Blog #5 - Anti-War - Role of Dissent

 Anti-War and the Role of Dissent

The role of dissent and the First Amendment in politics and war is quite prominent. Under the First Amendment, each and every American has the right to voice their opinions on political practices and on the government's actions. However, this is not always granted equally in privately owned domains like social media sites. Even Google, which is meant to be a place for all information and viewpoints to coexist, has become increasingly and obviously geared toward certain opinions. 

This all ties into government censoring and specifics of First Amendment protection in the media and in political movements. There are many opinions about all government actions, but certain voices seem to get buried under those that either the government, Google, or other popular media outlets acknowledge/support.

The website Antiwar.com, for example, focuses on the views of antiwar supporters that are not typically shown by the media. This could be due to a couple of reasons. First, the government wants to keep its favored policies and actions in the spotlight of the media. War is a very emotionally-charged topic that has perhaps a greater chance of inciting violence or protest. To keep relative peace between political parties, voters, and general citizens of the US, the government might try its best to put sources like the antiwar page tucked neatly under the radar within media consumption.

Similar views appear on sites like The American Conservative. It is not easy to find such direct and strong voices for these viewpoints, which again points to the censorship done by the media in conjunction with the government. Media outlets and search engines want to show what is best for their reputation and what will produce the most revenue. To do this, they project an image of whatever views are favored and suppress those that are in contrast.