False Claims Quotes
He does not claim that a prediction may not coincidentally turn out to be accurate—just that the predictor has no certainty whatsoever and at best was guessing and at worse manipulating.
The reason that this is a noteworthy quotation is that it illustrates how the immoral political tactics of the junior senator from Wisconsin, Joseph P. McCarthy, was turned into a noun and used to describe a type of unethical political behavior the world over. Even in South Africa, labeling political tactics as McCarthyism is an effective accusation. Senator McCarthy himself was censured by the Senate for his tactics of claiming people were communists when he had no evidence of same and claiming that he had long lists of communists in the government when he did not have them.
Suggested warning label for political advertising:
While all the benefits of building the Trans-Continental Railroad that were claimed for the public during the Congressional debate turned out to be untrue, many of them were sincerely believed by the Congressmembers and special interests who advocated them. Not only were the benefits claimed unreal in practice, but none of the negative consequences were anticipated. (The destruction of the great Buffalo herd, and the huge foreign immigration were just two.) At the same time, the true benefits were also unanticipated. (The development of the telegraph system of the nation and the standardization of time zones in the country are two of these.) It is a profound historical example of unanticipated consequences, both good and bad, of government policy and programs.
