The correct answer to this open question is the following.
How was the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s similar to the one of the 1920s?
It was similar for the following reasons.
During the Red Scare of the 1920s also known as the First Red Scare, people accused other people of being Communist or Anarchist and that was the only thing need for being chased and prosecuted. It was a time of fear and injustice in the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had ordered the Department of Justice to arrest people suspect of being Anarchist or Communist.
Societal norms were challenged and contributed to the Palmer Raids and McCarthyism and the Red Scare in that people believed in what the government said. In those years -1919 and 1920- the idea that Communism and anarchism were two of the worst things that could happen to the United States, really sacred the US society. People firmly believed in the status quo, in the conservationist social norms that have been served the US to maintain certain peace and stability. People feared that anarchism and Communism could challenge the American Way.
That is why the US Department of Justice conducted the Palmer Raids of 1919, to arrest and deport Communists that could threaten the stability of the US. The same happened when Wisconsin Republican Senator, Joseph McCarthy accused federal government officials and members of the military of having ties with Communists groups, in what was known as McCarthyism, in the 1940s. McCarthy only accused but never provided arguments to back his accusations.
