Red-baiting
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Red-baiting is the act of accusing someone, or some group, of being communist, socialist or, in a broader sense, of being significantly more leftist at their core than they may appear at the outset. The term is used mainly with the intention of discrediting the individual's or organization's political views as dishonest and/or haphazard. The implication in red-baiting is usually that the target represents an ill-intentioned external force which has no proper place in a given political party, coalition, or union.
Alternatively, red-baiting can also be a tactic by a critic of communism wherein s/he raises negative aspects of countries or governments which the communist is supposed to support (notably the Soviet Union and China) with the intent of "trapping" the communist into conceding that his/her ideas are part of a totalitarian ideological structure. This risk in red-baiting is part of the reason behind much of the intense historical reserach done by Marxists and why a lot of them specialize in very specific events of recent history with which the political mainstream is usually not familiar.
Red-baiting is more often associated with McCarthyism. It does not now, in the 21st Century, have quite the far-reaching effect it did during either of the two historic Red Scare periods of the 1930s and 1950s. This is usually because most Radical Left groups are more forthcoming about their politics than their forebears may have felt they could be in the context of the Red Scare periods. The words "socialism" and "communism" are not equivalent with "terrorist," "traitor" or "conspirator" today the way they often were, or at least were perceived to be, in the two Red Scare eras.
All the same, today, the accusation of red-baiting is a common self-defense response by Marxist-Leninist parties or organizations when they are criticized from either the right or the more liberal left. This is a tactic most especially used towards those critics that accuse certain members of coalitions or other mass organizations of being in the organization with a hidden intent to recruit to a communist or socialist political party.
External links
- "What kind of movement do we need?" Socialist Worker article arguing that red-baiting is weakening the anti-war movement today, and has a history of being used to discredit legitimate activist organizations.Template:Poli-stub