While there are 8 values of Free Expression, different value are relevant to different situations in society. Right here, right now, I feel that the 8th value of free expression is most relevant to the citizens of the United States. For the past few years there has been a divide in the country. That divide only seems to be growing larger as time continues to pass. The divide because most prominent about five years ago when the 2020 election was taking place. From there on the divide was clear with not only politics, but with economic status, ethnicity, and gender.
What is the 8th value of free expression? Protect Decent is ensuring that if someone were to disagree with a majority opinion they would feel safe and have the right to do so. For example, a group is protesting and your opinion is different. You should feel as if you could voice your opinion near the group without the government or anyone else coming after you.
Protect Decent is very important to our recent past and our future because of the common conflicts within our country. A very recent occurrence of divide within our country is the Covid-19 pandemic. Peoples personal feeling towards this seems to align with their stance on politics. The Pew Research Center said that those who didn't like the political governing party felt as if their life was most affected by the virus. People being able to share their opinions on the virus and do not feel any threat doing so is due to the 8th value of freedom.
Without Protect Decent, people would feel protected to share their opinions online or in a crowd of people. If this value of free expression was noon existent, people wouldn't be able to oppose the majority values.
Along with the 8th value of free expression, the 6th value goes along with it. The 6th value of free expression is to promote tolerance. This also goes along with the society today and its strong divide. This value is important in mending the divide because the idea behind it expresses that the government should stay uninvolved. By protecting the people from government interference and allowing hate speech and differing opinions the country can grow tolerant of others opinions and begin to support one another and close the gap of divide. Like the last example, Covid-19 has brought up many gaps between people. The government allowing people to express their opinions and choose whether or not they want to get the vaccine allows people to learn how to tolerate others values and opinions. While there is still conflict people are able to share their values and accept that everyone is going to do what they want, so tolerating is he easiest way to live with it. At a certain point there is no more fight worth giving.
The 8th and 6th values of free expression go hand and hand because in order to see change through tolerating other peoples differing opinions the citizens need to be ale to feel safe and protected in sharing their minority opinion.
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