War: What Is It Good For (Absolutely Nothing? Something?)

February 02, 2021

War: What Is It Good For (Absolutely Nothing? Something?) - It’s Our Right to Choose

War: What Is It Good For (Absolutely Nothing? Something?) - It’s Our Right to Choose

One of the things that I love most about the United States is our ability to have differing opinions without the threat of censorship or punishment from the government. However, as recent events have unfolded, the threat of censorship seems to be closer than ever. It’s practically at our doorstep.

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After visiting www.antiwar.com and wwwtheamericanconservative.com, I can definitely see how these websites are “off the beaten path”. In my Reporting and Writing Across Platforms class here at High Point, I have been learning about how to report hard news and how bias can affect readers. When writing hard news stories, journalists should merely be reporting the facts. There should be absolutely no inclination of a journalist’s views based on what they write. When looking at www.antiwar.com, I can immediately see opinionated articles, simply based on the titles. For example, “Are Libertarians Domestic Terrorists?” demonstrates that the piece will most likely have a more opinionated tone. When reading the article, one of the first couple of sentences says, “The language used in this alert suggests that millions of Americans are potential terrorists” (https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2021/02/01/are-libertarians-domestic-terrorists/). This extremely charged language can be a turn-off to some readers.

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However, these websites are completely necessary. They provide an outlet for people to “rant” about things that they are passionate about. The First Amendment allows for these websites to exist.

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So why do we never hear of them? Personally, I think that because some of these opinions are so different and unique and “out there”, Big Tech (who has strong ties with various political figures) chooses to push these websites deep down into the search results because they interfere with opinions that Big Tech and their supporters share. This becomes a question of ethics and morals, and it’s one that needs to be discussed and depicted.

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While writing this post, I keep thinking about the song “War” by Edwin Starr.

Written in 1969, this was a direct call out for the U.S.’s interference in Vietnam (https://alphahistory.com/vietnamwar/edwin-starr-war-1970/#:~:text=War%20(What%20is%20it%20good,and%20the%20Temptations%20in%201969.&text=In%20the%20wake%20of%20this,the%20Vietnam%20War%20in%20particular). While there was backlash (check out this great article by Classic Motown on the song- https://classic.motown.com/story/edwin-starr-war/), this song is completely protected by the First Amendment. Starr is allowed to share his opinions with the country (and the world!), even if it is controversial. The entire anti-Vietnam War movement is an excellent example of how the First Amendment protects Americans. Even if tens of thousands of Americans disagreed with the U.S.’s interference, they have a right to dispute it.