8 VALUES OF FREE EXPRESSION

 THE EIGHT VALUES OF FREE EXPRESSION

    Since the First Amendment was established in the late 18th century, citizens of the United States have accumulated inherent values that come along with free speech. Each value listed on our class website highlights the importance of free speech and how it molds our society into a patriotic one that is also willing to criticize the government at any juncture. The first value of free expression that I took a lot away from is the theory of stable change. As seen throughout the last decade, Americans that disagree with a certain policy or injustice in our society is more likely than ever to speak out on the issue. Since we're in the age of digital content and social media, people have noticed that making noise and protesting in the streets has led to lawmakers and politicians feeling more inclined to act and make changes. There are several eastern based countries that will punish those for protesting, whether that be arresting those folks or forcing them out of their homes. In my opinion, a society that can't recognize its own issues is one that cannot operate at a functional level. The beauty of the freedom to protest is that the United States government is able to see what people are upset about, and make an educated decision through our justice system in order to resolve these issues. 

   The next value of free expression that is worth discussing is the value of individual self-fulfillment. Free speech is designed for people to express their own thoughts and opinions without government interruption. In doing so, American citizens are allowed to use their freedom of speech to form their own self-identity and figure out who they want to be in the world.  The United States is known as the land of opportunity, and the ability to freely express oneself directly impacts that slogan both in a positive and negative way. Inherently, free expression is a positive right but there have been instances in the past where a person's

statements has negatively impacted their free will. The greatest example I can think of is the incident that took place on January 6, 2021  at the capitol. Donald Trump was accused of using his Twitter account to incite an insurrection on the Senate. After this incident took place, president Trump was indefinitely banned from using Twitter to express his views on the current political agenda. Talking heads on television were pleading for Trump to be arrested and/or stripped of his post-presidential privileges which ultimately flamed out because there was no reasonable way to prove Trump was inciting the insurrection. Is this an example of restricting one's autonomy? Since Twitter is a private company they're allowed to ban people from using their application but one could argue that it is restricting Trump's first amendment right to free speech. 

    The third and final value of expression that impacts our first amendment rights is the ability to check on governmental power. Checks and balances is not a new idea in government, as the constitution split our government into three different branches in order for each branch to monitor each other to make sure they're abiding by the constitution. However, since checks and balances was introduced in the 19th century, there have been several instances of the government abusing their power. Since the constitution promotes citizens to freely criticize government, there have been several examples of powerful officials abusing their power. Some examples I can think of include Richard Nixon's infamous Watergate and Hillary Clinton's thousands of deleted emails that arose during the 2016 election. When these situations caught the wave of local news, national news networks took it upon themself to acknowledge this abuse of power. Even though there will be inherent bias due to their allegiance to their political party, it's important for every citizen in the United States to understand what our leaders do to undermine our free will and take advantage of their platform. Another part of our freedom as Americans is the freedom of the press, and when political officials abuse their power, we act as the press and are responsible for calling them out for their unconstitutional and hypocritical actions.