I explored both Antiwar.com and the American Conservative because of the strong anti-war voices that are showcased on both. For context I would consider myself to be heavily anti-war, I consider the atrocious spending on the military so we can continue to commit inhumane acts in other countries to be one of if not one of the biggest issues we have as a society. For me it was actually refreshing to find news outlets that are pointing out many of the tragedies being committed by the military.
These anti-war voices are rarely heard in the mainstream media for a number of reasons, with the top one being that the owners of mainstream news outlets benefit heavily from war. The news that is broadcasted on major outlets are influenced by what connections the owner has to other industries or groups, and anything that could jeopardize or even negatively impact those connections will more than likely be shot down. An example of this is how MSNBC is owned by General Electric, which is a company that stands to make heavy profits from war, so MSNBC will almost never broadcast anything anti-war.
Another big reason you have to seek out obscure websites in order to find these anti-war voices is that many news outlets and social media platforms censor these voices because of their political affiliations. Most if not all media outlets have some affiliation to either the Republican or Democratic parties, and both sides benefit from the U.S being in war. Government parties like us to be in war because they are able to use it as a means of rallying the people and pulling them to their side. Instead of voices calling for an end to war, it benefits these parties to steer the discourse to “What is the best way for us to go to war?”, and spin the message into patriotic propaganda like, “We need to band together in order to stop this threat”.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/01/anti-war-protest-repression-bush-iraq-iran
https://www.democracynow.org/2014/11/18/no_debate_antiwar_voices_absent_from
No comments:
Post a Comment