Why didn't Joseph McCarthy accuse people of being Trotskyists?

[Boojatta]

[moriah]

1. Other: Trotskyist just isn't a lyrical name to use to villify someone.

Stalinist just rolls off the tongue.

[HopeHoops]

2. Other: Where are the "Kitteh" and the "I like to vote" options?

[daleanime]

3. Even then...

teabaggers couldn't spell.

[moriah]

5. +1

[BOG PERSON]

4. he was afraid of the trotskyite-newsprint complex

[hlthe2b]

6. What does this have to do with hating the British Royals & the wedding?

What, I ask you, what?







:evilgrin:

[joshcryer]

7. False question, it presumes "Trotskyism" was a force then. It wasn't.

The Fourth International hardly had an effect in the United States.

Blaming communists was just in thing, like how some countries blame US imperialism or terrorists. You just need something to attack.

[rug]

8. They didn't hold state power.

[socialist_n_TN]

9. Other. He didn't know the difference between

Trotskyists and Stalinists. They were all commies to him.

[white_wolf]

10. Probably because the 4th International wasn't a threat.

The average American probably had and likely still has no clue what Trotskyism is, but you say "Stalinism" and they see images of the USSR. It is a much better fear tactic. Besides the term "workers democracy" doesn't sound nearly as scary as "totalitarian hell-hole on par with the Third Reich."

[joshcryer]

12. And people who said that were dead ass wrong.

Stalinism made the Third Reich look like sweethearts.

[inna]

19. a mind-blowingly ignorant and/or revealing statement. wow. that's pretty extreme shit right there.

[Hannah Bell]

23. no surprise

[Deep13]

11. Not scary enough. nt

[Gidney N Cloyd]

13. Other: McCarthy adored Trotsky's Clodagh Rogers impression.

[OutNow]

14. McCarthy had secret crush

on Farrell Dobbs.

[Puregonzo1188]

16. How many other people besides you and me to you think

even knows who that is?

[DutchLiberal]

15. Because nobody knew what a Trotskyist was.

People obviously had heard about Stalin. I doubt many people would have known who Trotsky was.

[gkhouston]

17. +1. People might have assumed Trotskyists were diarrhea sufferers.

Or, perhaps, diarrhea enjoyers. x(

[Jack Rabbit]

21. My Other vote is related to that idea

McCarthy had no idea what a Trotskyite was and all he knew about about Communism is that it was "bad" and that Communists were trying to destroy the American way of life.

I guess another good way of putting that is that he knew as much about Communism as he knew about that list of names he waved around.

[Puregonzo1188]

18. The first people prosecuted under the Smith Act were Trotskyists.

Additionally, to this day the Socialist Workers Party, a former Trotskyist group, does not have to disclose campaign contributions to the FEC because of the history of government repression of its members.

[socialist_n_TN]

20. Yep, the repression was there. BUT.........

it was there because they were Reds, not because they were a BRANCH of Reds. Like I said in my original post in this thread, the HUAC didn't differentiate betweens different Marxist groups. In thier eyes, they were ALL Reds.

[inna]

22. they did, actually. (main) targets were communists, not marxists per se.

(not all marxists are communists, and not all communists are marxists, despite the common misconception.)