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The influences of freedom of speech
The influences of freedom of speech
The effects and importance of freedom of speech
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In today’s society, people are judged constantly about things that they can’t control or help. For example, people’s race, sexuality, or their choice to change the gender they were born as is something that others might not welcome or understand. The way any person wants to express themselves to the world will, at times, not always be accepted by others. This may cause people to voice their own opinions through hate speech or offensive speech. At times it can be hurtful and in some cases dangerous to those who want to share the way they express themselves. For this reason, hate speech or offensive speech should be banned because even though other’s feelings should be taken into consideration, it is not always the case and people may end up …show more content…
This was the first amendment to be established and it means everyone has the right to express any opinion without being held back or censored. This could be regarded, however there should be a line line between free speech and hate speech. People should not be able to use the first amendment as a shield for attacking others with cruel or hurtful words, but instead it should be used as a way for people to have a chance of being heard and understood. Even though beliefs or ideas may not be accepted by others, they should not have to hide who they are in fear of those who disagree with who they are as people. With free speech there is a chance that hate or offensive speech can be brought through as well. In a way, this may be offensive and can include personal attacks and insults or the degrading of another person. This can be towards people with a certain gender, race, sexuality, or any other trait that others might not want to accept. It is used to mainly hurt others and can sometimes be dangerous. Offensive speech is a part of free speech and is a way for people to offend others without having to censor their words which is why it should be
The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Essentially, the First Amendment is supposed to give citizens the right to have free speech, free choice of religion, and the right to assemble peaceably. There are limitations to the First Amendment because every person interprets the rights differently. The Nazis most likely assumed that it was all right to hate people and say it in public, but the Jewish people disagreed, believing that hatred is unacceptable. Where is the line drawn when it comes to people being able to speak their minds? Justice Murphy, a member of the Supreme Court in 1942, had a say on what is considered allowable under the First Amendment and what crosses the line, and he stated,
The First Amendment of the United States gives citizens the five main rights to freedom. Freedom of speech is one of the rights. If people did not have the freedom of speech there would be no way of expressing one’s self and no way to show individuality between beliefs. This Amendment becomes one of the issues in the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District Supreme Court case that happened in December of 1969. In the case of Tinker v. Des Moines there were five students that got suspended for wearing armbands to protest the Government’s policy in Vietnam. Wearing these armbands was letting the students express their beliefs peacefully. Many people would consider that the school did not have the authority to suspend these petitioners because of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.
Although this amendment gave people the right to express their opinions, it still rests in one’s own hands as to how far they will go to exercise that right of freedom of speech. According to Roger Rosenblatt “since freedom is the way people's minds were made to be”, freedom of speech is important to speak one's mind in a way that expresses his/her opinion, even if this opinion does not seem to convince others. In my opinion, without freedom of speech, the United States would have failed to be such a powerful country as it is today. . Although your opinions might disagree with others, you still have the right to voice them. For example, Roger Rosenblatt indicated that when a basketball player for the Denver Nuggets, was suspended from the league because of his religious conventions that stopped him from playing in the league.
Should the First Amendment stop protecting hate speech? In Derek Bok’s “Protecting Freedom of Expression on the Campus”, he argues that hate speech should be protected as censorship would be against the First Amendment. He declares “One reason why the power of censorship is so dangerous is that it is extremely difficult to decide when a particular communications is offensive enough to warrant prohibition or to weigh the degree is offensiveness against the potential value of communication.... if we were to forbid flags, it is only a short step to prohibiting offensive speakers” (Bok 67) What Bok is attempting to say is that we can technically declare anything as offensive. The idea of hate speech is varying on the opinion of a person rather than law.
1. The measure of a great society is the ability of its citizens to tolerate the viewpoints of those with whom they disagree. As Voltaire once said, “I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” (Columbia). This right to express one's opinion can be characterized as “freedom of speech.” The concept of “freedom of speech” is a Constitutional right in the United States, guaranteed under the First Amendment to the Constitution:
In the first amendment, it is stated that all people have the Freedom of speech, religion,
If this were the case, freedom of expression could not exist at all because someone is always going to be offended by what another person says. Possessing freedom of expression means being tolerant and accepting of others who have differing opinions, or even offensive ones. This might not always be easy, but is what one has to deal with in order to voice their own voice and opinions. Accepting and tolerating others does not mean that one has to agree with them. Every individual is given the liberty to exercise their right to free speech.
Since this country was founded, we have had a set of unalienable rights that our constitution guarantees us to as Americans. One of the most important rights that is mentioned in our constitution is the right to free speech. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
When the individual gets attacked verbally because of their controversial statements, they claim that they had the right to speak their mind no matter how disturbing their words were. They use the First Amendment as a cover for their wrong-doings, and that is never okay. They need to be educated on what they can and cannot say. Just because the First Amendment guarantees a person the freedom of speech, does not mean that they are entitled to say whatever they please. The article “Freedom of Speech” explains if an individual were to use “fighting words” then they are automatically not covered under their First Amendment. The Supreme Court decided in the case Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire that “fighting words” were not constitutional, so they would not be protected under the First Amendment (2). Many people misunderstand that much of their opinions that they speak consists of words that are unclear. More than half of the time the words they use in their statements are considered to be fighting words, for they are rude and ignorant. There is no need for the obscene words that they use to be protected under the First Amendment. They must become aware of their lack of knowledge for what “fighting words” are; furthermore, they
Living in the United States we enjoy many wonderful freedoms and liberties. Even though most of these freedoms seem innate to our lives, most have been earned though sacrifice and hard work. Out of all of our rights, freedom of speech is perhaps our most cherished, and one of the most controversial. Hate speech is one of the prices we all endure to ensure our speech stays free. But with hate speeches becoming increasingly common, many wonder if it is too great of a price to pay, or one that we should have to pay at all.
Instead, Bok suggests that we address the problem by communicating with those who are causing these disturbances and understand . Also in the essay, “Freedom of Speech Means Freedom to Hate”, Christopher Hitchens explains why banning those hate speeches may be an unwise decision for society as a whole as freedom of speech does sometimes prevent the tyranny of majority from happening. While the essay, “Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the Internet”, Amanda Hess makes for the argument that the internet have become a new and terrifying way for people to bully women who uses it. The last article, “The Case for Censoring Hate Speech,” Sean McElwee argues that censoring is required to help protect the minorities and to foster a better society. Freedom of expression should not be limited for limiting speech does not help solve the root problem and it would be near impossible for any person to regulate what people are allowed to say and not allowed to say without having any sort of bias against anyone in
Hate speech should be regulated because it is harmful and spreads negative and disgusting stereotypes. Although hate speech does infringe on the freedom of speech, It affects many individuals by race,religion, ethnicity or sex. If hate speech is regulated there will be less negative content and insults of a person's race or religion.
In order to reduce the astonishing number of hate crimes in the United States, the Federal Government should restrict hate speech, and the expressions of hateful ideas, in all its forms, in all places, both public and private. However, it is imperative that hate speech be defined first. Contrary to some opinions, it is possible to accurately define hate speech, because hate speech does not actually have many elusive forms. Hate speech includes fighting words as defined in Chaplinsky vs. New Hampshire, and words that incite violence or aggression towards a specific group based on sex, sexual orientation, race, creed, or political orientation by the provision of information that is not valid against all members of the group. The wording must encourage a violent or physically aggressive action based on false information. For example, if one encourages violence towards those who worship Satan because all those who worship Satan sacrifice humans, he should be prosecuted under a hate speech code, because there is no way to prove that the information is applicable to all those in the group. However, if the same person encouraged political action, he would be perfectly justified, even if the information were still false. The basic reasoning behind hate speech codes is that they will protect people from violence.
Freedom of speech has many positive things, one of which is the help it gives on decision-making. Thanks to freedom of speech it is possible to express personal ideas without fear or restraints; therefore, all the perspectives and options will be on the table, giving people more opportunities to choose from. Nevertheless, everything in life has a limit, and the limit of freedom of speech depends directly on the consideration of the rights of others. People is free of believing what they want, thinking what they want, and even saying what they want, everything as long as they do not intrude or violate anyone else's rights. Under certain circumstances freedom of speech should be limited, and this is more than just a political action, this acts represent the urge for tolerance and the need for respect.
What if the leader of an extreme military group, like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), was giving a speech, would you tell them to watch their language? Enforcing hate speech laws are unnecessary because there are alternative laws in place to protect human rights, civilization can self-regulate around negative opinions and most importantly, it challenges the constitutional freedom of speech Canadians are promised. The surge of social media platforms encourages men and women to communicate globally and discuss their commonalities, but it can provoke hateful words when strong opinions conflict with each other. By banning hate speech, it opens the door to banning any kind of free speech, and the freedom to express one’s opinion is hindered.