Freedom of Speech and 1st Amendment - Essay Example

If we can use our freedom of speech to, for example, control someone with our lies, or impose our personal convictions on others, there is no reason why we could not use that same freedom to advocate its own abolishment.

Every single individual has the right to express their opinion. Although, sometimes not entirely. In some cases, an individual may not be allowed to fully express his right to free speech because it may lead to criminal actions or have a bad effect on society. This way of prevention is called censorship and it is a crucial symptom of collectivism. Furthermore, if everything gets under the control of the government (gets nationalized), it will mark the end of free speech.

No matter how offensive its content is, freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment and it is believed that academic freedom is a “bedrock of education in a free society”, furthermore, it cannot be denied, unless the speaker breaks the rules of the First Amendment that forbid the use of fighting words (which are not an essential part of the exposition of ideas and are likely to provoke a person to take revenge).


Everyone has a right to express themselves freely, as long as they respect the few restrictions of the First Amendment. Using that right, we can lawfully speak about almost anything. And, yes, we can use that right to speak against the first Amendment without doing anything that is illegal. But the fact that we have the legal right to speak against the First Amendment does not mean that anyone has to hear about it. “Free speech does not require anyone to listen.” But who would want to limit or completely abolish his rights?

Theoretically, freedom of speech can be lawfully used to advocate the abolishment of the First Amendment, but there are not many people who would agree that it would be a good thing to abolish it, and, without the support of the listeners, the one who advocates the abolishment cannot achieve much.

The right of free speech could be used by anyone and without any legal consequences for advocating the abolishment of the First Amendment, but the question is- How many people would actually listen? Would someone consider it appropriate? Would it even be worth trying?

In my opinion, freedom of speech given by the First Amendment can be used to advocate the abolishment of the same Amendment, but there would be no point in doing that because as much as people tend to believe and do everything that someone tells them to believe or do, they also tend to feel and be free in many ways and freedom of speech, expression is the people’s most beloved freedom.

If people were not able to express their opinions, if they didn’t have this freedom of speech, they wouldn’t be very happy, would they? What is the point of speaking, if you cannot say what’s on your mind, but you constantly have to be careful what you are saying? Therefore, we can use our freedom of speech against the First Amendment, but the chance that it would change anything is very small, rather insignificant.