How to Use McCarthyism in a Sentence
McCarthyism
noun-
What exactly McCarthyism for our times looks like is still in flux.
—Ali Breland, The Atlantic, 6 Mar. 2026
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These have all been seen until now as allegories of McCarthyism.
—Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
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Ditto for the new embrace of McCarthyism.
—Ali Breland, The Atlantic, 6 Mar. 2026
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McCarthyism, after years, crashed in defeat.
—Chris John Amorosino, Hartford Courant, 16 Jan. 2026
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History shows that nothing good came out of McCarthyism.
—Chris John Amorosino, Hartford Courant, 16 Jan. 2026
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The book did represent a change, a somewhat softer brand of McCarthyism.
—John Williams, Washington Post, 14 June 2023
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Robeson was only one of dozens of activists whose passports were seized during the era of McCarthyism.
—Time, 20 Oct. 2025
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Opponents of McCarthyism, in Garber’s telling, did just that.
—Charlie Tyson, The Atlantic, 27 Apr. 2026
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Just as radio and television were used to stir up the fervor of McCarthyism, they were also used to undermine it.
—Rebecca Jennings, Vox, 10 Jan. 2025
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Bannon doesn’t see this as a departure from the original McCarthyism.
—Ali Breland, The Atlantic, 6 Mar. 2026
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The proposal was an eerie echo of a practice adopted in 1950, as McCarthyism took hold.
—Time, 20 Oct. 2025
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Disagreement is democratic The history of McCarthyism shows where this kind of action can lead.
—Gregory A. Daddis, The Conversation, 26 Nov. 2025
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There’s no real way around historical McCarthyism.
—Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 12 May 2026
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His role model was Paul Robeson, the singer, actor and activist whose career was derailed by McCarthyism.
—Emily Mae Czachor, CBS News, 25 Apr. 2023
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Politics, which play a large part in the original — and in nearly all of Mallon’s books — are here stripped down to the greatest hits of McCarthyism.
—Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 27 Oct. 2023
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The fear, injustice, and corruption of McCarthyism died because the public, the media, and national leaders spoke out.
—Chris John Amorosino, Hartford Courant, 16 Jan. 2026
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Spacey likened his predicament to the experiences of actors of yore, who were swept into the Hollywood blacklist as a result of McCarthyism.
—Zac Ntim, Deadline, 27 Nov. 2025
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Ever since, historians have regarded him as the chief celebrity victim of the national trauma known as McCarthyism.
—Kai Bird, The New Yorker, 7 July 2023
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McCarthyism, as the movement became known, ruined the reputations and destroyed the careers of hundreds of innocent people.
—Chris John Amorosino, Hartford Courant, 16 Jan. 2026
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Redford’s main tasks are to look just as fabulous as Streisand, gaze upon her adoringly, and make sure his character stays likable despite his McCarthyism.
—Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 17 Sep. 2025
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This is a key film that, like many, used McCarthyism as the background for exploring fear, paranoia, and segregation in American society.
—Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
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Likewise, the delusional paranoia provoked by McCarthyism was the basis for Cold War aggression.
—Will Stephenson, Harper's Magazine, 16 Aug. 2023
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After the war the rise of McCarthyism in the 1950s made being a card-carrying communist a problem socially if not legally.
—Richard Selcer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Feb. 2025
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The list inspired similarly divisive reactions, with some accusing the creator of the list of antisemitism and likening it to McCarthyism.
—Moises Mendez Ii, TIME, 14 May 2024
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Others will grow out of them and regret their youthful indiscretions but will be hurt because in their future careers, as former Communists were during McCarthyism.
—Alan M. Dershowitz, New York Daily News, 8 Feb. 2024
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The Lilith Society becomes an escape, particularly as the legacy of McCarthyism hovers over the city.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, PEOPLE, 4 Feb. 2026
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In the way that Kleenex has become interchangeable with tissue, McCarthyism, for many, is an eponym for the unjust, reprehensible use of political power.
—Ali Breland, The Atlantic, 6 Mar. 2026
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The periods before and after the Civil War spring to mind, along with the corruption of the Gilded Age and the repression of McCarthyism.
—The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 10 Mar. 2026
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The true horror of Kaufman's Invasion, though, is that acquiescence gives way to McCarthyism; in conformity, old friends become new enemies.
—Randall Colburn, EW.com, 16 May 2022
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Einstein’s philosophical battle against McCarthyism began with a letter to a Brooklyn high school teacher named William Frauenglass.
—Jodie Childers, The Conversation, 20 Nov. 2025
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'McCarthyism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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