There were two major events in United States history that caused a serious distrust in the government. The first event was the Vietnam War, one of the most controversial and unnecessarily fought wars. The US government was not transparent about our chances of winning the war and continued to send troops knowing we would lose. Countless lives were lost for essentially no reason. Following the Vietnam War, President Nixon’s Watergate scandal finished destroying any remaining faith that was left in the government. The Nixon administration crumbled soon after and many politicians were labeled as corrupt and immoral from that point on. The American people shifted their trust towards the media and relied on journalists to uncover what was truly happening behind closed doors and what the government was hiding.
Censorship is a problem that has resurfaced within the last few years. The government tends to try to gatekeep any type of media that criticizes them, such as the ANTIWAR.COM website and the American Conservative. The reason why these types of websites are difficult to locate is that the government does not want to provide access to content that potentially contradicts the agenda they are trying to push for. Unfortunately, the government has the capacity to control search engine optimization and can block certain results whenever you try to Google or look something up. Much like companies and schools can block certain IP addresses from being searched while connected to the internet, the government can prevent people from seeking out these obscure websites. In the video attached below, Roya Ensafi, who is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of Michigan, explains three ways in which information can be censored online and also how censorship has evolved in recent years.
It all boils down to one fact: The government doesn’t want opposition. Henry David Thoreau once said, “Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.” The more informed the population is, then the more likely they are to resist. The government likes indifferent and deceived minds because those are the ones that are easiest to mold and gain control over. Our system of government is influenced by power dynamics, which is why the government works hard to make hearing antiwar (amongst other) voices very difficult.
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