How were the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy hearings alike?

Answer 1

They both deal with the community turning on each other due to false accusations, in the Salem Witch trails, Abigail is the one accusing other towns people of there witchcraft, in almost all case's she does not have any evidence, except the play she puts on for the community, she starts to use fear to keep people who know the truth from speaking out, and she accuses anyone she hasn't already if they challenger her and say she's lying. Joseph McCarthyism, happened when Joseph McCarthy started falsely accusing people of being a communist, a lot of them lost there jobs and ruined there reputations for the rest of there life's. Most of the accusations had no proof to back them up and yet got such main stream publicity by the media that most of the people accused names where never fully cleared.

Answer 2

People with some influence on the population were afraid, ignorant and others were greedy. They manipulated the truth for many reasons and people paid with their property and lives. Different ways of life were suspect and therefore must be bad and removed from narrow minded societies. Religion and politics, both often attract the worst parts of mankind and allows them to strike out at their fears with seeming impunity backed by the population.

Answer 3

The two are often compared because of the basic element that caused them both: fear. Both were the result of panic over an imminent threat from the age they come from. In Salem, it was witches and it was Communism and the Soviet Union in Washington D.C

Answer 4

The Salem Witch Trials are similar to McCarthyism based on the idea that both were brought on by hysteria. The hysteria in the Salem Witch Trials led to many girls being accused of witch craft and hanged. McCarthyism was fueled by hysteria because people accused others of Communism on a whim. Both were fueled by paranoia. A good example of the Salem Witch Trials in literature to compare to McCarthyism is the play The Crucible.

Answer 5

They are not. McCarthyism is the brainchild of a neuortic senator afraid of communism for no good reason. The Salem witch trials were the result of Puritan fear and an epidemic of an unidentified illness.

Answer 6

There are great similarities between the Salem witch trials and McCarthyism. These are both cases in which society persecuted innocent people because of paranoid delusions. None of the people blacklisted by McCarthy and the House Unamerican Activities Committee were actually Soviet agents, and none of the people who were executed for witchcraft were actually witches, but in these cases it was enough to accuse people, no real evidence was required, nor was there any way for people to prove that they were innocent.

Answer 7

They hurt innocent people. apex

Answer 8

They hurt innocent people

Answer 9

They were both a "witch hunt".