Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: My poster explains the commonality between treacherous leaders of history, connecting it to the events in the White House today. The three leaders I analyzed, being Ronald Reagan, Napoleon and Stalin, all debased freedom of speech and media to further their goals. Reagan repealed the Fairness Doctrine, a bill that ensured unbiased news on radio and TV. The resulting news sources, such as FOX news, split the nation in half based on political ideology. In the bias and confusion, Reagan set up the government to favor the one percent through trickle down economics. In France, Napoleon entered power while the nation was still recovering. He did nothing to reinstate the rights of the people, meaning media was suppressed and the people could not speak out against him. In the silence, Napoleon was free to do as he wished, leading to the Napoleonic Wars. In Russia, Stalin turned the USSR into a police state where the people could not speak out against him under penalty of death. In that reign of terror, he rapidly industrialized Soviet Russia, leading to one of the greatest famines to strike Europe; the Holodomor. In all cases, freedom of speech and media were suppressed. Thus, to ensure that the people remain free from tyrannical governments, these rights must be kept and enforced. In the countries of Sweden, New Zealand and Finland, the people are free to speak out against the government and media is kept unbiased. Thus, they hold the top 3 freedom house scores globally.
Author: Kirschbaum, Ahren
Institution: Governors State University
Language: English
Topic: Law, Rights, and Freedoms
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7039203422
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