Blog Post #3

 Eight Values of Free Expression

    Out of the eight values of free expression, the one that resonates with me the most is Protect Dissent because it states, "Our system is not supposed to be one of a mob rule. The First Amendment projects minority views, no matter how unpopular. You have a strongly protected right to disagree with the government --- and everyone else. In fact, it is your patriotic duty to criticize the government." I feel that this personally resonates with me as I believe that we are all created as humans to have differences, including beliefs, values, looks, opinions, etc. We have the rights to speak our own thoughts and opinions and we are allowed to have different ideas and opinions as others. As an individual, I always try and project how everyone has different perspectives on things, and that we as humans should try and hear others out. I believe that having differences within a society is important as it allows us to expand our knowledges and understandings on other things. This allows us to keep an open mind and I think having that is very important as it allows us to grow not only as individuals, but also it helps us grow our knowledge on the world and accept that we are all different. 

    The one that feels the most important to me is Promote Tolerance as it teaches us to become more acceptive of different things around the world. Lee Bollinger states that, "the First Amendment protects hate speech because society learns valuable lessons from, including why it is hateful and worthy of condemnation." This is very important as we need to learn to accept that society has different cultures, and that we need to build our understanding and acceptance of those cultures. Along with that, people have different opinions on everything, and although most things people say or believe are wrong, it is our job as human beings to hear everyone out before hating or turning them or their ideas, beliefs, or values down. Just as Bollinger said, "It's how we spread norms about acceptable behavior." Being open to other cultures will help enhance our knowledges on other cultures, leading us to building cultural acceptance within the world. According to the United States Institution of Peace, "instability, conflict and human rights abuses are daily occurrences worldwide, often driven by hostility based on religion, belief or ethnicity." To ensure that better instability and our human rights, educating tolerance can help us bring more peace to the world by enhancing diversity and equality. 

 The value of expression that feels the most personal to me is the Individual Self-Fulfillment as it states that, "Free speech enables individuals to express themselves and thereby create their own identity --- and, in the process perhaps, find kindred spirits. Freedom of speech thus becomes an aspect of human dignity, human agency and autonomy." This expression feels the most personal to me and I feel like to any individual as it expresses that we should all develop self-expression to help us build new skills, confidence, and overall our personal growth as an individual. 

    Some of the values of expressions that I see in action today are Individual Self-Fulfillment, Promote Tolerance, and Protect Dissent. We can see Individual Self-Fulfillment, Protect Tolerance, and Protect Dissent expressed in the world today as these three values of expression all revolve around the idea of establishing a freedom of speech. For Protect Dissent, people show this all the time through social media now. We'll see tweets on twitter, posts on Instagram and TikTok relating to people's opinions to the government --- some good and some not so great. This demonstrates the expression "Protect Dissent" as people are freely expressing their personal opinions against the government. 

For example, when the Roe v. Wade case came out, there were a lot of people posting on their Instagram stories, along with TikTok, the case and explaining how angry they were at it. This theory can really help explain what's going on in the world as it allows others to take a deeper look into news and seeing others criticize the government can help others also speak up and use their freedom to express how they feel about this. This can also lead to people starting to protest, and depending on what the situation is, this is can be a good thing because the people are standing up for their rights. As seen in CNN's article, there were large protests outside the White House against Supreme Court, regarding the Roe v. Wade case. This just shows how influential social media can be on people expressing their rights and learning about the current events happening in the world today.