The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.
While law-abiding Muslims are forced to hide in their homes, and animal-rights activists are labeled as terrorists for undercover filming of abusive treatment at factory farms, right-wing hate groups are free to organize, parade, arm themselves to the hilt and murder with chilling regularity. It’s time for our society to confront this very real threat.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the inconsistencies in societal responses to various forms of activism and the need for change in how threats are recognized and addressed.
In this quote, Amy Goodman points out the disparity in societal reactions to different groups and their actions, illustrating that while peaceful individuals and those advocating for animal rights face severe restrictions and labeling, extremist groups are allowed to operate freely, often to the detriment of society. She calls for a reevaluation of what is considered a threat and urges society to confront the dangerous behaviors of hate groups that emerge unchallenged, thereby emphasizing the need for a more just and equitable societal framework.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a public speech about social justice, this quote can underscore the need for awareness of societal disparities.
More from Amy Goodman
All quotes →Independent media can go to where the silence is and break the sound barrier, doing what the corporate networks refuse to do.
I really do think that if for one week in the United States we saw the true face of war, we saw people's limbs sheared off, we saw kids blown apart, for one week, war would be eradicated. Instead, what we see in the U.S. media is the video war game.
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Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.
After the allied victory of 1918, at the end of my father's war, the victors divided up the lands of their former enemies. In the space of just seventeen months, they created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. And I have spent my entire career — in Belfast and Sarajevo, in Beirut and Baghdad — watching the people within those borders burn.
The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory.