a period of time, generally characterized as the early to mid 50s, when there was a "communist" scare in the united states. A number of prominent republican politicians (most notably Senator Joe MacCarthy[for whom the term is named] and vice-president Nixon) orchestrated the political "purge" of a number of institutions (most notably, the film industry and the state department) of members suspected to have communist sympathies or "Leftist" thoughts. By simply labling individuals as communist sympathizers, the careers and reputations of hundreds of individuals were ruined. It is now widely accepted that the majority of the victims of MacCarthyism were indeed innocent, and labled only to further the social (anti-Semitic) or political (anti-liberal) goals of those who carried the policy out. But MacCarthy and his sympathizers were able to convice the public that a real and genuine threat actually existed, when in fact there were very few potentially dangerous individuals that were "purged."

When I say, the watchword has changed, I mean it has now become "terrorist" rather than "communist"

 

McCarthyism : The practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence.


Nobody called this kid a communist. They merely investigated a complaint by the school system of a possible threat to the president. If anything, the kid's family and "family friend" are doing more to publicize this than anyone else.

 

I don't think you quite understand the direction I was going with that comparison. I'm not trying to say this kid is a victim of political persecution, I'm just pointing out that there is a growing trend of one-dimentionalization of political and social thought among many Americans. That kind of thought can be very dangerous and destructive if it goes too far.

 

Exactly... that's why White_n_Slow noted that the watch word had been changes to "terrorist". Not once in the article was he accused of being a terrorist, but look how many people jumped up saying, for example, that he could have been trained by some white al quaida forces, and thus a terrorist waiting to bloom?

It still amuses and angers me that the current administration had the call to call the NEA a terrorist organization as well... I agree WnS, this is gonna get hairy...

 

however, there is one notable difference. while communists, or those labled as such may have posed no real threat, terrorists on the other hand do.

 

NEA?:thinking:

 

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I would rather the FBI and Secret Service investigate every possible threat to the US than have another plane crash into a building. Or a dirty bomb go off or anthrax be pumped into an airport. I'm not saying squash the opposing viewpoint, I'm saying stop the people who openly hate the United States and publicly air their hatred and their intent. This kid displayed some of the attributes of a possible threat to the president in his artwork. An "effigy" of the president displayed in a violent manner.

 

The point is that the public was willing to buy a blatant lie because the government worked up their largely unfounded fears.

 

What is the lie?

 

I love the United States, but I hate many of its policies. If I openly express this hatred, would you have me arrested? By presenting his criticism of the Bush administration's Iraq policies, this kid is simply exercising his right to protest the actions of his own government.

You call them violent, and they may be (although none of us can make that call since we haven't seen them). But even so, it is an artistic protest, not a threat of violence.