the problem with mccarthyism wasn’t that the people accused of being communists actually weren’t (many of them were communists politically) it was that that was an accusation worthy of senate hearings, job loss, blacklisting, and possibly imprisonment. it was that communism was falsely seen as a muscovite invention rather than as a global sociopolitical movement with pre-soviet roots and different methodology being used in different places and times. those accused and tried and convicted (of apparently utilizing they’re first amendment rights) weren’t brain-washed russian spies, they were regular american citizens whose one crime was wanting the liberation of the proletariat.












