Importance Of Free Speech

How important is free speech? Should it be restricted or limited in any way? The idea of free speech has been around since 1971 when the first amendment of the Bill of Rights was adopted. The intention of this idea was to give Americans the right to express themselves without having to worry about government interferences. As the years have gone by, the idea of how our speech is protected has changed. Under the first amendment it states that speech that would cause harm is not protected. Speech that leads to riots or physical violence is not protected by the first amendment. Everyone has different opinions on how speech should be protected, and most opinions are valid in one way or another. A recent conflict regarding freedom of speech is …show more content…
Not restricting speech in any way allows the negative opinions to be heard which allows compromisation to not be biased towards the opinions that support whichever idea is at hand. For example, in the Berkeley riot people were able to protest to express their disagreement towards Yiannopoulos giving a speech which what they viewed as a “dangerous hate speech at the university's new Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union Center.” The second perspective states that protecting free speech is necessary to help our society grow and prosper. This is agreeable in the way that voicing our thoughts and opinions leads to creating new ideas and innovations. The exchange of ideas is necessary for economic growth of a nation or community. The third perspective states that if the speech affects another person’s way of life, it shouldn’t be protected. Hateful speech or speech that has a negative impact shouldn’t be protected the same way as other speech. For example, in the Berkeley riot the people protested which was fine until it turned violent. When the protesting became violent, their word choice shouldn’t have been protected because it caused negative results such as fires and shattered …show more content…
If there’s a negative result of any type of speech then that speech shouldn’t be protected. If a violent protest, such as the one in the Berkeley riot, were to occur due to the voicing of thoughts and opinions then we shouldn’t just let that speech be protected. We need to have restrictions on speech that could cause harm and act on it with a case to prevent any further negative results. If any type of speech causes a death, it shouldn’t be protected. It should be taken to court and have a serious penalty, so others will be aware and will watch what they say. If someone were to shout the word, “Fire!” or, “Attack!,” it shouldn’t be protected because it will most likely have a negative