The Importance Of Freedom Of Speech

Freedom of Speech is a delicate topic that many can debate about for hours. Getting down to the source of it all, with out our troops, America would not have freedom of speech, it is a privlige in America compared to other countries, for example an Islamic county. According to the Oxford dictionary, freedom of speech means to have the right to express any opinions without censorship or restraint. For our privlige of having free speech, many take advantage of itJeannine Bell, Ph. D of law at University of Michigan, mentions "Court did not intend to allow jurisdictions to criminalize pure hate speech" (Bell). Hate speech should be protected by the First Amendment because it may lead to psychological harm, disrespects the differences of people …show more content…
On the other hand, when people are spitting out hate speech, this can affect others by having their own free speech right because they feel like they cannot speak up and their opinions are shut down. "When hate speech is employed with the purpose and effect of maintaining established systems of caste and subordination, it violates that core value", (62) stated Paul A. Winters. When hate speech is applied at any time to any innocent victim, the value of free speech is threatened. Many people now have a hard time to speak up to what they believe because they are scared to be bashed at for what they believe and this is a problem; result of hate speech. More likely people will be silent and lose the benifit of their voice. Hate speech can be the result of silenceing people, and those people are already the ones where they are heard from the least. Just like Voltaire, a French enlighenment writer and philosopher said,"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say …show more content…
Physical harm can be cutting and suicide. Many think of those actions because they have been picked on so harshly that the psychological harm is already ingraved in their brains, that they start to believe it. Fried states, "Adolesents show up at hospital emergency rooms with self-inflicted injuries- usually suicide attempts" (6). The brain is under a lot of stress when suicide is at risk. The hippocampus, located in the lower part of the brain, controls and responses to stress. People who think of suicide usually have hypermethlate, the brain makes less levels of protein in the synthesis. Charles Q. Choi, a science reporter, quotes Moshe Szyg, and epigeneticist at McGill University in Montreal, "Protein synthesis is required for many brain functions, and subtle differences at times of distress might affect connections in the brain that normally protect us from suicidal behavior" (Choi). Hate speech can lead to many factors with psychological harm, which can lead to physical harm. And free speech is not covered when the result ends up with physical harm. Lastly, hate speech violates the differences of people. The founding fathers made free speech becasue they wanted to be different from the British and give the citizens of America a chance too. For example, recently being gay is a normal thing, and many still are not accepting this. It takes a lot for them to

Show More

Importance Of Freedom Of Speech

Importance Of Freedom Of Speech In America