The McCarthy Hearings (Full Trial)
This is an incredibly and surprisingly difficult video to watch. In this video, senators, judges, US army members and chief councils are all arguing back and forth with McCarthy usually leading the crazy accusations. The ideas being expressed range from logical conclusions being made about why communism can be harmful, to outlandish and offensive condemnations towards “people who may possibly have been some sort of a communist at one point in time of their lives”. The most important thing that is conveyed in this video (as opposed to being taught in class or shown on a paper) is the tone and word choice of the people involved - McCarthy at times insults people directly to their faces! This quite frankly reminds me of an angry middle schooler, he acts in a way I could only compare to Donald Trump. This really speaks to me about how the McCarthy hearings really were just a crazy mess and there was little to no logic involved. As I mentioned on another blog post, this time in US history often appears on lists with names like “A few examples of mass hysteria in US history” (Steinski). Realizing that many people were really just “going bonkers” helps me to understand the Red Scare, to really get why people were even remotely going along with Joe McCarthy. Overall, this video conveys the insanity that was the McCarthy Hearings, but also shows the underside of WHY they acted in such a way - they were scared and desperately tried to hurt those responsible by creating false victims.
