Back then Communism was real and new for a large part of the working class. So the anti-communists had to either attack it indirectly or just continue deflecting criticism of classical liberal ideology and come up with propaganda that used the philosophical and economic predecessors to Marx, the ones he directly refuted, to craft an ideology that sounded kinda like communism, but convinced you that you were the center of the economic universe instead of your class

Now you just make up literally anything and shut down any criticism of your lies.