Promoting Tolerance

Tolerance Theory:

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. 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.

The tolerance theory is the belief that promoting expressive freedoms will make individuals and institutions more open to ideas than they would be otherwise. John Stuart Mill and Lee Bollinger promoted the tolerance theory. According to Mill, the free exchange of ideas should be encouraged to promote the discovery of the truth. As argued by Bollinger, he endorses a standpoint of tolerance in favor of protecting extremist speech, which provides a shield for more mainstream political discourse. 

I feel that of the eight values, tolerance theory is an important value because it allows individuals to express their social, economic, and political viewpoints. This theory is inspiring to individuals and institutions because they have become more open to ideas and beliefs of others. This theory is underrated in that Bollinger argues this theory to protect extremist speech; I didn’t know this theory existed, let alone protects extremist speech or even hate speech. This theory is meaningful to me because I am able to see all viewpoints in order to understand the norms about acceptable behavior.

Tolerance was turned into a theory for the First Amendment jurisprudence and for judicial review. Tolerance of jurisprudence suggests that Nazis should be permitted to parade down the streets of Illinois, as in Collin v. Smith (1978), even though the community is populated with survivors of the German Holocaust. The rational is that protecting the speech of the Nazi group protects other forms of political expression. Tolerance of judicial review suggests that courts protect the First Amendment from censorship laws, which are laws that suppress speech, public communication, or other information, on the basis that it is considered harmful.

Collin v. Smith (1978):

In March 1977, Collin and the National Socialist Party of America publicly announced plans to hold assembly in Skokie Village Hall. Skokie Village has a population of approximately 70,000 people, with a majority of them being Jewish, and a big portion of the Jewish population being survivors of World War II persecution. On May 2, the village enacted three ordinances. The first established a permit system for parades and public assemblies and required public liability and damage insurance. The second prohibited the broadcasting of material that incited racial or religious hatred. The third prohibited public demonstrations by members of political parties while wearing military-style uniforms. Collin applied for a permit; however, he was denied. The courts stuck firm to the First Amendment principle and the tolerance theory that unpopular groups must be allowed to express their political opinions. With that being said, the court decision in the Collin v. Smith case was that Skokie could not prevent the Nazis from marching.

Related Articles:

The First Amendment Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia.com

Justia

Anti-Trust Investigations and Fake News

Facebook is being hit with antitrust investigations by eight states and DC. Also, 48 US states are launching an antitrust investigation into Google. Antitrust laws, also referred to as competition laws, are regulations that monitor the distribution of economic power in business, making sure that healthy competition is allowed to flourish and economies can grow. 

These investigations on Google will focus on whether Google is overly dominant in online advertising and in internet searches. One outcome of these investigations might be forcing Google to spin off search as a separate company. Google is being accused of driving out smaller advertising companies. Many smaller advertisers have argued that Google has such a stranglehold on the market that it becomes a system of whatever Google says, goes because the alternative could be not reaching customers. Google holds a lot of power in setting rates and favoring their own services over others; however, Google states that their business is large and provides useful and beneficial services to their customers. Google has the power to make it inefficient and inconvenient for advertisers to use any other platform. They get too pick winners and losers because the system is rigged in their favor. 

The investigation on Facebook is expected to focus on the apps impact on advertising prices, data and consumer privacy and the company’s previous acquisitions, including Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook is even getting backlash for fake news being spread. Facebook has taken steps in order to kill the backlash by updating its policies; however, there is a new loophole where you can spread fake news through groups and private messaging. Facebook has been promoting groups feature throughout the platform. The problem is that it also attracts private groups to spread disinformation. People don’t know what is truth and what is fake news!

Related Articles:

CBS News

CNN

Mashable

The Invention of the Emoticon

Above is Scott Fahlman who created emoticons.

In September 1982, a computer scientist named Scott Fahlman suggested to Carnegie Mellon University that :) and :( could be used to distinguish jokes from statements online. The first emoticon was the smiley face and the second was the sad face. Fahlman suggested that the smiley face could indicate humorous posts on a message and a sad face could indicate serious posts. The emoticon translates to the contraction emotional icon. Emoticons are created with type and add to the ability of translating tone and emotion over text. Text based messages are a convenient way to communicate with people, but it lacks the intonation that we use with face-to-face communication. The emoticon was created as an ultimate solution to the problem of translating emotion via text. They were used to replace the non-verbal elements of communication that would normally indicate tone that are missing in written communication.

Above is Shigetaka Kurita who created emojis.

Technology since then has been continuously evolving. Emoticons have been updated to emojis. In contrast to the creation of the emoticon, emojis were created in the late 1990s by a Japanese communication firm. The name is a contraction of the words e and moji, which roughly translates to pictograph. Emojis are created with actual images and show more of an expression of how someone is feeling. Emoticons were invented to portray emotion in environments where nothing, but basic text is available. Emojis were extensions to the character set used by most operating systems today. Our emojis have become politically correct with the inclusion of anti-heteronormative kisses and multi-racial emojis.

Related Article:

Britannica

The Guardian

Mind Mannered Alter Ego