• melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Not formally. Talk to a cop while wearing a red bandana and clothing with a red star or hammer and sickle on it.

        (Please don’t ban me for suggesting suicide, I don’t actually want them to do this)

        • oatscoop@midwest.social
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          8 months ago

          If you had actually read the Wikipedia article:

          In 1973, a federal district court in Arizona decided that the act was unconstitutional, and Arizona could not keep the party off the ballot in the 1972 general election (Blawis v. Bolin). In 1961, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the act did not bar the party from participating in New York’s unemployment insurance system (Communist Party v. Catherwood).

          So yes, the law passed during the the McCarthy era … and was afterwards declared unconstitutional.

          The Communist Party USA is still around and even have a website.

          • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            Ah, fair, didn’t see that it got repealed. My original point was more to state that the legal system works against Communism, America is a thoroughly anti-Communist project both within and without.

        • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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          8 months ago

          Someone better tell these people they all could be arrested at any moment!

          https://www.cpusa.org/

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_USA

          No but seriously it’s an unenforceable junk law that no one has bothered to take the time to repeal that was never even really used in the first place. I mean, the communist party runs candidates for office to this day. Someone finally tried to use it in 1972 to keep a communist candidate off the ballot and a federal district Court promptly ruled it unconstitutional.

          https://www.plainsite.org/dockets/1zey0ee5l/arizona-district-court/blawis-v-bolin/

          • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            Ah, fair, didn’t see that it got repealed. My original point was more to state that the legal system works against Communism, America is a thoroughly anti-Communist project both within and without.

            • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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              8 months ago

              I’d say more broadly the legal and political system works against any organizations that threaten the status quo, but yes America’s attitudes toward communism have been pretty obvious throughout the twentieth century. I just took issue with the idea that political parties or idealogies are illegal in and of themselves in the US, constitution still manages to protects some things.

        • force@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          “Communist Party” and “Communism” are not equivalent concepts

          • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            Who makes that distinction? Plus, the idea of destroying the state, Capitalism, class divides, and money definitely is legally opposed.

            • force@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Who makes that distinction?

              … literally anyone who thinks about it? The US Communist Party is one party, there are plenty of other parties that identify as communist. You don’t have to be called “The Communist Party” to be communist.

              Socialist Alternative

              Revolutionary Communist Party

              Workers World Party

              New Afrikan Black Panther Party

              Party for Socialism and Liberation

              Communist parties aren’t popular at all, but they’re far from banned. There are multiple such parties.

              • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                8 months ago

                Laws are interpreted and wielded by those in power. The Democrats are already called Communists, what happens if a genuine Socialist party takes some amount of power?

                • force@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  That’s literally an argument against anything that exists at all. That’s kind of how laws work, linguistics is complicated so everyone’s interpretation is different, and many people in power intentionally misinterperet laws. But as it stands, communist parties are not banned. What you speak of is a big “what if”, and currently you saying communism as a whole is banned is simply wrong, even as an oversimplification.

                  It is a big stretch to turn “Parties other than the two largest ones in the country have considerable cultural, legal, and logistical obstacles to being able to participate in high-level American politics, and an unenforced law from 70 years ago banned one specific communist party before most of the provisions being repealed by congress and the law being overturned in state courts as unconstitutional” into “Communism is banned in the United States”. There is no legal way to criminally prosecute someone on the basis of them being a communist, or belonging to any specific communist party at all, in the modern day.

                  I’m not trying to be condescending or anything btw.

                  • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                    8 months ago

                    It’s an intentionally anti-Communist law, it’s pretty simple to see how Communism is legally unfavored.

            • Rusty Shackleford@programming.dev
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              8 months ago

              Who makes that distinction?

              Anyone versed in basic political theory.

              An ideology and a political organization are obviously different. Just like republicanism and The Republican Party, democracy and The Democratic Party, socialism and The Socialist Party, etc.

              destroying the state

              That’s technically sedition, so, yes, illegal.

              Capitalism

              Nowhere in U.S. jurisprudence is “capitalism” (verbatim) explicitly protected as an economic system. The 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause prevents the state from taking someone’s life, liberty, or property without a proper justification under the laws of the land. The Constitution protects individuals from the government. Freedom to contract is a principle that underpins the basis for a free-market economy.

              After the Great Depression, the Court began to treat the freedom to contract as less than absolute, asserting that such freedom may be limited by the State’s interest to protect its citizens. Capitalism is a right guaranteed by the constitution but limited in scope to protect individuals against the dangers of laissez-faire capitalism.

              class divides

              There are no explicit laws in U.S. jurisprudence (that I know of or have turned up on brief internet searches) that enforce “class divides”.

              money

              Be it resources, precious metals, or legal tender, money is protected by the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

              So we can conclude that the advocacy or practice of communism isn’t itself illegal. Forcing people to practice it or overthrowing the government and dissolving The Bill of Rights in order to force people to practice most certainly is.

              In my opinion, that’s a good thing.

              • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                8 months ago

                Communism isn’t Communalism. Advocating for Communism and attempting to implement Communism at a national level is illegal, as you’ve shown.

                • Rusty Shackleford@programming.dev
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                  8 months ago

                  Communism isn’t Communalism.

                  Yes, that’s true.

                  Advocating for Communism

                  … is legal, under the 1st Amendment.

                  attempting to implement Communism at a national level is illegal

                  By force, yes. Theoretically, with a broad enough consensus, it could be voted on and enacted.

                  All pedantry aside, it’s important to differentiate between theory and practice or ideology and an organization.

                  • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                    8 months ago

                    I understand, however my non-pedantic point is that the US legal system works against Communism. The US is a firmly anti-Communist project both within and without.

                    Attempting to bring about Communism is impossible legally because it cannot be voted in, unless you believe it’s possible to simply ask a billionaire to not be.