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THE PARANOID STYLE GOT ITS NAME FROM A HISTORIAN
Paranoia Is A Clinical Term For One Person's Beliefs
The Word Also Appears In Writing About American Politics
That Use Traces To One Essay Published In 1964
Richard Hofstadter Wrote It For Harper's Magazine
His Subject Was A Style Of Argument And Not A Diagnosis
The Style He Described Had A Recent Example In The Senate
Joseph McCarthy Claimed A List Of Names In February 1950
This Part Follows That Claim Through To The Essay
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OKAY BACK FROM THE HEARING 📻
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THE LIST NOBODY SAW 🎙️
Joseph McCarthy Was A Republican Senator From Wisconsin
On February 9 1950 He Spoke In Wheeling West Virginia
The Venue Was The McLure Hotel At A Lincoln Day Dinner
His Hosts Were The Ohio County Republican Women's Club
He Said He Held Names Of Communists In The State Department
The Number He Said Out Loud Is Still Disputed
Surviving Speech Text Reads 57 Cases Of Individuals
A Wheeling Intelligencer Reporter Printed 205 Instead
That Reporter Later Told Congress How He Wrote It
He Worked From A Copy McCarthy Supplied In Advance
His Editor Said That Copy Contained 205
McCarthy Insisted Afterward That He Had Said 57
Sources Still Disagree So Both Numbers Belong In The Record
The Senate Answered With An Investigation That Spring
Senate Resolution 231 Created A Subcommittee To Examine It
Millard Tydings Of Maryland Chaired That Subcommittee
Nine State Department Employees Were Named In Its Hearings
The Panel Found That None Of Them Were Communists
Its July 1950 Report Called The Charges A Fraud And A Hoax
The Senate Accepted That Report By 45 Votes To 37
Tydings Lost His Seat In The November 1950 Election
McCarthy Held His Seat And Continued Making Charges
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FOUR YEARS AND A CENSURE 🏛️
Federal Loyalty Checks Began Before McCarthy Made That Claim
Harry Truman Signed Executive Order 9835 On March 21 1947
It Required Loyalty Investigations Of Federal Employees
The Same Order Applied To Job Applicants
Agencies Ran Loyalty Boards To Review Affiliations
That System Was Already Running By Then
McCarthy Took A New Senate Post In 1953
He Chaired The Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations
That Subcommittee Questioned Hundreds Of Witnesses
In 1954 His Inquiry Turned Toward The United States Army
The Army-McCarthy Hearings Ran From April 22 To June 17
ABC And DuMont Broadcast The Sessions To Television Viewers
Joseph Welch Appeared As Counsel For The Army
On June 9 McCarthy Named A Lawyer At Welch's Firm
Welch Replied That He Had Never Gauged Such Recklessness
He Then Asked If McCarthy Had No Sense Of Decency
A Senator From His Own Party Moved Against Him Next
Ralph Flanders Of Vermont Introduced A Censure Resolution
Arthur Watkins Of Utah Chaired The Select Committee On It
The Full Senate Took Up The Resolution That November
On December 2 1954 The Vote Was 67 To 22
Senate Resolution 301 Condemned His Conduct
The Counts Covered Non-Cooperation With A 1952 Subcommittee
They Also Covered His Abuse Of The Censure Committee
McCarthy Died In 1957 At The Age Of 48
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A HISTORIAN NAMED THE STYLE 🖋️
Richard Hofstadter Taught American History At Columbia
In November 1963 He Gave The Herbert Spencer Lecture At Oxford
Harper's Magazine Printed A Shorter Version In November 1964
The Title Was The Paranoid Style In American Politics
He Chose That Phrase For The Qualities It Named
No Other Word Evoked Heated Exaggeration And Suspiciousness
Conspiratorial Fantasy Was The Third Quality He Listed
Hofstadter Was Direct About What He Did Not Mean
He Wrote That He Was Not Speaking In A Clinical Sense
The Term Was Borrowed From Clinical Use For Other Purposes
He Had No Wish To Diagnose Any Political Figure
Calling Someone A Certifiable Lunatic Was Not His Aim
That Distinction Is The Point Of The Whole Essay
A Clinical Diagnosis Describes One Person And Their Symptoms
Hofstadter Was Describing A Manner Of Making An Argument
He Also Separated The Two In A Second Way
The Clinical Paranoid Sees The Plot Aimed At Himself
Spokesmen Of The Paranoid Style See A Nation Targeted Instead
A Culture And A Way Of Life Are Named As The Targets
McCarthy's Charges Fit That Description Closely
Hofstadter's Examples Came From Earlier Movements Too
Writers Still Apply It To Politics Six Decades Later
None Of That Use Was Meant As A Diagnosis
