![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Joe McCarthy, or The Weatherman
Apr. 15th, 2016 11:47 amJohn C. Wright, he of many words, has a lengthy post up about Communists stealing his manly essence under his bed. I frankly can't be arsed to read the whole thing with any care. I can be arsed to note that he repeats the claim that "Joe McCarthy was right." For those a bit hazy on history, McCarthy was the Senator who ran around waving a list of names of known Communists in US government. So, was McCarthy right?
Well, yes, in a narrow sense. Let me unpack that. If you announce that you are a meteorologist and every day issue a prediction that it will rain tomorrow, you will be correct some percentage of the time (at least here in Illinois). If you further point out that sometimes rain comes with damaging winds, again here in Illinois you'll be occasionally right. However, I suspect the general public will find that your "predictions" are of little use.
Thus unto McCarthy. There were Communists trying to infiltrate the US government, and some of them had, although by the time McCarthy started to wave his list around many of them were being shown the door. In short, if you call everybody a Communist, you will occasionally land on one.
What McCarthy actually did was help Communists. His wild and baseless accusations allowed people to claim that they were being falsely accused. It discredited the whole process, much like the weatherman who always predicts rain.
Source 1
Source 2
Well, yes, in a narrow sense. Let me unpack that. If you announce that you are a meteorologist and every day issue a prediction that it will rain tomorrow, you will be correct some percentage of the time (at least here in Illinois). If you further point out that sometimes rain comes with damaging winds, again here in Illinois you'll be occasionally right. However, I suspect the general public will find that your "predictions" are of little use.
Thus unto McCarthy. There were Communists trying to infiltrate the US government, and some of them had, although by the time McCarthy started to wave his list around many of them were being shown the door. In short, if you call everybody a Communist, you will occasionally land on one.
What McCarthy actually did was help Communists. His wild and baseless accusations allowed people to claim that they were being falsely accused. It discredited the whole process, much like the weatherman who always predicts rain.
Source 1
Source 2
