McCarthyism is generally when someone in power abuses their authority to accuse others without evidence, often for a personal vendetta. A wide-ranging investigation that goes beyond it's scope is carried out. An atmosphere of fear is created. People's reputations get damaged. People's Constitutional rights are violated. Although it can also just mean whenever someone accuses people of a conspiracy without evidence I will use the former definition.
Have any of those things happened here? Whose rights have been violated? Oh and people routinely get dragged in front of Congress by both parties for grandstanding purposes and nothing comes of it. Perhaps something to keep in mind when using scary words.
> McCarthyism is generally when someone in power abuses their authority to accuse others without evidence, often for a personal vendetta.
Your personal, ad hoc definition of McCarthyism is no better than any other. Generally, McCarthyism is persecution of people because of their ideas, because of wrongthink, which is the case here.
> Oh and people routinely get dragged in front of Congress by both parties for grandstanding purposes and nothing comes of it.
That's not an argument. Yes, many appear before Congress as was the case during McCarty too, but only some of those appearances, then and now, can be qualified as McCarthyism.
Let me underline that "nothing comes of it" is wrong on several levels - first, wrongthink persecution always has consequences - at the very least, the target organization or individual are put on the defensive, stressed and strained for resources while the persecutors have no such constraints.
Second, sometimes more serious consequences do "come out of it" which is not reflected at all in your argument. The most salient lesson in McCarthyism is that it caught roots in the US (something thought to be impossible) and for how long it dragged along. Therefore anything that even slightly looks like McCarthyism must be called out lest we slide down the slippery slope again. Trying to hide risks that are clearly manifested in history isn't fair play.
> Perhaps something to keep in mind when using scary words.
Perhaps it's better to keep in mind that one shouldn't be scared of words and should try to understand them instead.
Have any of those things happened here? Whose rights have been violated? Oh and people routinely get dragged in front of Congress by both parties for grandstanding purposes and nothing comes of it. Perhaps something to keep in mind when using scary words.