The Anti-War Outroar (Blog Post #6)

 

The Anti-War Outroar (Blog Post #6)

I have never heard of the websites Antiwar.com and The American Conservative. I wonder why this is? They both seem to be active sites in which editors spend lots of time writing articles, so how come nobody ever talks about these sites? I think it’s because these sites have such opinionated articles. Mainstream news sites like CNN, Fox, and The New York Times try to steer clear of such controversial topics in hopes of not getting canceled. In this day and age, it is so easy to get canceled for giving unpopular opinions and it’s hard to come back from a ruined reputation. 

Another reason I haven’t heard of these underground sites in the main news is because of what has happened in American history. World War I caused the United States to implement the Espionage Act which made it illegal to go against war. They also brought back the Sedition Act for the third time in history, making it a crime to criticize the government. Read more about the Espionage Act here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act_of_1917. This would scare people to this day because if the government was throwing so many people in jail for going against the government back then, who says they wouldn’t try to bring that back today. Some of the most famous cases, known as the quartet of cases in 1919, involved four citizens being thrown into jail for speaking out against WWI. This is scary.

Sometimes being Anti-War is also seen as being Anti-American. As soon as we start talking about going against America, scary thoughts like a governmental overthrow begin popping into my head. It’s important for us as American citizens to be able to voice our opinions about topics such as war because it provides us with a way to “vent”. If we weren’t allowed to “vent” in order to release anger, people would resort to violence. Having the ability to voice different viewpoints is in the government's self-interest because it prevents the country from danger.