The Progressive Era

After learning about the Progressive Era and how anti-war voices were silenced during WWI as a result of the Sedition Act, it's interesting to know that even in the modern day, anti-war voices are pushed to the side and hidden in an attempt to silence them without actually silencing them. 

In my opinion, I see the U.S. keeping anti-war voices out of mainstream media as a reflection of their intolerance and repression. This is almost insane to be thinking about because I can't imagine why people would want to repress anti-war voices. 

War breaks the peace and causes drastic amounts of damage through violence, if I had lived during the time of WWI, I absolutely would have wanted to be an anti-war voice just because those are my beliefs.

It's incredibly strange for me to imagine that people would want to muffle those who are trying to keep peace in the U.S. only to cause more violence and loss. 

However, the more interesting fact at hand is that this is still an issue today. I had never seen websites like ANTIWAR and The American Conservative. After scrolling through these sites and seeing how much content they have, I was amazed that I'd never even heard word that there were websites like these. 

The fact that sites like these are still being kept out of mainstream media despite how far we've come as a country since WWI, it just shows that no matter how much we advance in society, there are still some things that will never change. One key difference, however, is that at least now people are able to post this type of content without immediate fear of being executed or thrown in jail. 

Another thing I noticed on these websites, specifically ANTIWAR, was how many contributions they had listed. In the time of the Progressive Era, people never would have had their names listed with anti-war propaganda as a safety measure to keep themselves from being jailed. 

I find it inspiring that now, not only are people able to put their names towards a movement they believe in, but so many people have been able to do so. With how many people that contributed on just these two sites, it makes me wonder how many people were secretly involved in anti-war propaganda during WWI or if this number has just grown since the imminent threat of death for being a part of anti-war voices have subsided. 

I think that the reason we have to seek out strong anti-war voices outside of the mainstream media is that people are still hesitant to let this type of speech be seen everywhere and maybe they think it could cause arguments that lead to larger issues. 

However, to relate back to the eight values of free expression, I think this is untrue. 

The third value, Stable Change, talks about allowing people to "vent" so that the government can better monitor potentially dangerous groups. If the government thought that having anti-war voices was really that dangerous, the best option would be to let them speak in mainstream media in order to keep tabs on them and what they're speaking for.

In other words, we should not have to scour the internet just to find strong anti-war voices and they should be more prominent for everyone to hear, even if they aren't looking for them.