Are Anti-War Voices Silenced?

 Anti-war voices will always be silenced! That is something that we are taught a lot throughout this class: Media Law and Literacy. It is a very true statement, though. This is especially true in the United States. Throughout the many wars that we have been in, it has been commonplace for those who spoke out against it to be jailed. For example, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus. This gave the government the right to throw people in jail without a secure reason, including rebel silencing.

This was also prevalent during the first World War. This is a little more surprising because Woodrow Wilson ran in 1916 and won on the basis of staying neutral in the war. Wilson proposed that it was best to stay out, and yet once we joined, anti-war voices were jailed and thrown away. They were heavily silenced because the government wants you to believe what they think is right. 

Another example would be during the age of Manifest Destiny and Imperialism. Manifest Destiny was a period in American history where the original 13 states were not enough for people. They decided to push west to gain more land. However, land was already inhabited by people and there were few people speaking out against this land gain. Those few people were often silenced and looked down upon. There were more people against imperialism, though. Again they did not have a loud enough voice to make a difference.

Dr. Smith introduced some websites to us for this blog post in order to entertain the idea of being anti-war. They were websites that I have never heard of and I believe most people have never heard of. One was literally called "ANTIWAR.com" and the other was just called the "American Conservative." Both websites are strong anti-war voices that speak out against war and violence. They also speak out against problems that most people overlook. These websites are so unknown, most likely because the government would prefer them to be quieted. The government usually gets what they want too. 

There is a fun contrast against this, nonetheless, that I would like to bring up because it is fun. This is not completely American history because the United States did not exist yet, but it was about to. When the colonies were gaining courage to speak up against Great Britain, there were loyalists who chose to speak against war. The voices were not silenced and were actually respected by the British government. Yet, they were silenced by patriots who wanted to be free from Britain so I guess it works both ways.