This is honestly wild. I was young back then, and I know the Internet/social media was a completely different arena back then, but was there such systematic backlash to speaking out against the Iraq War back during post-9/11?
In the US, oh yeah, big time, if you were noteworthy. That's part of how the Dixie Chicks became irrelevant, they dared to even make a tepid statement about it.
Hell, during the very early stages, the French make a fuss about the US going into Iraq and the cafeteria in the US capitol building renamed french fries 'Freedom fries'. Various parts of the US went along with it.
It was a bit different since there was a lot of white western people who were very very against the war, especially outside of America. Also the internet was way different in 2003, there wasn't four big websites that literally everyone posts on so you didn't have boomers on Facebook, chuds on Reddit and whatever twitter is mixed in with everyone else on the same platforms, people had to find websites and forums for their specific interests, things were a lot more diffuse so people with different views would stick to their own communities more.
Yes but instead of being on a social network it was the chud-liberal alliance calling you an unamerican terrorist in meat space. 2003 didn't have these giant centralized forums.
Phil Donahue lost his job at MSNBC for vocally opposing the Iraq War. An internal memo at MSNBC revealed that they saw Donahue as a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war".
According to Donahue:
They were terrified of the antiwar voice. And that is not an overstatement. Antiwar voices were not popular. And if you’re General Electric, you certainly don’t want an antiwar voice on a cable channel that you own; Donald Rumsfeld is your biggest customer.
It really is funny almost, when you look back on how—how the management was just frozen by the antiwar voice. We were scolds. We weren’t patriotic. American people disagreed with us. And we weren’t good for business.
Chris Hedges also lost his job at The New York Times for publicly denouncing the Iraq War after they formally reprimanded him. He was booed off a stage and had his microphone cut twice for delivering an antiwar speech.
I think they deplatformed people pretty quickly for questioning the war. The Internet really wasn't comparable back then to make a comparison on a social media level, but MSM and mainstream politics would practically exile you if you had anything other than full-throated support iirc.
This is honestly wild. I was young back then, and I know the Internet/social media was a completely different arena back then, but was there such systematic backlash to speaking out against the Iraq War back during post-9/11?
In the US, oh yeah, big time, if you were noteworthy. That's part of how the Dixie Chicks became irrelevant, they dared to even make a tepid statement about it.
Hell, during the very early stages, the French make a fuss about the US going into Iraq and the cafeteria in the US capitol building renamed french fries 'Freedom fries'. Various parts of the US went along with it.
The fervor was insane.
I've heard of the freedom fries thing before in passing but never of why it was changed... wow.
Yup. Forgot how crazy it went, but yes (forgot french toast was also renamed lmao).
It was a bit different since there was a lot of white western people who were very very against the war, especially outside of America. Also the internet was way different in 2003, there wasn't four big websites that literally everyone posts on so you didn't have boomers on Facebook, chuds on Reddit and whatever twitter is mixed in with everyone else on the same platforms, people had to find websites and forums for their specific interests, things were a lot more diffuse so people with different views would stick to their own communities more.
Yes but instead of being on a social network it was the chud-liberal alliance calling you an unamerican terrorist in meat space. 2003 didn't have these giant centralized forums.
Phil Donahue lost his job at MSNBC for vocally opposing the Iraq War. An internal memo at MSNBC revealed that they saw Donahue as a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war".
According to Donahue:
Chris Hedges also lost his job at The New York Times for publicly denouncing the Iraq War after they formally reprimanded him. He was booed off a stage and had his microphone cut twice for delivering an antiwar speech.
All the protesting I did then was organized in person so honestly dont think so.
I think they deplatformed people pretty quickly for questioning the war. The Internet really wasn't comparable back then to make a comparison on a social media level, but MSM and mainstream politics would practically exile you if you had anything other than full-throated support iirc.
Bush II’s Press Secretary Ari Fleishcher explicitly stated that Americans “need to watch what they say.” It was so fucked up.