FROM 1947, Republican Senator Joe McCarthy was able to enthral the US public with the Red Scare, weaponising blacklists and personal attacks for a decade in order to silence critics as he turned his witch-hunt against the US left, stating “the Democratic Party [is] the bedfellow of international communism.”

One month ago, the Democrats have revived McCarthy’s mandate and tactics where this time, instead of a Hollywood elite taking the stand in Washington DC, journalists have taken part in hearings, giving testimony as to how the US government usurped its authority to pressure big tech companies like Twitter into repressing free speech.

Just as McCarthy labelled his opponents and critics Russian sympathisers, so too did journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger come under scrutiny from Democrat senators who decided to derail the overwhelming evidence of the Democratic Party’s involvement in a massive censorship system within the United States.