Anti-war Voices

     For reasons that I am still trying to pinpoint, anti-war voices and arguments are rarely spoke about in the media. I believe that nowadays it is for much different reasons, but I think it stems from a string of history. 

The Past:

During class lectures, we saw how there were multiple figures in the progressive era that impacted how dissent and the first amendment were interpreted. First was Charles Schenck and Debs, both socialists. Schenck tried to obstruct the military draft, and Debs simply just encouraged voicing resentment towards the draft. Then there was Frohwerk, a newspaper editor. Frohwerk approved and published articles that shined a negative light on war. Lastly was Abrams, an immigrant who settled in the United States and began to speak in opposition of war. All four figures were convicted of The Espionage Act. Although none of them were able to win their cases, they all made an impact. Each of their convictions began to raise more and more concern over the limitations on dissent. This led to a larger advocacy against The Espionage Act, and caused a deeper look into the first amendment. Overall, the progressive era (1914-1925) increased support for freedom of speech, and set the precedent for legal change in the future. 

The Present:

Nowadays, it is very apparent that anti-war opinions and voices are rarely shared in mainstream news. I think there are three main reasons for this. The first is that news outlets are known to align with certain sides of our government. Because of this, it is likely they will only choose to share things that the government would be in agreeance with. The second reason would be that there are no major, and let me emphasize major, wars events going on that involve the United States, so there is nothing in absolute need of being talked about in the news. The news chooses what they do and don't talk about, but when there is vital information needing to be shared to our nation, they have no choice but to share it. There is no circumstance right now that would make this necessary. The third reason is that a majority of our population supports war, and the media is unlikely to go against their audiences opinions. 

I want to wrap this up with touching on why ANTIWAR.COM and The American Conservative are the first anti-war news sources that I have ever seen, and why I have not seen them until now. I believe the biggest reason is because most of my law, war, and historical knowledge comes from academic lessons and experiences. This is the first class that has ever touched on anti-war. I think the lack of teaching involving anti-war stems from curriculum limitations, lack of resources (e.g. text books), and the fact that classes are often encourages to be politically neutral.