What does the First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantee to citizens of the United States? Freedom of speech and press, no restriction of the free exercise of religion, no establishment of a national religion, and freedom to peacefully assemble and petition the government.
Although, what is free speech? Does that mean you can say whatever you want whenever you want? We all know that isn’t true. You can go to jail for lying under oath and there are laws to protect people’s good names. So, you can’t lie, or stretch the truth. When else is freedom of speech limited? Would a sane person speak badly of their employer? What about your social media? Do you truly have freedom to express yourself there? Not really. The majority of us can’t because we aren’t smart enough to use our privacy settings. And that is where I feel as though this fundamental change has happened. We have become a more open society, where we have less privacy, and because of this we have lost our freedom of speech because we do not have anonymity. I am not saying we don’t have the freedom to speak our minds anymore–I am writing a blog, after all. But we have lost the ability to speak our minds randomly without the fear of wide scale repercussions. What do you think?
