What is McCarthyism?

Answer 1

McArthy was a congressman in the fities who led which hunts against american citizens he considered communist sympathizers....it resulted in the lives of many people being ruined simply for having a college friend decades earlier who was considered a subversive...... The term is used to describe a movement to discredit people based solely on thirer beliefs

Answer 2

McCarthyism was the Salem Witch Hunts of the 1950's in which Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed to have a list of communist sympthaizers. Eventually people started seeing the light especially when McCarthy stated accusing people in the military of being sympathizers. Unfortunalty several peoples lives were destroyed or seriously wounded including Lucille Ball and Dezi Arnaz.

Answer 3

McCarthyism is synonymous with modern day witch hunts. Senator Joseph McCarthy launched a series of Senate hearings on communists spies. Many people were falsly accused of being a communist and their lives ruined.
In 1995, the former Soviet Union, now Russia released it's KGB files. There were in fact many Soviet spies in the United States and quite a few in very high places. One of them was a vice president under FDR. President Clinton ordered the files removed from the National Archives and classified. I don't know why President Bush has not made them public again.
The Senate hearings that McCarthy launched against the communists were not exactly new. Those same types of hearings were held to find Nazis during WW2.
During the Great Depression, the economy was so bad that many Americans turned to either the communist or the nazis for guidance. Our present day labor unions are the result of those who followed the communists. To this day I think the labor unions are still trying to bring us the "communist utopia" because they are destroying our economy.

Answer 4

It's an ugly form of political witch-hunting, using the tools of paranoia, bullying and slanderous lies to ruin the lives of innocent people.

it's not even political, it is a kind of insane religious fervor.

Fortunately, Joe McCarthy came to disgust most Americans, much like Ann Coulter does now.

Basically these people are savages of a sort, very primitive and kind of unbalanced mentally. Angry, dark people, bent on some mysterious form of revenge.

Answer 5

He was a senator n the 50's that exposed what he suspected to be persons in the communist party. He went a little overboard and was criticized for his actions. Most of the ones he figured have now been shown to be indeed members of the party.

Answer 6

a former senator who went too far hunting down communists in the liberal establishment (even though they were invariably communists whom he found), and lives today as a boogey man of the far left.

case in point were the names given by elia kazan - all of whom were indeed active communists. in response to kazan's statements (which were unneccessarily forced by Govt threats of being made a cultural pariah); kazan's former (communist) friends, made him into a hollywood pariah.

Answer 7

Very similar to GOPism.

Senator McArthy bred fear throughout the nation and accused innocent Americans of plotting to overthrow the country from within. He ruined several families and careers with his Stalin like methods.

Answer 8

just what she said plus they encouraged people to rat on their neighbors what a crock of hooey and now bush is trying the same thing and the public is falling for it all over again

Answer 9

Fighting communism with innuendo.

It was so absurd, I think McCarthy may have been a communist agent.

Answer 10

Rabid anti-communism ... gaining advantage by claiming that your enemies are communist and making them defend themselves.

Much like people are now claiming that liberals are helping the terrorists.

It is distorting facts to your political advantage by using terror.