" . . . In fact, the capitalist and the soviet think of people the same way: cogs in a machine. Cogs in a machine, to benefit a central committee on one hand and a board of directors on the other. Neither of them cares a bit about self-respect, about the decent treatment we all deserve. . . "
And add to this that Joe McCarthy is a comical figure and a heavy drinker. Further add that the claims are ridiculous, for example, that some consumer's union is 'communist' or that Soviet-American Friendship Committee -- when we were allies during the war! -- is oh-so bad or terrible. Looked at a certain way, the whole 'red scare' was just so stupid.
I can easily imagine a backlash where a goodly number of citizens previously not all that interested in politics want to learn about socialist ideas, and the hell with foolish old men, we're going to be brave and learn about it anyway!
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But, on the other side of the ledger . . .
the Soviets cheated in Eastern Europe,
they developed an atomic bomb in 1949,
and then in 1950, we get involved in a serious war in Korea.
What is going on? With World War II, we win the most important war in recent memory and we're clearly on the right side.
From there, it sure seems like we've squandered away our advantages. At the very least, doddering old fools have been seriously incompetent. And it isn't hard to imagine malice of some fashion or another. Which is why you got the paranoid style of the John Birchers, etc. And humans are all stripes are surprisingly open to conspiracy theories, it too quickly dots the i's and crosses the t's. It's almost a cognitive processing flaw / emotional intelligence / lack of patience on the part of us human beings.
So, all in all, even with some things going in our favor, quite a challenge!