anyone who receives a bribe report it as part of their income and pay the applicable tax. The IRS also demands that income from illegal activities like drug dealing be reported and the appropriate tax paid.

In cases of theft, the thief is expected to pay the appropriate tax on the current market value of the stolen item. The thief is only exempted from the tax if he returns the stolen property in the same year that he stole it.

Taxing of illegal income is highly controversial. It contradicts the Fifth Amendment, which gives a person the right against incriminating himself in a crime. The IRS has this covered, though. Anyone engaged in illegal deals does not need to reveal what they did to earn the money. They could just list it as “other income” and pay the applicable tax.

The state of Tennessee has a similar tax, although it is limited to illegal drugs, illegal alcohol, and smuggling. The so‑called crack tax demands that drug dealers, illegal alcohol distillers, and smugglers discretely pay tax on their illegal activities.

Defaulters must prove payment of these taxes if they are ever arrested for their crimes. If they cannot prove that they paid the applicable taxes, they will be charged for tax evasion along with the regular criminal charges.

That could be a big deal. Infamous US gangster Al Capone went to prison in the 1930s for tax evasion and not for murder, the illegal sale of alcohol, or the other criminal activities of his organized crime syndicate.

3 Witchcraft: Romania

Witchcraft and fortune‑telling is big business in Romania, where many people still believe in superstitions. However, the trade was not recognized by the government and, thus, was not taxable. This changed when Romania found itself in recession.

To generate more money, the government imposed taxes on several occupations it had previously not been taxing. This included controversial professions like witchcraft, fortune‑telling, and astrology as well as less questionable jobs like diving instructors, valets, and embalmers. According to the new law, they were all required to pay 16 percent of their income as tax.

The tax divided opinion among Romania’s witches. While some viewed it as the official recognition of their job by the government, others disagreed. They were hostile toward the new tax and threatened to cast spells on the government. The witches warned that they would gather at the tip of the Danube River and throw a mandrake plant into the water to curse the politicians who had created the new tax.

2 Marijuana: United States

The legalization of marijuana remains a bone of contention in the United States. To be clear, medical marijuana—which you can only buy with a doctor’s prescription—is legal in 29 states and Washington, DC, while recreational marijuana—which you take for pleasure and do not need a doctor’s prescription to buy—is only legal in nine states and Washington, DC. However, the US federal government considers marijuana as an illegal item despite contradictory state laws.

Yet, the IRS, a federal agency, requires businesses that plant and sell marijuana to pay federal income tax on this illegal substance. These businesses do pay applicable state income taxes and marijuana sales taxes as well. The IRS tax rules on marijuana businesses are even more stringent than those applied to normal businesses.

Since the US federal government classifies marijuana as illegal, the IRS also recognizes the proceeds of marijuana businesses as illegal and even considers their operations as trafficking. The result is that marijuana businesses cannot deduct expenses for rent, advertising, and employee salaries like other companies. So they pay higher taxes than other businesses.

The only allowable deduction is the expense of growing the marijuana, which the IRS considers as “cost of goods sold.” The stringent IRS tax law is the reason that many marijuana companies cannot afford to open in states where marijuana is legal. Depending upon location, they will be required to pay 40–70 percent of their income as tax.

However, federal tax law is currently much more generous with deductions for Farm Bill–compliant growers of “industrial hemp.”

1 Television And Radio: Germany

In the 1970s, Germany introduced a special tax on citizens who own radios and televisions. It amounts to about $20 a month and is used to fund the state‑owned television and radio networks. The tax caused civil unrest in 2013 when the government required that everyone pay it, even if they didn’t own a television or radio.

Many Germans protested the tax, and some even sued Beitragsservice, which collected the tax on behalf of the government. Beitragsservice resorted to threats of fines and imprisonment to recover the tax. Germans protesting the tax referred to the Beitragsservice as “GEZ‑stapo,” a pun on GEZ (the name of the tax) and the Nazi‑era Gestapo. On the other hand, the German state‑owned media called the protesters GEZ rebels.

Why These Top 10 Ridiculous Taxes Matter

Each of these levies reflects a unique blend of cultural priorities, fiscal desperation, and occasionally, sheer eccentricity. While some aim to fund public services or cultural projects, others reveal a government’s willingness to police everyday life down to the last scroll or wagging tail. Understanding these absurdities helps us appreciate the importance of transparent, reasonable taxation—something we can all agree should be less ridiculous.