Of the Eight Values of Free Expression, I would like to focus on the idea of “promoting tolerance.” I thought this one was an important value to focus on because of the lack of tolerance in our society today. It says that people have used the idea of freedom of speech to practice hate, as opposed to tolerance. This is why I think that this value is the most overlooked, and underrated.
I found in an article, that hate speech towards the government is punishable by law. However, the same does not apply for hate speech directed towards other people. People feel they can say whatever they want under the “first amendment,” and other people can’t attack them back for it. They can be punished as crimes in domestic law if they are extreme enough, but these circumstances are not taken seriously on most occasions.
Tolerance is very important because of how mixed our society is today, “people from different nations, cultures, religions, and lifestyles are working together and living in the same neighborhoods” (Waraich, 2018). He says that the world is so much smaller now that people of different ethnicities and cultures are living so closed together, the world is less divided. This also leads to more hate, and less tolerance, because different types of people have to deal with each other on a day to day basis. However, it should lead to less hate, and more tolerance because people of different races are not an unusual sight in day to day life.
Growing up in a society that has been racially integrated since we were born, my generation tends to look at race a little different. However, we are not the majority of people in the workplaces, in the government, and in the world. So, the generations before us are still treating people of different races differently, and it is trickling down to us. This is a problem in my eyes because if we ever want to overcome the lack of tolerance, then people have to become more accepting, rather than learn from their elders a lack of tolerance.
This free expression needs to be promoted and enforced by all companies, all governments, and all people worldwide if we want to make a positive change. There will always be people that look down or take advantage of their first amendment rights to cause harm to others. There are also so many things that overlap the expressions. Freedom of innovation could be a huge one, and people of all different races could contribute, but without tolerance they will never successfully work together.
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