Isn’t that “ism” largely discredited? He was right, the government/institutions were full of communists. Today they’ve rebranded as socialists, but to my knowledge everything he fought against came to pass.
Attaching the -ism label is just a thought-terminating cliche.
It maybe wasn't "full of communists" but you are right that project VENONA has shown that McCarthy wasn't totally wrong either. Institutions were deeply inflitrated at all levels.
