February 9, 1950

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Joel Byers

On This Date in TWISTED-HISTORY.com! in 1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy made a speech where he claimed that he had a list with over 200 “known communists” that worked in highly placed positions in the US government. This sparked widespread hysteria about subversives. Despite the fact that most of his claims were never verified thousand of people were blacklisted and/or investigated for subversive tendencies and had their lives and their families’ lives thrown into turmoil. All just so Senator McCarthy could become an overnight celebrity and wield significant power and become the leader of the American Communist Inquisition.

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About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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One Response to February 9, 1950

  1. Joe McCarthy says:
    February 12, 2016 at 1:48 pm

    Why is this the only thing that people ever seem to remember about me? There is so much more to my life than just ruining people’s lives over vague made-up threats and intimidation. I mean, yeah, I did all that, but that’s not all I did.

    Why does nobody ever talk about my time with McCarthy & Wings or my successful solo career? I mean just because it never happened is no reason to ignore it. After all, look how many people got blacklisted over things they never did… Wait, actually I think maybe I’m undermining my own point…

    Regardless, I just think it’s terribly unfair that history remembers me exclusively for this one truly despicable thing that I did, instead of focusing on other stuff that I probably also did, but without ruining so many lives in the process. I probably liked puppies too!… as long as they weren’t commie puppies, but that’s not the point.

    The point is you don’t know me. History doesn’t really know me. I’m presented as a frightened hate-filled man who undertook a ruthless witch hunt to root out a non-existent red menace, and sure, I did all that, but I also accomplished… other things… which I can’t think of at the moment, but that doesn’t make them any less valid.

    Not that I would expect a clearly soviet-backed site like Twisted-History present the full picture. You know, back in my day, we’d have shut this place down in a heartbeat. Good time, good times.

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