How did the rise of McCarthyism change the US in the 1950s

What I believe is that McCarthyism had a good idea at first which was to remove communism from the U.S, however, McCarthy took it too far. Their team began ruthlessly removing accusing people of communists even though some weren't and they would drive a lot of people out of business due to false claims that the team received or that people made. So during this time, people could be accused of communism and could have property loss, be fined, filed, or even imprisoned all without requiring evidence. McCarthy would allow damages done and some violence as well.