How is the fear of communism like the fear of witches?

Answer 1

Both of these fears lead to a state of paranoia, because of the possibility that anyone could be a communist, or anybody could be a witch, and we might not even know. People can conceal their true nature and work in secret toward evil purposes. This motivates people to make constant enquiries either into people's political beliefs and associations, when they worry about communist subversion, or to try to determine who has made a pact with the devil or has some telltale sign of supernatural evil - do they own a black cat? And so on. Inevitably, innocent people are falsely accused and persecuted.