Return of the Red Scare: how the US right is weaponising the word ‘communism’

Getty Images “Communism is no longer a far fetched threat,” speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson warned on social media recently. “It is here on our SHORES!” Johnson is hardly alone. After candidates associated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) movement won several Democratic primaries in June, President Donald Trump alone invoked communism 81 times within two weeks. He’s called opponents “hardcore, godless communists” and described communism as a cancer that…