Eight Values of Free Expression

"If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter"- George Washington

    Under the tyranny of British rule, the founding fathers fought for the right for free speech. It was so important to them that they made it the first amendment in the constitution. This idea sparked a revolution that started America's independence and influenced other revolutions in France, Ireland, Haiti, and other Latin American countries. It has become one of our core principles, and we shaped our country around it. The independence of our country and the first amendment would not have been possible without one of the eight theories of free expression; the marketplace of ideas. 

    The eight theories of free expression are; the marketplace of ideas, participation in self-government, stable change, individual self-fulfillment, check on governmental power, promote tolerance, promote innovation, and protect dissent.  

    The eight values are all important but there are a few that resonates with me more than others. Protect dissent, check on governmental power, and promote tolerance. 

    The most important being to protect dissent, aka the right to protest. The U.S. government has had a long history of injustice and continues to today. Time and time again, people protest against the government because they feel there is an injustice, something the government is doing wrong. The founding fathers did it with the Boston Tea Party, it happened again with the women's suffrage movement in the 1910s, the civil rights movement in the '60s, the stonewall riots, the protests against sending soldiers into Vietnam, and more recently, the March for our Lives protest in 2018. As Ben Franklin put it, "It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."

    Check on government power resonates the most with me. Logically it makes the most sense; it was why the American revolution happened in the first place. We as a public have a duty to make sure our government is acting in line legally and ethically. We have a voice, and we should be about to make sure the government doesn't abuse its power. 

    Promote tolerance is the most challenging expression for me to pick a side for. It is also the expression I deal with the most on a daily basis. I understand the first amendment protects hate speech, doesn't mean I always agree with it, but I understand. I see Bollinger's point that we learn lessons from freedom of hate speech. Words have so much power and can cause so much hurt and damage. As the famous quote goes, "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it"- George Santayana. We need to learn to understand why a particular word or phrase is considered hate speech. 

   However, online, people have lost tolerance. As a society, we have become so quick to cancel someone rather than explaining or teaching them why what they are doing is offensive. In the beginning, I completely agreed with cancel culture; recently, I feel it has gotten too extreme. I believe lumping someone who did not know why what they were saying or doing was wrong in the same category as someone who intentionally harmed someone makes their crimes seem inconsequential. There are people who are being canceled for mistakes they made; people learn from their mistakes. Online, people are intolerant and see the world in black and white, when that is not how the world works. We need to promote more tolerance online and give people a chance to learn from their mistakes so they can see why what they said or did was wrong rather than canceling their future.

    Participation in self-government was especially prevalent in the previous election; the 2020 election had the highest voter turnout of the last two decades. For months leading up to the election, singers, actors, influencers were encouraging their followers to go out and vote. For the first time in huge numbers, celebrities were using their platform to promote voting participation, and it worked. To ask people to participate in self-government, they used social media. Joe Biden talked with Lin-Manuel Miranda, and they talked about issues like the wage gap and the importance of Latino voters. Using other people's online following to communicate important issues so that they participate in the election is the definition of participation in self-government.