Antiwar Sentiments

    In the past, the public has been very open about their disagreement with our involvement in wars, like with the Vietnam War in the 60s. A whole cultural movement stemmed from these antiwar sentiments! Yet today no one seems to care as much. I wonder what exactly changed between then and now to explain this indifference of the public. I find it interesting and concerning that we never really see or hear many reports of antiwar sentiments in our mainstream news outlet, but it makes sense considering what we recently learned in class about the ways in which the US government put in place to prevent people from speaking up about antiwar sentiments. 

    What's even more concerning to me is the fact that, regardless of the pro-war sentiments all over the media, I also never hear normal people speak against going to war much either. Whenever the current wars come up in conversation, I mostly hear people disagreeing over which side of the war is in the right, like with the war between Israel and Palestine, not usually discussing our involvement in it. It is concerning that our country seems to be more interested in arguing with each other over who's right in wars that aren't ours than they are interested in why we are getting involved at all. However, I do hear complaints over our national debt and how much of our taxes go to the Department of Defense, but these sentiments aren't necessarily followed up will protests about the US's involvement in general.

    The lack of antiwar sentiments in the news outlets can of course be explained by reporters and journalists possibly fearing they would losing their jobs if they speak up. Several major industries also profit a lot from the supportive sentiments on mainstream media platforms such as the weapons and oil industries. Mainstream media will likely always support the governments decision to get involved in wars as we see them doing now, which is why the antiwar sentiments are buried down deep enough that people would have to intentionally seek out websites like Antiwar.com and The American Conservative to find them.