Kelley 1

Brett Kelley

Mrs.Cramer

Comp 1

12/7/18

Censoring the Censorship

Potter Stewart , an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, said, “Censorship

reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself.” Censorship is the suppression of ideas

and information that are unacceptable to societal standards. It could prohibit important

information that could affect the national educational system. With censorship present in

the United States, the knowledge of the people and the ideas of freedom found in this

country are insignificant. Censorship should be removed within the United States because

the ideas of freedom within the United States pointless, creates conspiracy theories that

causes more problems, and insults those who are censored.

To start with, censorship is unethical to the national freedom present within the

United States. According to the Bill of Right, the first amendment states “Congress shall

make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise

thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peace

by to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances,” (Nelson 1).

The first amendment states we are allowed the freedom of press or the releasing of

information and censorship banning the press because the information was too obscure
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for the public is unconstitutional. It also states in the first amendment that, as citizens,

we have a freedom of speech (Nelson 1). Censorship banning people for wanting to

speak their mind and talk about the controversial topics given in today’s world is

unconstitutional and problematic. 1Would you like the government to take our natural

rights given to us by this country. Based on the evidence listed, censorship takes away the

nature and lawful rights given to us as American Citizens from the Bill of Rights.

While censorship does take away natural laws given to us, it also has the potential

to harm the youth of this generation. Parents argue that censorship takes away the

innocence of our children, showing them the real world instead of believing that the

world is naturally nice and innocent. While it could very well damage, or ruin the

innocence of children, not having censorship allows children to know the whole truth

about subjects, and to better not only themselves but their future. For instance, some

parents censor the ideas of safe sex and that could lead to problems, such as becoming a

parent too early, or STDs. 2 Having a bunch of uneducated children being diagnosed with

sexually transmitted diseases would be positively bad. Based on these reasons, censorship

should not prevent children learning how to protect themselves.

To continue, Censorship creates conspiracy theory that causes more problems to

society. For instance, according to the journal The Guardian, The idea that removing

content stops conspiracy theories is false, it just fuels the conspiracy theories (Levin 1). If

removing content causes mass hysteria and creates drama throughout the nation, the idea

of removing content or censoring content should be removed itself. Also on the day of

1 This is an example of Enthymeme or Rhetorical Question because the question clearly has an obvious answer to what the author is saying
2 This is an oxymoron or the use of opposite words in conjunction because it is combining the ideas of positively and bad or contradicting terms
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9/11/01, Al Queda hijacked 4 planes. Two of the planes hit the twin towers making the

towers collapse and fall, leaving America devastated. While this was a tragedy, people

were uncertain it was a natural disaster. There were conspiracy theories stating that the

kerosene used to fly the planes wasn’t hot enough to melt the steel and that 9/11 was a

controlled demolition. While these were proven wrong, specifically because the metal

didn’t have to melt but bend in order for the structure to be weakened, it is worth noting

that conspiracy theories arose because information was withheld from our national

government (Editors 1). The mass hysteria that arose from 9/11 could have been

prevented if the result of what happened were given and the truth about what happened

that day was exposed earlier. 3If censorship continues to be problematic within the United

States, we will have another 9/11 . To summarize, censorship can create more problems

by allowing conspiracy theories to become a growing thought throughout Americans

each day.

On the other hand, the government believe that censorship protects national

security and can prevent mass hysteria. Censorship has both the abilities to prevent and

create mass hysteria through the ideas of conspiracy theories. While it can prevent mass

hysteria from hitting the public, it can also create more drama and hysteria. A good

example of how it can create mass hysteria is the 9/11 theories that were created due to

inconclusive details. While censorship can preent issues and controversies from arising, it

could also create problematic situations and cause mass hysteria.

3This is an example of an allusion or a expression used to call something related to the mind because it is implying that if censorship continues, then another terrorist attack or “another 9/11”
will occur
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Finally, censorship can create an insulative matter toward anyone who was

censored. People have been censored throughout the years and it doesn’t create a general

good feeling. Censoring someones work is an insult because the person dedicated their

time and their effort into putting together a piece or an idea just for it to be taken away

and censored. For instance, famous writers such as William Shakespeare’s plays and

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn have been censored because of offensive language

(Banned Books 2). While there are some aspects that would make the idea censored

towards society today, the main idea of the plays and writings is to entertain the people of

their time period so why would people want to ruin this piece of history that helped create

the society we live in today. For instance, Shakespeare’s plays were made between the

years 1500s to the 1600s, which was a time when women didn’t have rights and the use

of slaves and native americans were high, but today these displays of history are seen as

hate crimes because they were offensive towards that people. While it is understandable

why people would be upset about the terms used in these writings, they must understand

the time period in which these terms were written and the reason that these writing were

enscribed is because it was based on the time period it was written. Another example that

is more recent is To Kill A Mockingbird which was censored because of “racially

charged themes, use of racial slurs, and depictions of sexual assault” (Banned Books 3).

While this book does include all of the following, the book was created in the 1920s

which was a time period where blacks still didn’t have full individual rights and were

charged for crimes they didn’t commit. It was meant to be a historical fiction but the

readers interpreted it like a hate crime and took offense to it. Based on these reasons,

censorship should not be allowed to discriminate history or any reading by itself.

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In conclusion, Censorship shouldn’t be present within the United States because it

is unconstitutional, creates conspiracy theories, and discriminates historical and societal

readings. Censorship violates the first amendment, creates conspiracy theories about

ideas that are censored and insults the ideas that authors and writers create. Don’t let

censorship demolish the ideas of being an American Citizen.

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Work Cited

"Banned Books." Gale Student Resources in Context, Gale, 2018. Student Resources In Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/ACETGP296253233/SUIC?u=pl1949&sid=SUIC&xi

d=0d92e1ca. Accessed 18 Sept. 2018.

Editors, Popular Mechanics. “Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report - The World

Trade Center.” Popular Mechanics, Popular Mechanics, 10 Sept. 2018,

www.popularmechanics.com/military/a6384/debunking-911-myths-world-trade-

center/.

Levin, Sam. “'Taking Them down Fuels It More': Why Conspiracy Theories Are

Unstoppable.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 28 Feb. 2018,

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/28/florida-shooting-conspiracy-theories-

youtube-takedown.

Nelson, Jeremy. “The Bill of Rights (Amendments 1 - 10).” National Center for

Constitutional Studies, National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1 Jan. 2018,

nccs.net/blogs/americas-founding-documents/bill-of-rights-amendments-1-10.