The Progressive Era

Hearing strong antiwar voices takes much more searching than finding news of that of the mainstream media. Antiwar is a website with devotion to non-interventionism and an audience that includes libertarians, pacifists, leftists, “greens,” independents alike, and those on the Right who agree with their imperialism opposition. Article titles on here are “NATO Planning Massive Military Buildup Along Russia’s Border” or “Mearsheimer: Russia Sees ‘Existential Threat,’ Must Win.” I’ve never heard of this site before, so looking into it allowed me to see different headlines and content than the mainstream ones. 

The American Conservative is an institution devoted to “recapturing the flag of the conservative movement” through their maxim of putting ideas over ideology and principles over party. It’s a voice I’ve heard before, but not very loudly. Exploring a website like theirs is refreshing as it gave me a varying insight to current worldwide events. The articles on The American Conservative are such as “No One Wins If Ukraine Becomes A Long War” and “Preventing War is in America’s Best Interest.” These headlines vastly differ from those on CNN, where theirs are more of “Russia Invades Ukraine.” 

There’s a difference in content between antiwar websites and mainstream media because the government wants to shield people. The central narrative of Russia’s portrayal as the only bad guy in this situation is misleading. It’s misleading because the mainstream media blatantly points fingers, leading people into mistaken beliefs. There’s much more to the Ukraine-Russia conflict than what’s given to us when we hit enter on our Google search bar or tune into a certain news channel or radio station. 

Almost every media outlet caters to their audience, the people who agree and support them. Suddenly going against the typical flow can result in doubt, confusion, and the loss of listeners. We have to seek out obscure websites to hear other strong voices because gaining clarity with the hopes of lighter bias is more challenging than just accepting. Websites like American Conservative and Antiwar don’t line up with the mainstream media, so the only voice I’ve heard from these websites is similar to that of a whisper. The volume of a whisper forces you to either lean in closer and ask for repetition to clarify or simply pretend that you heard the first time. We do the same thing when we hear something that contrasts our normality in the news. It either results in a further search, a lean into clarity - or simple acceptance since it’s the more straightforward response from an authoritative source.