The Values of Free Expression

 One of the major aspects of your country that's make America, "America" is our right to freedom of expression, and therefore, The First Amendment. When looking over the first amendment and more specifically the evolution of the first amendment, we run into the Eight Values of Free Expression. These eight values show the process and memorable ideals given by noble historians to explain why free expression is so important. 

When looking over these eight values, the one that I found that resonated with me the most was "Individual Self-Fulfillment". This is described as individuals being allowed to express themselves, lead to people really learning who they are, finding what they stand for, a creating their "identity". This one stood out to me the most because I feel as if we were in constant restraint from speaking our minds, and had to speak in moderation all of the time, we would be confused with what we truly believe in. This would ultimately deter us from having enlightening conversations with others to come a real conclusion on our opinions and thoughts, leaving us feeling like we the people are lesser than our government. 

With all eight values holding high influence, there are multiple examples of the way freedom of speech or expression is being shown today. For instance, with social media likely being a part of many peoples routines, this is somewhere you see free expression shown every single day. To give one example, in the last few days it has been announced that Elon Musk has officially bought the social media app known as Twitter, but he has a purpose and goal behind this investment. When looking into Musks true intentions with now owning twitter, his main drive is to "address freedom of speech concerns".  In the linked article, it was said that Musks stated that he wants twitter to be a where a "wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manor". 

In recent cases, pre Elon Musk buying Twitter, there were multiple cases of Twitter and other social media app banning or restricting certain people from contributing to the app, and therefore shutting down this form of free expression or free speech. For example, well known Kanye West was kicked off of Instagram and Twitter for "hate speech", but when looking deeper into, shutting Kanye West and other out from the public on the social media aspect, is just another form of restricting their freedom of speech, which ultimately is unconstitutional. All in all, this brings in another aspect of the 8 values of free speech know as "Promote Tolerance", of we shut out all controversial opinions and topics, we are weakening the public to deal with controversy and different opinions.