Similarities Between Salem And Mccarthyism

Fear is a dangerous tool, for it can be used in countless ways and for numerous objectives. Politics of fear is the concept that people may incite fear in the general public to achieve political or workplace goals through emotional bias. Two examples of politics of fear being used in the past to “convince” people to do something are the witch trials in Salem and the McCarthy hearings. While far apart in time, they are extremely similar in idea and process, both had an end goal of getting their respective “defendants” to incriminate themselves.
The Salem witch trials were a sequence of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690’s. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty people. The time

Joseph McCarthy produce a series of investigations and hearings during the 1950s in an effort to expose supposed communist infiltration of various areas of the U.S. government. The fear of Russia played a major factor in McCarthyism. Around those times there was a deep fear among the American people and government of Russia. This allowed for a much easier path to investigate the alleged communists without any pushback. As McCarthy built up speed there was less and less pushback and more support from pouring in from all corners of America. ‘Merica had a deep fear of Russia and Russian spies, which was caused by the feeling of impending war between Russia and America. During hearings, McCarthy often asked extremely detailed questions involving what the person did 10 years ago. When the accused persons would invoke the Fifth Amendment to protect themselves, McCarthy would say this is "the most positive proof obtainable that the witness is

In both, majority of the people would end up lying out of fear put on them by the government or the population. In the Salem Witch trials people were accused of being witches and many were hanged. With McCarthyism people were accused of being sympathetic to and involved with russia and communism. Throughout both cases these people were accused without much evidence, and mass hysteria heavily contributed. The McCarthy Hearings were referred to as "witch-hunts" because of their similarity to the Salem witch trials. They both struck fear in the people due to the "guilty until you confess" attitude which ruled the courts. In Salem the only way to escape death was to confess and repent; in the McCarthy hearings if you were accused, whether guilty or not, you would always be viewed as a Communist. McCarthy also relates to Abigail in The Crucible, because they both made false accusations against innocent people. McCarthy accused people of being communists, whereas Abigail accused people of being