Blog Post #3

Blog Post #3

Luke Lee

3/25/2024

When thinking of strong components of freedom of speech many different ideas may come up. Some people have different views on freedom of speech and what that statement actually entails. For the most recent assignment I and the rest of the class were introduced to the eight values of free expression. These eight values are all theories that go into thought when one may think of free speech. In this post, I will go over my own personal thoughts on some of these theories and connect them to real life issues and discourse going on today.

I believe the most important of the eight values listed would be participation in government. The long story short of this value is that citizens will not make wise or valuable voting decisions if 'candidates and proponents of certain policies are restricted in their ability to communicate positions'. I find this incredibly important to myself personally because I believe there are so many people who vote the way they do because of misinformation. They'll read one headline and state that their mind has been made up. Instead of learning other perspectives and growing, these people continue to fall into the hole of misinformation and ignorance. So many people if they just read a little bit further down into the article or if they did their own research would find that their opinions now might not be the same as if they actually sat down and really reviewed over everything they believed in. 

I also think the most important value that isn't necessarily important to me personally would-be individual self-fulfillment. There was an ongoing joke during COVID about when the kid with the Blue Lives Matter mask and the girl with the LGBTQ mask would raise their hand on the same question in a debate like environment. But when you look at the situation and take it seriously and instead of a joke, there is a legitimate real-life situation here. Both of these kids have experienced different events and experiences in their lives to reach this point. You can never say somebodies' opinion isn't valid or legitimate. They have their opinion for a reason. And 9/10 times that reason is legitimate. Knowing your own personal identity and being able to take opinions away from it is great. While I don't always agree with those who view the world differently as I do, I am thankful for them and their experiences. It allows me to grow as a person and remember that I'm not the only one here and there are plenty of people with different experiences as me. It makes me a better person even if sometimes I don't agree with them and even if the interactions can be frustrating. 

For myself, the value I see happen the most in real life is Marketplace of ideas or Discovery of Truth. We all know nowadays especially in the media and the news, there are a ton of propaganda. It's all a money game. If you look at all of the news stations and media production companies, I guarantee you will find they are all owned by the same 10 companies or so. The same people own all of the big media companies. Therefore, quite a bit of propaganda and bias floats around. With that being said, the truth always comes out. If you remember, the media went on an absolute crusade on Donald Trump. Everyone in 2020 was against this man. Being a member of the KKK and voting for Donald Trump were seen as pretty much the same thing by leftists everywhere. No matter what you think of Trump, any unbiased person with a set of eyes could understand the clear crucification of our former president. The public recognized the clear bias the media had against the former President and how hard his adversaries were pushing for him to not even be allowed to re-run in the future. Now four years later and it seems like Trump is probably going to run away with this upcoming election. I remember eight years ago when Trump got elected and my school at the time had a week of silence where teachers and students alike could call of school for 'mental health' days and wear black bands of protest with a bunch of rich white kids and white teachers kneeling for the anthem because of 'social injustice' none of them have actually even come closed to sniffing. 8 years later and being a Donald Trump supporter isn't really looked down upon as much. Look, Trump isn't perfect. There are a lot of things he does and says that aren't so great. But the man clearly isn't the devil or Hitler like the media claimed he was. The truth always wins.