Key Post #1

 Of the eight values of free speech, I've read the ones 

 these are the ones that stick out to me the most.

1: Participation in self-government. This is about how most voters won't make wise decisions while voting. With the rise of social media and with it the rise of misinformation making well-informed political choices is more difficult than ever. "You are not immune to propaganda" is a quote that I've been seeing more and more often. Giving everyone with an internet connection a platform does have its cons. Sites like TikTok and Facebook spread conspiracies and misinformation like wildfire. These are not only dangerous to the people the false information targets but also to the whole American population if more and more people believe in these theories. I remember back in 2021 when US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed "Jewish space lasers" Article found here. Although she meant this as a joke or exaggeration if people actually believed theories like this it could be bad for people of Jewish faith or ethnicity. As someone who is ethnically Jewish, I'm lucky to have not faced much anti-semitism. But my family members have shared their experiences of having to explain to people that Jewish people don't control banks or have tails. As society progresses news literacy will as well. 

2:Premote tolerance. This talks about how people naturally dislike hateful speech and how ideas become

more accepted and normalized. With social media giving everyone a platform this is easier than ever. The rise of vlogs, blogs, or any user-generated media in the 2010s allows the everyday person to view the life of someone completely different. For instance, the "van life" trend popped up a couple years ago, the idea is simple, people live out of their vans and document their day-to-day lives. Many of these vans have been modified and decorated to be almost like a small RV. Before this trend, it would be frowned upon to live in a van but thanks to social media times have changed. There are many more examples of things becoming accepted through the use of social media such as  LGBTQ, dressing alternatively, other ways of life, etc. Social media has forever changed the way society views new ideas. People of my generation have grown up with social media and its effects that's why my generation is leaning more to the left compared to our older generations, Article here.

     As stated in the article our generation has been through what feels like a global disaster after the next, from a young age we had to experience the after-effects of 9/11, the 2008 recession, COVID-19, Afghanistan, and most notably climate change. With climate change, we are told as kids that global warming is caused by pollution by corporations. That definitely steered Gen Z towards a more left-leaning ideas. Not like that was a bad thing, but an interesting example of free speech. If this country didn't have free speech it's unlikely the everyday person would know about some of the even darker sides of these problems.