America's Apparent Return to the Dark Ages of McCarthyism/Elimination of Freedom of Speech and the Right to Criticize
Political and media organizations, both liberal and conservative in America, have launched McCarthy-era-like attacks against individuals and organizations that criticize US foreign policy and are denying and obstructing freedom of expression and the right to oppose.
The academic investigation into "anti-Semitism" being conducted by the US House of Representatives is strikingly reminiscent of the McCarthyist era in America, when all eyes were on Senator McCarthy's televised hearings.
These meetings, which in practice were a kind of interrogation session, were sharply criticized by supporters of freedom of speech in the United States.
University rectors who were questioned by these senators at these meetings were forced to resign after being labeled as supporting communism.
"McCarthyism" is an indirect form of censorship, when an opinion is not necessarily criminalized, but rejected so strongly that the professional and personal costs of expressing it become almost unbearable. The flowering of McCarthyism, roughly between 1946 and 1956, was enabled by committees in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Now only the titles have changed. The malicious phrase and label "communist" has been replaced with "anti-Semitic" which, along with repeated police brutality on campuses, is intended to punish nationwide student uprisings against Israeli atrocities.
Senator "Joseph McCarthy" from Wisconsin, whose job it was to question people who criticized American policies with communist labels, has now been replaced by "Elise Stefanik", a Republican in the House of Representatives from the state of New York.
Just as intellectual freedom and free speech were attacked 75 years ago by the House of Representatives and the McCarthys, now academic freedom is being attacked at these universities. Police have attacked universities with violence reminiscent of the protests that culminated in May 1970, when the Ohio National Guard shot students who were cheering and speaking out against the US war in Vietnam.
Suppression of Israeli Genocide Protesters at American Universities
Attacking free speech in criticizing Israel, Representative Elise Stefanik is Senator McCarthy's rightful heir. Their real goal is to stop criticism of the Israeli government. Congress's broad ability to compel testimony can be a license for defamation, fabrication and intimidation, as the House Education and Workforce Committee showed in its recent investigation into college anti-Semitism.
As the US government faces a major crisis of legitimacy, it appears that it is afraid of young people raising awareness and organizing for change. Even influential media like the New York Times have joined the far right in using scare tactics to silence these agents of change, affecting not only the left but anyone who supports free speech and democratic rights.
