America is a place of justice, rule of law, democracy and
liberty. On December 15, 1791,
the U.S. Congress ratified the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution[1]. Of particular interest is Amendment I. This amendment is the foundation by which
free speech would be handled in the USA.
The USA has the most laxed free speech laws of any country. This Amendment states that Congress shall
not, “abridge the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the
people to peacefully to assemble, and to petition[2].” This means that what is termed, “hate speech,”
here in Canada is essentially not permissible under the current laws of the
United States of America. Although in
the USA free speech is granted, there are exceptions which are not protected
such as fighting words, obscenity, libel/ slander, perjury, threats, violation
of copyright etc.[3].
There have been attacks by
numerous corporations to censor freedom of speech. Places like Facebook, Twitter and Google have
been working to create an online community that is politically correct and bland. This not only prevents people from voicing
the most sensitive subjects but also reduces the capacity for the market of
ideas. Subjects that are sensitive are
being prevented from spreading as is the case when companies such as “Reddit .. ban … postings
…. [and] Facebook [deletes] conservative
news stories from its newsfeed[4].” Although rhetoric allows people to come
together through an ideal of inclusiveness, popular sovereignty and collective
unity supporting democracy, it however prevents people from getting the full
picture and drawing conclusions themselves by critical thinking. Through the limiting of freedom of speech,
communication is prevented which then reduces the amount of information to be
dissected by the general populace which therefore affects the size of the
market of ideas. This decrease in the
market of ideas can have irreparable damage to the innovation that is produced
in the USA. It only serves to remove
America as the hegemon. Not only are
free speech violations affected in the ways mentioned, but it is a form of
oppression by which a stranglehold can be ascertained through
exploitation. There are numerous
examples of this in the modern world and it serves as a warning that there is a
very real threat to justice, rule of law, and liberty. It is evident that this will persist. Censorship causes a society wherein people neglect to voice their
opinion. They do this for example because
they don’t want to be labeled. Society
through labelling collectively pools the agency of the people to publicly
humiliate or discredit people. Through outlets
such as this, fear is generated. And
this can and has been exploited. There
is a poem written by Martin Niemöller entitled, “First they Came.” It portrays the effects of the negligence of
not speaking up which served to protect the communist regimes of WWII. It talks about how the enemy first came for
Socialist, and how the narrator didn’t speak up because he was not a
socialist. Then they come for unionist
and then the Jews. Again, the narrator
doesn’t speak up because he did not identify with those. It then ends with, “then they came for me-
and there was no one left to speak up for me[5].” This example adequately depicts the
consequences of inhibiting freedom of speech.
This consequence can be seen in the modern nations of countries such as
China, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia etc.
People in these nations are afraid to speak up. This has severely impacted the delivery of
equity in those places and subsequently the people have become oppressed. With all this in mind however, the other side
of the coin is to encourage civility.
America today especially in their political discourse has become
radicalized. The delivery of their
rhetoric as evidence of the presidential debates between President Trump and
President Elect Joe Biden reveal the very nature of the erosion of
civility. Also there have been
accusations of articles or statements being labeled as, “fake news.” It seems as though the issue of
misinformation is also of concern however, what results from this is the
ability for people to better critically dissect and use their judgement to
gauge true from false. Through the
internal deliberation, analytical thinking skills are enhanced which can then
contribute to the progression of innovation.
Therefore, in this modern age,
America is left with the option to choose inclusiveness, popular sovereignty and collective unity all proponents of democracy versus freedom of
speech? In this decision are Americans willing
to forego justice, rule of law, and liberty in favor
of democracy?
[1]
Gitelson
et al., “American Government,” Oxford University Press (2018)
[2]
Gitelson
et al., “American Government,” Oxford University Press (2018)
[3] HG
Legal Resources, “What Types of Speech is Not Protected by the First Amendment?,”
HG (2020). Retrieved from: https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/what-type-of-speech-is-not-protected-by-the-first-amendment-34258
[4]
Robert Epstein, “The New Censorship,” USA News (2016). Retrieved from: https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-06-22/google-is-the-worlds-biggest-censor-and-its-power-must-be-regulated
[5]
Authors: United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum, Washington DC, “Martin Nielmoller: “First they Came for the Socialist,”” (2012). Retrieved from: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists
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