Benjamin J. Davis, born on this day in 1903, was American lawyer and communist who was elected in 1943 to the New York City Council, representing Harlem. Davis was persecuted by the state via the anti-communist Smith and McCarran Acts.

Davis became radicalized through his role as defense attorney in the 1933 trial of Angelo Herndon, a 19-year-old black communist who had been charged “attempting to incite insurrection” because he tried to organize a farm workers’ union.

In 1949, Davis was among a number of communist leaders prosecuted for violating the Smith Act. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. In 1962 Davis was charged with violating the Internal Security Act (also known as the McCarran Act), but died before the case could come to trial.

“Whether one agrees with the Communist Party or not, one must at least know the truth about it. One must not permit his ideas to be shaped by the hysteria which now passes as a ‘crusade against Communism’… For example, the canard that every Communist has his pockets lined with ‘Moscow gold.’ If that were true, one could be sure that there would scarcely be any room in our party for workers. The capitalists, to whom gold is god of the universe, would crowd them out.”

  • Benjamin J. Davis

I hope you nerds have a good month of September cuddle

Remember no crackers

anti-cracker-aktionqin-shi-huangdi-fireball

  • CommunistCuddlefish [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    15·
    17 days ago

    I may have accidentally found the new Frieren.  Do NOT suggest that Dungeon Crawler Carl may have some racist and misogynistic brainworms around fans, 2nd worst mistake I’ve ever made

    agony agony-4horsemen agony-acid agony-consuming agony-deep agony-mescaline agony-minion agony-shivering agony-shrooms agony-soviet agony-turbo

    (I’m exaggerating, most people have been fine about it, but the defenses remind me of the Frieren defenses which hinged upon “but the text says that the racism is fine so it doesn’t reflect upon the characters or the author” like none of us are adults who can read a treatlerite text critically and ask why the author made certain creative decisions or what the work of art’s success may reveal about its fans’ blind spots.)

    • Belly_Beanis [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      13·
      17 days ago

      Someone shared this a few weeks ago, explaining the phenomenon:

      (CW: r*ddit)

      Diegetic Essentialism

      The YouTube video inside was the most relevant bit, especially since it was published before Goblin Slayer was written. There’s a tl;dr at the bottom, so you can ignore the Warhammer stuff.

      • BuhbyeLittleGumshoe [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        9·
        16 days ago

        There is no canon. The lore is not real. It cannot mean or imply anything not expressed by the authors and artists, or so strongly evident in the assumptions of the story, that it’s an inescapable facet of it (e.g. Imperium and fascism).

        If you don’t want to be a consumer brained moron, stop asking “”“''factual”“”“” questions about the lore, and ask instead, “what did the author mean?” “How was this work produced and for what reason?” “Who made it?” “How does it make me feel and what are its themes?” And, most importantly, “is this even good? Is it even worth my time or analysis?”

        Otherwise, you’re just trapping yourself into a series of pointless arguments to justify your consumption

        https://hexbear.net/post/763625

      • CommunistCuddlefish [she/her]@hexbear.net
        7·
        16 days ago

        Good ideas in there, thanks.

        I think it’s interesting then that some fans want DCC both ways: it’s an incisive revolutionary leftist critique of real-world problems but it’s not fair to bring real-world analysis into their fun unserious lighthearted comedy