scholarly journals Free speech as a cultural value in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 707-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio J. Alvarez ◽  
Markus Kemmelmeier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Joint Influence ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
The U.S

Political orientation influences support for free speech, with liberals often reporting greater support for free speech than conservatives. We hypothesized that this effect should be moderated by cultural context: individualist cultures value individual self-expression and self-determination, and collectivist cultures value group harmony and conformity. These different foci should differently influence liberals and conservatives’ support for free speech within these cultures. Two studies evaluated the joint influence of political orientation and cultural context on support for free speech. Study 1, using a multilevel analysis of data from 37 U.S. states (n = 1,001), showed that conservatives report stronger support for free speech in collectivist states, whereas there were no differences between conservatives and liberals in support for free speech in individualist states. Study 2 (n = 90) confirmed this pattern by priming independent and interdependent self-construals in liberals and conservatives. Results demonstrate the importance of cultural context for free speech. Findings suggest that in the U.S. support for free speech might be embraced for different reasons: conservatives’ support for free speech appears to be motivated by a focus on collectively held values favoring free speech, while liberals’ support for free speech might be motivated by a focus on individualist self-expression.

scholarly journals Elonis v. United States: The Doctrine of True Threats: Protecting Our Ever-Shrinking First Amendment Rights in the New Era of Communication

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-223
Author(s):  
Mary Margaret Roark
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
The United States ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Public ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The U.S

The First Amendment protects one of our most precious rights as citizens of the United States—the freedom of speech. Such protection has withstood the test of time, even safeguarding speech that much of the population would find distasteful. There is one form of speech which cannot be protected: the true threat. However, the definition of what constitutes a "true threat" has expanded since its inception. In the new era of communication—where most users post first and edit later—the First Amendment protection we once possessed has been eroded as more and more speech is considered proscribable as a "true threat." In order to adequately protect both the public at large and our individual right to free speech, courts should analyze a speaker’s subjective intent before labeling speech a "true threat." Though many courts have adopted an objective, reasonable listener test, the U.S. Supreme Court now has the opportunity, in deciding Elonis v. United States, to take a monumental step in protecting the First Amendment right to free speech. By holding that the speaker’s subjective intent to threaten is necessary for a true threat conviction, the Court will restore the broad protection afforded by the First Amendment and repair years of erosion caused by an objective approach.

scholarly journals Cooperative Militarization

2022 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-65
Author(s):  
Symbol Lai
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Ethnic Identification ◽  
Agricultural Cooperatives ◽  
Cooperative Network ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
The Military ◽  
Military Discipline ◽  
The U.S

In 1951, six years after the United States defeated Japan and commenced the Occupation of Okinawa, the U.S. Civil Administration of the Ryukyus (USCAR) issued an ordinance in support of agricultural cooperatives. Despite the appearance of altruism, the move marked the emergence of the U.S. anticolonial empire, a form that advocated racial and ethnic self-determination even as it expanded the U.S. military presence. This article shows how U.S. policymakers in Okinawa borrowed from modernization theory to implement models to foster ethnic identification through economic development. Their plans sought to render the United States an ally to Okinawa freedom despite the devastating effects militarism had on the local landscape. Specifically, military plans posited frameworks like the Okinawan economy, which strategically turned the military into a partner without whom Okinawa could not modernize. The article further focuses on agriculture, an arena where the contradictions of the U.S. Occupation was most acute. It argues that rehabilitating the local cooperative network drew Okinawans into the military project, not only to paper over the U.S. colonial presence, but also to further the reach of military discipline.

From Honor to Dignity: Criminal Libel, Press Freedom, and Racist Speech in Brazil and the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Hoffman French
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
The United States ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
World War ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Human Rights Organizations ◽  
The U.S

Reports on violence against journalists in Brazil have captured the concern of international human rights organizations. This article discusses a case involving another such concern: the use of criminal defamation laws in Brazil to punish journalists for criticizing public officials. At the same time, Brazilian media sources regularly report on crimes of racism, which most often involve derogatory name-calling and hate speech. By examining the intersection of these apparently contradictory concerns, this article sheds new light on speech rights in Brazil and the United States and argues that a comparative perspective is crucial to contextualizing and harmonizing free speech and its limitations under modern democratic constitutions. By considering the infusion of traditional notions of honor and status with post-World War II views of dignity, this article argues for a comparative consideration of how best to combat racism and whether hate speech regulation in the U.S. should be reconsidered. As such, the type of law often used to protect the powerful in Brazil could come to be used to protect the vulnerable in the United States and opens the possibility that the irony of free speech could become more than just a scholarly debate.

The “Biafra Lobby” and U.S. Foreign Policy

Worldview ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-7
Author(s):  
Ernest W. Lefever
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
New Left ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
United States Government ◽  
States Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right Of Self Determination ◽  
The U.S

The passionate “Biafra Lobby” in the United States is a perfect example of the moral and political pitfalls of organized pleading and pressure on particular international problems The pro Biafra crusade is an improbable conglomeration of the New Left and old right idealists and hierlings American citizens and foreigners churchmen and secularists isolationists and interventionists. Though no clear common concern unites these diverse persons most of them agree that the United States Government should do more than it is now doing to feed starving Biafrans and many of them seem to believe that the U.S. hands-off policy toward the brutal civil war in Nigeria is immoral because it interferes with mercy measures and denies the Biafrans the “right of self-determination.”

Exposing “Red Colonialism”: U.S. Propaganda at the United Nations, 1953–1963

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Ann Heiss
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
The U.S

In the 1950s and early 1960s, the United States sought to challenge the Soviet Union's credibility as a champion of decolonization by casting Soviet control of Central Asia, the Baltic republics, and Eastern Europe in imperial terms, or what U.S. officials came to call “Red Colonialism.” Waged in large measure at the United Nations (UN) and other international forums, the Red Colonialism campaign sought to contrast the evolutionary nature of Western colonialism with the seeming permanence of Soviet domination. The campaign underscored the U.S. government's preoccupation with the Soviet threat at a time when much of the developing world was focused on other matters, such as national self-determination, racial equality, and economic development. This article looks at the genesis and nature of the Red Colonialism campaign and explains why a variety of factors ultimately prevented it from gaining much traction at the UN.

scholarly journals Rebel Youths: English-language anarchist periodicals of the Great Depression, 1932–1939

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morris Brodie
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Linguistic Barriers ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
Radical Movement ◽  
The U.S

This article examines the function of anarchist periodicals in the United States during the Great Depression. Periodicals acted as forums for debate, where ideas were constantly challenged and important theoretical issues were aired. This was both within anarchism and between the wider radical movement. In addition, periodicals were important organisational tools, creating networks that connected activists across the country and helped to build the movement. Young anarchists identified English-language periodicals as vital for breaking through the linguistic barriers erected by the older generation of immigrant anarchists. The new cohort felt that the reluctance of older anarchists to engage in English-language organising was contributing to the stagnation of the movement and produced three periodicals – Vanguard , Spanish Revolution and Challenge – to address the problem. This article shows how these periodicals helped to reform and sustain anarchist militant identities in the U.S. in the 1930s. It highlights the importance of periodical networks in this process, emphasising their social and cultural value in addition to their political and financial significance. Although all the periodicals had folded by the end of 1939, they left an important legacy for the movement and provided an introduction to anarchist organising for a fresh cadre of activists.

scholarly journals How does secessionism end? No-win scenarios for contemporary American secessionist movements

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-55
Author(s):  
Martin Pomarański
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Organizational Change ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
21St Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Harsh Conditions ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Secessionist Movement

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to attempt to characterize the American secessionist movement in the 21st century. In spite of the fact that all ideas of self-determination in the U.S. are not welcomed by the federal government in Washington and as a consequence are dying on the vine, they have still reborn in subsequent separatist and secessionist initiatives. An analysis of the goals, sizes and motivations of contemporary secessionist groups in the United States will lead to the main goal of the paper, which is to answer the question about the types of strategies chosen by American secessionists in the situation of the obvious failure of their overarching political goal - independence. As it turns out, a significant part of such groups in a situation of collision of their own political dreams with the harsh conditions of American Realpolitik does not give up and continues their activities in a slightly modified form. Understanding the scenarios accompanying this ideological and organizational change, as well as exemplifying the groups that have decided to implement these scenarios in recent years will be the crucial goal of the paper.

The U.S. and Israel: In the Eye of the Storm

Worldview ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 4-9
Author(s):  
Mark A. Bruzonsky
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Palestinian Issue

AbstractWhen I wrote in these pages two years ago that “1977 is shaping up as a year of possibly unprecedented political confrontation between Israel and the United States,” the Ford-Kissinger “reassessment” of American Middle East interests was. still alive, though crippled by what Kissinger termed “the prevailing domestic political situation.” The Brookings Report had emerged a few months earlier, detailing what was to become during the first months of Jimmy Carter's presidency his personal outline for a “comprehensive Middle East settlement.” And the Palestinian issue was just then affecting the American consciousness as one of self-determination and legitimate nationalist fervor.

Negotiating the Future of Taiwan

Worldview ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 9-12
Author(s):  
O. Edmund Clubb
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The U.S

Now that Chiang Kai-shek and the American strategy of “containment” of Asian communism have grown old together, and the dream of the Nationalist reconquest of the Mainland has faded into nothingness with President Nixon's February meeting with Chinese Communist chieftain Mao Tse-tung and Premier Chou En-lai, there stirs a question that has lain largely dormant over the past two decades: What of the future, of Taiwan (Formosa)? More specifically, should not the United States, sworn protector of Taiwan, (make provision for the Taiwanese to have a voice in determining their own future destiny?The U.S. professes to believe that people may properly be governed only with their consent. It supports the doctrine of self-determination of nations.

scholarly journals United States Recognizes Morocco's Sovereignty Over Western Sahara

2021 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 318-323
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Security Council ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Community ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
The Right ◽  
The U.S

On December 10, 2020, President Donald J. Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by announcing that the United States would recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as part of a deal in which Morocco would normalize relations with Israel. Despite a 1991 UN truce and continued calls by the UN Security Council for Morocco and the Polisario Front to reach a mutually agreeable solution, neither side has relinquished its claim of sovereignty over Western Sahara. Trump's announcement ended nearly thirty years of U.S. support for UN-led negotiations and places the United States at odds with the majority of the international community, which swiftly criticized the U.S. action as a violation of the right to self-determination.

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