Not even. Most of the time it's "First, the useless, violent, sex pest, communists tried to murder everyone"
It's never really, "Oh the Communists are being subversive", they go completely insane and try to kill everyone; then everybody starts panicking. That's when people yell "Red Scare".
That's what happened with the Spanish Civil War. In a rigged election (filled with violence already), a rightist candidate lost the head of government position. But their turnout was so sizable, the Republican government decided that in an act of conciliatory measures, a member of the Rightists would be appointed to a cabinet position. The Anarcho-Communists (Anarcho-Syndicalists) lost their fucking minds. Wikipedia calls it a "Labor Strike" and even Orwell himself ignores what happened. They basically slaughtered over a thousand people, forcibly interred entire regions of Spain under their control, and set up French-Revolution style tribunals to torture, humiliate, and execute anyone who dissented. They also mass executed Catholics and Catholic leadership. They then seceded from the Republican government. That is when the Republican's sent in the army, and not even to kill everyone, but to arrest some of them in an attempt to restore order.
They also mass executed Catholics and Catholic leadership.
Even this kind of undersells the things they did to the Catholics. There are many occasions of them digging up the corpses of dead priest and nuns from graveyards, and then placing them "on trial" for "crimes against humanity", and then destroying the bones.
This is why people considered Franco at least tolerable compared to the Socialist.
Even that was only one part of the problem. That was light compared to shit they were still doing to people. The Anarcho-Syndicalists were big fans of torturing people to death publicly and painfully.
The "Red Terror" that they presided over was extremely brutal. They would sometimes "liberate" Catholic churches, by pulling everyone out of the church while it was in session, then dragging the nuns and priests out up against the church wall and machine gunning them to death in front of the congregation. Then they burned the church, and told all the perishers that they had been "liberated" from the "opiate of the masses".
It should have also started, "first the useless, violent communists and sex pests pissed everyone off."
Not even. Most of the time it's "First, the useless, violent, sex pest, communists tried to murder everyone"
It's never really, "Oh the Communists are being subversive", they go completely insane and try to kill everyone; then everybody starts panicking. That's when people yell "Red Scare".
That's what happened with the Spanish Civil War. In a rigged election (filled with violence already), a rightist candidate lost the head of government position. But their turnout was so sizable, the Republican government decided that in an act of conciliatory measures, a member of the Rightists would be appointed to a cabinet position. The Anarcho-Communists (Anarcho-Syndicalists) lost their fucking minds. Wikipedia calls it a "Labor Strike" and even Orwell himself ignores what happened. They basically slaughtered over a thousand people, forcibly interred entire regions of Spain under their control, and set up French-Revolution style tribunals to torture, humiliate, and execute anyone who dissented. They also mass executed Catholics and Catholic leadership. They then seceded from the Republican government. That is when the Republican's sent in the army, and not even to kill everyone, but to arrest some of them in an attempt to restore order.
That is when the military decided to step in.
Even this kind of undersells the things they did to the Catholics. There are many occasions of them digging up the corpses of dead priest and nuns from graveyards, and then placing them "on trial" for "crimes against humanity", and then destroying the bones.
This is why people considered Franco at least tolerable compared to the Socialist.
Even that was only one part of the problem. That was light compared to shit they were still doing to people. The Anarcho-Syndicalists were big fans of torturing people to death publicly and painfully.
The "Red Terror" that they presided over was extremely brutal. They would sometimes "liberate" Catholic churches, by pulling everyone out of the church while it was in session, then dragging the nuns and priests out up against the church wall and machine gunning them to death in front of the congregation. Then they burned the church, and told all the perishers that they had been "liberated" from the "opiate of the masses".