Blog Post 7: Anti War Movement

The Progressive Era of American History was one that marked a period of immense change and growth. There was a large anti-war movement present throughout society against world war 1, ultimately shaping the first amendment and how it was applied to future cases. At this time, those against war were viewed as criminals and outcasts and thought to be against what is best for the country. Out of this anti war movement came very important cases to not only the United States, but also the first amendment, such as Schenck vs. United States (1919). This case introduced Justice Holmes' Clear and Present Danger Standard of the First Amendment.

Today, Anti War voices have again be
en silenced and hidden from the public no matter how vocal they try to be. Society is much different than it was in the early 20th century as now we have evolved media to social media where any one can share whatever they are feeling with seemingly few prohibitions. You would think. Many are still censored or "shadow banned" meaning they are hidden from public view without the creator knowing. While the post may not be completely hidden, public accounts, posts, and/or cites will not show up if they are sharing something unfavored by the media outlet and will only show up if specifically searched for. This is why cites like Anti war.com and At the American Conservative most likely will not show up with a simple google search on a topic. Instead, you would have to deliberately/specifically search up the cites or their writers and posts to see what is published by them. 

Shadow banning is not quite censorship in context of the first amendment and because there isn't many ways to prove it as censorship, it usually is hard to make a case against it. Shadow banning is often overlooked as simply algorithms, but it is funny how many things that are unfavorable in the media often go overlooked or are hidden. This is most likely why these strong anti war voices are very rarely seen in the mainstream news and often seen more as a minority in the media and as rebels, even today like they once were during the Progressive Era. In order to hear points of views from these strong anti war
voices, you would have to specifically search for their opinions. Unpopular speech is included under the first amendment, but we usually only hear the media's preferred side in the conflict.The question shouldn't be what is missing, but rather why it is.