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Political Cartoon Censorship

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A nation of silence: The censoring of Political Cartoons Just like Adolf Hitler said in Mein Kampf, “Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and the other way around to consider the most wretched sort of life.” (Whitehead 221) This is held to be true with political cartoons because the purpose of political cartoons is to provide people with and insight and to try and sway the reader of the cartoon to change his or her opinion. The censorship of political cartoons would not be a smart move because cartoonists who offend others are doing so while exercising the 1st amendment and censoring political cartoons lessens the cartoonist’s power to sway or stimulate someone’s opinions. If censorship …show more content…
The Constitution does say that the government can’t make a laws that deters from free speech or freedom of the press. This means that the government can’t censor anything that us as Americans chose read, listen, or see in the media, which includes newspapers and the government is not allowed to arrest its citizens for speaking freely about and opinions, even if they do oppose those of the government. However, this does not mean that Americans are free to say whatever they want at any time they want to say it. There are situations where some types of speech is illegal. This is where self-awareness comes to play. If people aren’t careful in the way we choose to express our opinions then of course they will be in trouble. An example of this is the burning of the American flag because there are other forms of protest people can use to show displeasure of the government. “If we didn’t defend the perimeter, there can be no center.” (Spiegelman 1) It is up to us to decide whether or not what we are expressing is justified. I believe the cartoons made by Charlie Hebdo were justified because it stood as a sign that the free world isn’t and shouldn’t be afraid or intimidated by extremists. However, the “contests” that followed weren’t justified and had no purpose, but to ridicule the prophet Muhammad. There’s a difference between peaceful protest and making a mockery of someone because they are different. Unfortunately, the AFDI didn’t distinguish this in the proper manner because all they did was mock a religion figure and its followers. If the opposition would have made inappropriate drawings of Jesus or even of Obama for that matter. We would also be upset, we would not seeing as a sign of free

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