Laurie Calhoon breaks down the attacks on free speech in her latest article.
"Now, there has always been government control of wartime narratives, said to be necessitated by national defense, or the safeguarding of democracy itself. During wartime, people who speak out in defiance of the government are typically denigrated as enemy sympathizers, if not traitors. Preposterously enough, profoundly undemocratic policies, such as the conscription of young men to don uniforms and fight against their will for causes which they do not regard as worthy of the sacrifice of their life, are sometimes championed by the leaders of otherwise democratic states during wartime. This self-contradiction arises because the government portrays every military conflict in which it engages as exceptional in the sense that the very existence of the state is allegedly at issue. The urgency and peril of the situation are claimed to necessitate extraordinary measures, above all, the restriction of citizens’ liberty in exchange for security."