McCarthyism

From McCarthy +‎ -ism, named after United States Senator Joseph McCarthy. Originates from a 1950 Washington Post political cartoon by Herbert Block.

McCarthyism (usually uncountable, plural McCarthyisms)

1. (derogatory) The mass pressure, harassment, and/or blacklisting used to pressure people to follow popular political beliefs, especially as opposed to communism.
   • 2024 November 17, Carole Cadwalladr, “How to survive the broligarchy: 20 lessons for the post-truth world”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 November 2024:

     This is McMuskism: it’s McCarthyism on steroids, political persecution + Trump + Musk + Silicon Valley surveillance tools. It’s the dawn of a new age of political witch-hunts, where burning at the stake meets data harvesting and online mobs.

McCarthyism

1. The intense opposition to, and fear and suspicion of, Communism, particularly in the United States during the 1950s.

   Hypernym: anticommunism

   • 1964, Daniel Bell, The Radical Right, page 234:

     An important symptom of the difference between McCarthyism and Birchism is the shift in the geographical center of gravity.

• McCarthyist
• McCarthyistic
• McCarthyite
• McCarthyesque

• witch-hunt