SPEECH THEORIES

The community of speech are full with many theories. In class you will learn which value best resonates with me. There are Eight Values of Free Expressions, Marketplace of Ideas (Discovery of Truth), Participation in Self-Government, Stable Change (Safety Valve), Individual Self-Fulfillment, Check on Governmental Power (Watchdog Role), Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, Protect Dissent.

Introducing Stable Change: 

Benedict De Spinoza/Philosopher
"The highest activity a human being can attain is to learn to understand, because to understand is to be free."

 It has been suggested that a society in which angry and alienated citizens are allowed to speak their mind, or "vent," will be more stable, as people will be less likely to resort to violence.

It has also been pointed out that allowing the alienated and discontented to speak freely enables government to better monitor potentially dangerous groups who would otherwise act more clandestinely.

Ultimately, it is in the governments own self-interest to allow such venting.

I know this Safety Valve would pair correctly with me because venting about certain situations may bring out the creative mindset you know you carry.

I watched "A Little House On The  Prairie" via Netflix.

     There was a conflict where the American settlers were beginning to get angry because the Native Americans did not want to sign the treaty on first day of announcement.

Peer pressure is a big insight we begin to see during the storyline - One man was so confrontational he wanted to just fight and begin a war before hand that was not needed.

 Other men gather because the man was venting so much he influenced them to get ready for war as they would ride out during the night and attack.

 

As we begin to notice one mans venting is on the verge to engaging in war.

 Before the group of men saddled up on their horses to fight for what was theirs - The women stepped up and tried to calm the men down. 

    Here we see another way of venting coming from the women buying more time before these men do the unthinkable.

There is a meeting going on outside where soon the Native Americans are collaborating to officially sign this treaty for ownership of land. 

Meanwhile we head back over to building where the Men and Women are delegating whether there should be war before the ink of the feather hits the official signage.

Then boom it is done! Officially! 

     The Native Americans came to an agreement with The Americans over the ownership of lands. 

The messenger of the city has to be quick before The Americans pride discontinues the treaty within minutes of signing.  

The American Men had enough waiting especially even more now that the women tried to keep them staying patient from beginning this war.   

The American Men calls up all the troops to proceed closer to the door, The messenger arrives and busts through the door!"

 They signed!"

 "The Native Americans signed!"

 The Stable Change of the women communicating with the Men helped buy time and create a positive change in history.

Steve Shiffren/ Professor of Law

     After Class on Tuesday Sep. 1, 2026. During our recitation speech of the evening I discovered more importance to the eight values of free expression. 

Let's begin with Protect Dissent written by Steve Shiffren, This briefly speaks about injustice is not supposed to be one of mob rule.

   

 By definition Our system is not supposed to be one of mob rule. The First Amendment protects minority views, no matter how unpopular. 

You have a strongly protected right to disagree with the government — and everyone else. 

 In fact, it is your patriotic duty to criticize the government. In our words we do not need the first amendment to protect what we say for example "When eating apple pie it's pair nicely with vanilla ice cream."

Honorable names to mention when studying in this section Oliver Wendall Holmes and Nick Scherzo. 

John Milton

    Here we have Marketplace of Ideas (aka Discovery of Truth) recitation written by John Milton. 

This value was first suggested by Milton, who first said that when truth and falsehood are allowed to freely grapple, truth will win out. 

And the grappling makes the truth even stronger. His argument against requiring a license to print/publish. 

    Unlicensed Printing On the table ideas we want all the ideas out there so we can look at it all. Exercising a muscle - policy debated - defend the idea the good, bad and ugly, It is up to us not the government - when the government interfere with our discussion it becomes a Market Failure.

   During Covid-19 the shots that was being provided to women whom were pregnant it was soon discovered that high miscarriage rates was being produced, Essentially the scientist knew about this situation and still decided to pitch more distribution of the medicine to women.

Lee Bollinger

    Lastly we have Promote Tolerance, The Tolerant Society: Freedom of Speech and Extremist Speech written by Lee Bollinger. 

It has been argued that freedom of speech, especially through our  practice of extending protection to speech that we find hateful or personally upsetting, teaches us to become more tolerant in other aspects of life — and that a more tolerant society is a better society. 

    This theory is somewhat counter-intuitive, the First Amendment protects hate speech because society learns valuable lessons from, including why it is hateful and worthy of condemnation. 

It’s how we spread norms about acceptable behavior. 

    For example let's say you are a NBA owner in Atlanta, Georgia owning the Atlanta Hawks. 

This is a fictional name "Steve Powerade." 

Mr. Powerade is intoxicated on a Friday night and lets say he's a old rich white man using twitter and on that very night on twitter he post a hate speech about one of his client athlete working on the Atlanta Hawks Basketball team saying: 

    "This n*gga Bernard West Jr is terrible! All this cash flow we are giving you, when he's at the free throw I can guarantee the audience selects under throughout the season!"

     Mr. Powerade posted this comment about one of his athletes on the roster, there are (negative consequences) you will need to face. 

You just took away 3 Billion to 100 Billion of profit from your former job.