Salem Witch Trials Vs Mccarthy Era

During the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Era, many people were accused of awful crimes and given harsh punishments over nothing more than speculations. These times during history were filled with fear and paranoia that people were lying about who they said they were. Often times the initial accusations that these people were witches, during the Salem Witch Trials, or communists, during the McCarthy Era, were based off of poor reasoning, or little evidence at all. Although the reasoning behind these claims are very different, it is easy to see just how unreasonable they were, and how paranoid and ready to jump to conclusions everyone was at these times.

During the Salem Witch Trials, there were two common characteristics connecting the

Taking advantage of the situation, Joseph McCarthy, a right wing senator, accused thousands of public figures of being a communist or associating with the group, and brought many of them to court for it. Most of the people targeted during this time were well known by the public, usually being a government official, celebrity, or homosexual, and shared a common viewpoint; they were well known for being a leftist (“Joseph R. McCarthy”). He often had little evidence to backup his claims, but proceeded to blame the advancement of communist governments on secret communists in the US government. When the accused were brought to court, McCarthy would often times exaggerate their views to where it could be believable that they were communists, but in most cases there was never enough proof to indict them. His position of power is what allowed him to continue to reveal the secret communists in the US, even with his lack of information to backup his claims. McCarthy wasn’t the only one exposing innocent people as communists throughout the country (“McCarthy Says Communists Are in State Department”). After seeing how he could still succeed and people were still supporting him, groups emerged solely to expose communists living in the US, just like McCarthy was doing. Mccarthy’s actions lead to a mass hysteria of falsely exposing people as communists, and

The only reason why these incidents happened was because there was a problem throughout the community/country, and the easiest way people could deal with it was by finding a scapegoat to blame the happenings on (“Joseph R. McCarthy”; “Salem Witch Trials”). These scapegoats often had little evidence against them to prove who they were being accused of, and that is why it is so unbelievable that these events actually took place in the past. The accused were often singled out because what they believed in or did was seen as wrong by the accusers. Often times during their trials, there was little evidence to prove that they were what others had claimed they were, but they still started their trials at a “guilty until proven innocent” standpoint. After their trials, the accused would often be singled out as outsiders and would never be seen the same again by society (“Who Were the Victims in the Salem Witch Craze?”; “McCarthy Says Communists Are in State Department”). These periods of history were similar besides the way people treated those labeled as communists or witches. Both time periods were filled with fear and uncertainty about who would be singled out as the next wrongdoer of society. Although these times were hundreds of years apart and very different, it shows just how easily a community can fall into mass hysteria if the circumstances are right