The 1950s “Red Scare” is back, baby!

Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert cancelled. Journalists fired by right-wing media oligarchs. A president — and the institutions that support him — silencing political dissent. The US has indeed returned to the 1950s, when McCarthyism became a nationwide witch hunt for communists and “subversive” ideology.And it’s catching: the Red Scare-esque hysteria over political speech is evident in Australia, with campaigns against critics of Israel, climate activists and progressive voices supported by government crackdowns. Crikey’s reporter-at-large Charlie Lewis joins the podcast to explain the striking parallels between McCarthyism and the fraught political discourse of 2025. Read more:Welcome to the New McCarthyismAlways partisan, the Supreme Court has contorted itself into the shape dictated by Donald TrumpHow the authoritarian playbook creates a far-right media for the Five Eyes worldPaul Robeson, the ‘Last Tour’ and Australia’s lost historyCharlie Kirk’s martyrdom in the US is to be expected. Here, it’s bafflingSegal’s antisemitism plan would be the deepest intervention in Australian universities since FederationSign up to Crikey’s free newsletter: https://bit.ly/crikey-newsletterCrikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What this episode covers

Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert cancelled. Journalists fired by right-wing media oligarchs. A president — and the institutions that support him — silencing political dissent. The US has indeed returned to the 1950s, when McCarthyism became a nationwide witch hunt for communists and “subversive” ideology.And it’s catching: the Red Scare-esque hysteria over political speech is evident in Australia, with campaigns against critics of Israel, climate activists and progressive voices supported by government crackdowns. Crikey’s reporter-at-large Charlie Lewis joins the podcast to explain the striking parallels between McCarthyism and the fraught political discourse of 2025. Read more:Welcome to the New McCarthyismAlways partisan, the Supreme Court has contorted itself into the shape dictated by Donald TrumpHow the authoritarian playbook creates a far-right media for the Five Eyes worldPaul Robeson, the ‘Last Tour’ and Australia’s lost historyCharlie Kirk’s martyrdom in the US is to be expected. Here, it’s bafflingSegal’s antisemitism plan would be the deepest intervention in Australian universities since FederationSign up to Crikey’s free newsletter: https://bit.ly/crikey-newsletterCrikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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This episode is 31 minutes long.

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This episode was published on September 25, 2025.

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