Blog Post 10: Antiwar

 Antiwar

Exploring the two websites, Antiwar.com and The American Conservative, I saw media that I have never seen before. I think this is because they have such strong voices and the media tends to keep things more neutral because of how sensitive society has gotten. I feel that in order to get reliable information, in depth research is needed to be able to get the full story. These websites show the depth of current issues that we are facing today. 

I want to focus on one article from The American Conservative. In the article, “Whither the Department of Education?” by Peter Van Buren, he talks about the future of the Department of Education (DOE). He discusses people like Trump, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy wanting to get rid of it. The article explains that the DOE doesn’t directly choose textbooks or hire teachers, but it helps fund schools and enforces policies, like making sure schools follow Title IX rules. The article states, “the Secretary of the Treasury would make allocations to states to support elementary and secondary education, including career and technical education, based on the number of kids enrolled in public, private, and home schools.” 

This means the Secretary of the Treasury would give money to states for education based on how many students are enrolled in public, private, and homeschooling. The money would help pay for regular school programs as well as career and technical education. From this, I believe the money for education would be shared fairly based on how many students there are, no matter what kind of school they go to. This could make sure all students get the support they need.

According to Buren, “Project 2025 also gets into more “philosophical” areas, redefining sex in strictly biological terms for Title IX purposes, eliminating any benefits based on race, and establishing a Parental Bill of Rights for Education.” Some people believe the DOE has grown too big and want to move its responsibilities to other government departments. Trump and Project 2025 want to give parents more control over their kids' education with "Education Savings Accounts" and reduce the government’s role in schools. I can see how this might make things simpler, but I’m also concerned it could hurt education, especially for the students that come from lower income families. What I am wondering is whether getting rid of the Department of Education would help or hurt schools. 

After reading the articles, I think I have to find obscure websites to hear strong antiwar voices because mainstream media usually supports the government’s decisions. The government has a lot of control over the media, so I think the news promotes pro war views. Antiwar voices that challenge this don’t get as much attention, which is why websites like Antiwar.com are harder to find. They offer different opinions that mainstream media doesn’t usually share.

I believe that there needs to be more attention on these websites because they are very informative. I enjoyed exploring these websites because they gave insights and point of views on things that I have never seen before. These websites gave facts and harsh truths, while also not sugar coating any of the information they were giving. There needs to be more of these resources.