Blog #7

 

The American Conservative and Antiwar.com are two websites that I never heard of until today. I was really surprised to read some of the articles because these are two drastically different parties, Right and Left. The Right wing is commonly referred to as conservatism which is individuals that value tradition practices. Then the Left wing, referred to as Liberalism, believes in protecting the freedom and rights of people. 

Even though these two political ideologies are complete opposites of each other, they do have a common ground in which both sides can agree on something being wrong. While researching through both websites, most writers despite their beliefs were able to recognize that War is inhuman and unnecessary. War has been around since the beginning of civilization. Wars have caused harm for millions of people in the world such as genocides, colonization, bombings, concentration camps, and Slave labor. 

Sadly, most wars in history continued for years and wars do not just stop because the government wanted to. Many wars were stopped due to advocacy and gaining media coverage through newspapers, radios, books, and journalism. However advocacy and speech can be powerful sometimes, and some governments have silenced activists who have pointed out to the public about the circumstances of these brutal wars. 

Photo of Charles Schenck

An activist that has been silenced by the government was Schenck v. United States (1919). Charles Schenck was accused of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. The Espionage Act is a law commonly used by the government to silence people who criticize their policies. He handed out leaflets of his criticisms of the military draft in WWI.

The government believed that Schenck's words would incite people to riot against the military draft, and they were worried because they needed as many people as possible to fight. The United States government would restrict Charles Schenck of his first amendment rights of freedom of speech just because they did not like his view. This is called viewpoint discrimination, which is when the government silences an individual because of not being in favor of their belief. 

The First Amendment protects an individual’s freedom of speech but when it comes to government action, wars and policies. The right of speech is limited This created the Present and Clear danger test which sets a standard for when speech is protected by the first amendment. This test is still used today and even impacts activists today. 

In the present day, there is a war between Palestine and Israel. Israel was attacked by a group named Hamas that is located in Palestine. However, there is a more complex history surrounding this event. Due to attack on Israel, the Israeli government has started a genocide against Palestinian people because of the attack. Palestinian people are not Hamas; they are people that are being punished for another group’s actions. Hamas is an organization that just happened to live in Palestine, but the Israeli government is using Hamas’ actions to target innocent people.

Many media outlets and activists have spoken and published articles about this conflict between these two nations. Propaganda and Political agreement have made nations like the United States take sides with Israel in this matter. This has caused the U.S. government to begin to silence activists who show empathy or siding with Palestine.

A Columbia University student named Mahmoud Kahil was arrested for being involved in Palestinian activism. The government is claiming that he is inciting riots and being antisemitic on campus when that is far from the truth. Also, the government is trying to silence him through taking away his green card and student visa. This is an ongoing issue, but I would say that I learn that speaking up is powerful. However, you have to be careful with your speech being it can be used against you to silence you.