Blog Post 7

 Antiwar Voices

Anti-war voices are typically censored in media due to dissent, which Dictionary.com defines as "to disagree with the methods, goals, etc., of a political party or government; take an opposing view."  

 

 

Lee Camp, former presenter for the show Redacted Tonight, spoke at length about his opposition to the Russia-Ukraine War. Redacted Tonight was backed by Russia, but the show, which had run for years, was suddenly cancelled by US sanctions due to their dissenting views. All of their archived content on YouTube was also banned from the site.

 

 

Lee Camp on censorship

Most anti-war perspectives are found on "obscure" websites-even when looking for articles about anti-war perspectives. I found few articles about anti-war voices from popular sources. Websites such as Antiwar.com contain opposing views to the mainstream, leading to them being pushed into obscurity. 

Aside from dissent, American spends billions on, essentially, war funding. Journalist Sahara
Sajjadiankhah commented on the National Defense Authorization Act, with $389.5 billion of the total
$816.7 billion in funding going to "military contracts to secure weaponry and services from defense
contractors." 

 

In 1918, the FB Sedition Act was passed to reduce anti-war, specifically World War I, perspectives, as "the targets of prosecution under the Sedition Act were typically individuals who opposed the war effort, including pacifists, anarchists, and socialists." (Boyd, 2025).

 

According to Cornell Law School, Near v. Minnesota (1931) ended with the ruling of prior restraint  being unconstitutional-though notably still allowed in "exceptional cases," such as during wartime. 

The top two results on Google for anti war censorship are from the same source

Throughout America's history, those who are anti-war have been censored, with modern examples such as Lee Camp being completely banned from social media sites due to their views causing dissent, as well as the weapons industry and American economy "benefiting" from war.