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Originally Posted by FoolThemAll
If McCarthy had good reason to believe what he said about the level of infiltration, then he did not use scare tactics. Perhaps we have different ideas of what a scare tactic constitutes; I consider dishonesty to be part of it.
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I understand that you are trying to be balanced here, but I would be careful before defending McCarty. Remember that his name became synonomous with witchhunt. He had no problem destroying lives with slander and innuendo, finally sealing his own fate when he grew arrogant enough to accuse the Army of being infiltrated with communists. It's only today that enough time has passed between that era and now that kooks like Ann coulter can try to salvage his reputation without being laughed at openly. Make no mistake, the man was alcoholic, self-serving scum.
Edit: it's possible and common to couple scare tactics with reality. In fact, those are the most effective scare tactics...for example:
"There were n muders in the US last year, a decline of x%"
versus
"There were n murders in the US last year! A man is not safe in his own house! Vote for me and I'll personally disembowel criminals"
These aren't great examples, but I hope you see what I mean.