Antiwar Voices! Blog Post #9

As an American Citizen between the ages 18-25, I now have the opportunity and duty to vote for a President for this 2024 Election.

Honestly, I have felt extremely overwhelmed by politics to the point where I have decided not to care as much. I did not pay attention before turning 18 years old, so by the time I turned 19, I was fairly unaware and out of the loop. 

This summer, my grandfather came to stay with my family, and he is a very far right-wing member. When he was staying with my family, he always had the news on and it was nearly a different channel every time he turned it on. 

During this summer, I asked questions, I became curious, and I also began to research on my own. 

I learned that the government and or specific political parties will gate-keep reliable and trustworthy information from reaching news channels, or any mainstream news sources. 

A specific topic that I will most likely never see on mainstream news sources is antiwar voices. 

After exploring ANTIWAR.COM and The American Conservative I have realized that many voices speak on antiwar, but the voices are not given a chance to be seen.

Antiwar is a sensitive topic for many reasons. TruthOut says, "Where war involves a style of conflict engagement that is rooted in domination, subjugation, and armament, being antiwar involves and style of conflict engagement that is rooted in cooperation, collaboration, and disarmament."

Weapons and security are a substantial part of our government financially and culturally. Millions and billions of dollars are waging military operations around the globe, but most Americans are not happy about it. 

Many Americans may fear that speaking out about antiwar will align them with a party that they may not be a part of. Many fear that antiwar is anti-patriotic. 

Another fear may be Americans who do not want to disrespect veterans.

In my opinion, I believe that antiwar activists and believers do not get the platform that citizens in favor of war get due to the threat of them possibly being correct in their thought process. 

I believe that the government could not handle the strong voices of antiwar on mainstream news sources because an AP Poll found that 66 percent of Americans do not believe that the longest war in history, the Afghanistan War, was worth fighting, if this poll was ever shared on mainstream news sources, it may influence others to change the way that they look at war. 

I believe that the antiwar topic is a threat to the government, and they will do whatever they can to prevent the media from giving those voices any kind of acknowledgment.