Eight Values of Free Expression

 Post #3: Eight Values of Free Expression

  Which Value Resonates With me the most? 

 After looking through the eight values of free expression, the value that resonates with me the most is the marketplace of ideas. This expression allows people to express themselves and generates a more creative and interesting society. As Vice President of my fraternity, this expression has been a part of my role. Allowing brothers the ability to voice their likes and dislikes surrounding any topic related to the fraternity has been beneficial to the overall success of our fraternity. If I stood before my chapter and said how things would be without any room for discussion, they most likely would not like that. Instead, brothers can voice their opinions and allow everyone to have a say. One example recently within the fraternity involves a recent fundraising event. After presenting my original idea, the fraternity was able to collaborate and share their ideas to make the event as successful as possible. 

Which Value is the Most Important to me 

As far as importance, protect dissent has jumped off the page to me compared to the others. I interpreted this question as importance for all Americans as a society, rather than just importance to me. Without protecting dissent a minority group would never be able to promote their viewpoints or disagree with the government. An example that comes to mind includes protests. Protesting would not be a thing without public dissent and minorities would never see the change they want in the country. Currently, in this country, a minority group that is rallying is the LGBTQ+ community. Because of this, there have been advancements in inclusivity around the world in major companies and social acceptance. Some of these companies include Adobe, American Airlines, IBM, and many others. Without public dissent, this movement would not have been possible and we would not have taken the strides we did. 

What Value Do I See the Most In the Modern Era 

In the modern day, the value of free expression that I see prevalent is promote tolerance. Now more than ever before, people talk the most freely about how they feel about politics, current events, government leaders, etc. It feels as if you can't scroll through Twitter with someone voicing their opinion hatefully on a politician or any other controversial topic. Although it seems backward, allowing citizens to voice these opinions, although hateful, is better than not letting a person voice their thoughts at all. A recent event that created a ripple in the world includes the Donald Trump attempted assassination. This incident resulted in millions of tweets, Instagram stories, and news articles. In these tweets and posts, people voiced their opinions based off of the incident. Whether that had to do with the event itself, how the Secret Service handled the situation, or whether people thought it was staged or an inside job, people voiced their opinions which were mostly hateful or negative towards either party. 

Recap

Overall, these eight values of free expression all have their own importance which together are critical in protecting the free speech of American citizens. Promote innovation is the most personal to me, Protect Dissent has the most importance, and promote tolerance I see most in action today.