William Shirer’s prediction about witch-hunting proved prescient. Conformity was soon valued more highly than civil rights. During this era, Congress passed the Alien Registration or Smith Act of 1940, the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950, and the Communist Control Act of 1954. All were designed to punish nonconformists. Any thinkers not strictly orthodox—i.e., American, capitalist, and Christian—were suspicious. According to polls, people suspected their neighbors of being communists because they “would not attend church,” “talked against God,” “didn’t believe in the Bible” or were
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