The clamoring against the "woke mob" and "wokeness" again reached a crescendo in Peggy Noonan's recent (10/16) WSJ column where she squawks:
We have written in this space of how much people in the arts and entertainment hate the regime and its rigid and capriciously imposed censorship. They know a new McCarthyism when they see it; they know a new Hays Office when they see that too. But they have to be careful, and they tell their writers and artists to be careful. They’re all walking on eggshells because they can’t always anticipate what will be Bad Thought next month.
Peggy again, like so many on the Right, or" light Right", conflates and confuses harsh criticism (such as recently directed at comic Dave Chapelle) with harsh sanction meted out by reactionary lawmakers to the point of severe punishment - such as occurred under Sen. Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) . This vicious political hit machine pretty well destroyed the reputations and careers of hundreds of actors, writers, including Dalton Trumbo, who even had to serve prison time. From Wikipedia:
The writers refused to give information about their own or any other person's involvement (in the communist party) and were convicted for contempt of Congress. They appealed the conviction to the Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds and lost. Trumbo served eleven months in the federal penitentiary in Ashland, Kentucky in 1950.
Trumbo was subsequently blacklisted and could only work under an assumed name. Again from Wikipedia:
The MPAA issued a statement that Trumbo and his compatriots would not be permitted to work in the industry unless they disavowed Communism under oath. After completing his sentence, Trumbo sold his ranch and moved his family to Mexico City with Hugo Butler and his wife Jean Rouverol, who had also been blacklisted. In Mexico, Trumbo wrote 30 scripts (under pseudonyms) for B-movie studios such as King Brothers Productions. In the case of Gun Crazy (1950), adapted from a short story by MacKinlay Kantor, Kantor agreed to be the front for Trumbo's screenplay. Trumbo's role in the screenplay was not revealed until 1992.
So it's hardly a case of "knowing a new McCarthyism" when "they" see it. Because if the analogy was accurate we'd not only see "mean tweets" from the so-called "woke" and calling for cancellation of offenders' gigs, but real jail time and wreckage of careers which has not transpired.
But see, it's convenient for the Righties to conflate things to stir outrage about free speech rights among the densans and lower IQ groups. None of them are able to think, after all, so it's easy to be misled and get rattled over "cancel culture" which isn't remotely the same as Joe McCarthy's Inquisition.
The Right's squawkers also succeed because they know that too few of those they are writing for are familiar with the details of American history in certain eras - especially the McCarthy era and even the Civil War and Reconstruction.
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AND:
to prison.
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