Though the McCarthyism Era began during the early to late 1950’s the phenomenon excited way before being labeled McCarthyism, campaigning while pushing false accusations to get ahead of the race was nothing new but was popularized by Joseph McCarthy during the middle of the Cold War when he began accusing groups people of being communists. Anti-Communists views mixed in with falsely accusing people of being communists was becoming the new form of nationalism which was slowly dying and was being replaced with a completely new identity containing fear and ignorance. Nationalism was being compromised with a new form …show more content…
In the chosen source it states “Gauging the vox populi, the man reports that when he goes to the movies and sees McCarthy in the news reels, “sometimes you hear a lot of boos, sometimes you hear a lot of cheer.” this quote shows how diverse the opinion of McCarthyism was amongst the American people, some believed that McCarthy held good intentions with his accusations and some thought otherwise believing that his mind set was ruining lives and careers. This source also states “Theoretically, anyone who worked for a living comprised the pool of potential blacklestees” and “Blacklisting is the practice of refusing to hire or terminating from employment an individual whose opinions or associations are deemed politically inconvenient.” these quotes can indeed justify why some American citizens were against the McCarthy mindset and agenda, being blacklisted was a scary thing that you could potentially be fired over by if you had a unpopular opinion and wanted to share it. Even the idea of someone being fired over having a controversial opinion was crossing the line for some people believing that it was un-American. The source also contributes to the idea of fear as a anti-communist tactic saying “The entertainment industry was “Scared by the blacklist,”. These sources show how the American people truly felt about the effects of McCarthyism in the United