Unscrupulously accusing people of disloyalty (as by saying they were Communists).
Political persecution or witch-hunt of the type associated with the US senator Joe McCarthy.
At the height of US anxiety about the communist “threat” during the 1950s, McCarthy accused many public officials and private citizens of being Communist Party members or sympathizers. Most of his evidence was fabricated, but the Congressional committees, where his claims were investigated, destroyed many careers and created an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia, especially in liberal intellectual circles.