Question

Why did government officials knowingly not oppose McCarthyism? What was result?

Answer 1

In their eyes McCarthy was not doing anything wrong. He was searching for communists and chasing people who had socialist and communist tendencies as these people were perceived as those who wanted to overthrow the American government, or at least turn the public support against the government which is what they disliked.

The result was that numerous people were arrested or questioned and their lives got completely ruined. There was a blacklist where they'd have people's names and these people could not find jobs or get loans or anything similar because they were seen as the public enemy. Most of the people on the blacklist had nothing to do with communism and were punished while being completely innocent.