While I agree with you that there has been lots of historical movement away from tyranny, you'd be a fool to fear McCarthy's Senate of the 50's more than the intelligence apparatus of today.
According to wikipedia:
"Between 1949 and 1954, a total of 109 investigations were carried out by these and other committees of Congress."
The Hollywood blacklist at its height listed 300 people. Despite how high-profile it was, these institutions touched microscopic handfuls of people, and they were considerably more public and easy to oppose than the modern NSA.
Compare:
Modern NSA is pretty clearly keeping files on pretty much everyone. Hundreds of millions of people, conservatively.
Number of people on terrorist watch lists: Unclear, anywhere from thousands to millions.
Number of FISA warrants granted: In recent years, from a low of 1,300 (2009) to a high of 1,700 (2012). Call it 6,000 in the period 2009-2012.
Number of people killed via drone strikes: 2,000 to 3,000.
You are VASTLY more likely to impacted by the modern surveillance state than you ever were by the McCarthy investigations, and the government at least holds out the possibility that they will assassinate you without due process, which to my knowledge the McCarthy investigations never did.
I suspect that a similar scale argument holds with Hoover's FBI, though I don't know how I would prove it.
According to wikipedia:
"Between 1949 and 1954, a total of 109 investigations were carried out by these and other committees of Congress."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
The Hollywood blacklist at its height listed 300 people. Despite how high-profile it was, these institutions touched microscopic handfuls of people, and they were considerably more public and easy to oppose than the modern NSA.
Compare:
Modern NSA is pretty clearly keeping files on pretty much everyone. Hundreds of millions of people, conservatively.
Number of people on terrorist watch lists: Unclear, anywhere from thousands to millions.
Number of FISA warrants granted: In recent years, from a low of 1,300 (2009) to a high of 1,700 (2012). Call it 6,000 in the period 2009-2012.
Number of people killed via drone strikes: 2,000 to 3,000.
You are VASTLY more likely to impacted by the modern surveillance state than you ever were by the McCarthy investigations, and the government at least holds out the possibility that they will assassinate you without due process, which to my knowledge the McCarthy investigations never did.
I suspect that a similar scale argument holds with Hoover's FBI, though I don't know how I would prove it.