Marginalization is a form of censorship. It is hard to define the term censorship, but its function is easily imagined, as it is used by people in every society. Indeed, censorship, as I will show in the rest of this essay, is when an individual, a group of people, or a work and their significance are systematically and thoroughly modified (either by demonizing or canonizing them) by powerful people or organizations in order to preserve and promote in whole or part their ideological, ethical, or legal values...

On October 19, 2008, former Republican Secretary of State and retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Colin Powell appeared on the NBC News Sunday morning program Meet the Press to endorse Democratic candidate Barack Obama for president. Powell outlined multiple reasons for his choice, many of which were driven by sober policy concerns and a sense of which person was better suited for the job. But there was also a “push factor” behind his choice: he had grown weary of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the Republican Party and the attempts to tarnish Obama as a Muslim...

Several statements and policy decisions made by the new Trump administration after the inauguration in January 2017 have confirmed many observers’ fears that the extreme behavior, language, and proposals associated with the Trump campaign were in fact mere hints of worse to come. The now-notorious “American carnage” speech Trump delivered at his inauguration established that apocalyptic urgency and messianic deliverance would continue to be defining themes of his presidency, moderated only by the more tedious realities of governance that have inevitably interfered...