Don't insinuate shilling (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). If you read that comment again with more care you'll see it's not at all whataboutism (the "What about America doing xyz" type comment that tries to suggest criticism is invalid because behavior elsewhere).

As JCharante mentions, this statement was offered as a modernization of historical reaction to similar events, not a commentary on the parent comment. In that context the interpretation my statement basically turns on whether you believe the McCarthy was right or not and whether a similar person would be right or not today.

Oh, I hadn't realized your question was paraphrasing a quote made famous during the 1950s

References to McCarthyism are still very recognizable and not at all fringe...

I took it as a reference to the famous quote/question "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?"