McCarthyite
Fifties witch-hunter
A McCarthyite is someone who engages in aggressive, often reckless accusations of disloyalty or subversion without proper evidence—after U.S.
Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose 1950s anticommunist crusade ruined careers through innuendo and guilt by association.
The term now applies broadly to any witch-hunt mentality: The campaign turned McCarthyite when they started demanding loyalty oaths.
Anti-communist hysteria period
- anticommunistOpposed to collectivist ideology
- witch huntPersecuting supposed wrongdoers
- blacklistRecord of prohibited entities
- HUACRed Scare congressional committee
loyalty oath · subversive · informer · accusation · demagogue · smear campaign · fellow traveler · Communist Party
Lacking factual support
- unfoundedWithout factual support
- character assassinationDestroying someone's good name
- innuendoOblique disparaging remark
- slanderSpoken false defamation
defamation · persecution · scapegoating · demonization · mud-slinging · rumor · denunciation · fearmongering
Decade after WWII
- Cold WarProlonged East-West standoff
- SenateLegislative body, often bicameral's elder
- WisconsinMidwestern dairy state
- censureFormal institutional disapproval
Rosenbergs · screenwriters · State Department · Truman · FBI
Red Scare
Anti-communist hysteria period
- anticommunistOpposed to collectivist ideology
- witch huntPersecuting supposed wrongdoers
- blacklistRecord of prohibited entities
HUAC · loyalty oath · subversive · informer · accusation · demagogue · smear campaign · fellow traveler · Communist Party · investigation
baseless
Lacking factual support
- unfoundedWithout factual support
- character assassinationDestroying someone's good name
- innuendoOblique disparaging remark
slander · defamation · persecution · scapegoating · demonization · mud-slinging · rumor · denunciation · fearmongering · hysteria
1950s
Decade after WWII
- Cold WarProlonged East-West standoff
- SenateLegislative body, often bicameral's elder
- WisconsinMidwestern dairy state
Rosenbergs · censure · screenwriters · State Department · Truman · FBI
McCarthyitepluralist
Believer in diverse coexistence
tolerant · anti-authoritarian · free thinker · open-minded · liberal
McCarthyitefair-minded
Judging without prejudice
evidence-based · measured · judicious · scrupulous · principled