Reading "American Midnight" about Wilson & industrialists promoting/propogandizing WWI & the whole US using that movement as a cudgel to beat down labor, progre

Reading "American Midnight" about Wilson & industrialists promoting/propogandizing WWI & the whole US using that movement as a cudgel to beat down labor, progressives, minorities, basically everyone with anything to say that wasnt ra-ra-ism. The Postmaster General Albert Burleson makes up a solid part of chapter 3 of this march through a tragic & vicious time. Burleson told post offices to send any suspicious/un-American/not-war-supporting publications to him for review, which he then used either deny mailing to or used to attack directly the institutions. The web of publications not just suppressed but attacked here seemingly extended to basically anyone with a dissenting voice on labor, race, or seemingly most any topic where the governmemt wasnt portrayed in favorable rights. We did (thanks to the courts) come to limit government power to censor & abuse eventually, and to your defense not that much longer after. We have only just gotten to ~100 years of there being some clarity, but after an enormous cliff where these ideas seemingly meant nothing, and from which we emerged only because of a very very few sensible & reasonable high placed people who reversed an animal & base anti-speech anger that government had been systemizing actively. I still broadly agree with your distinction, but noting the dark shitty times & bring aware how bad things were not that long ago- at a governmental level- is also important. This book has been eye opening.