Blog Post #5 - The Other Side

    The government has tried to silence certain media from saying certain things. For example, you don’t hear a lot of people talking about AntiWar. I would like to theorize that the government has a deal in place with private companies like Google, to censor the search engines to  what they want the people to see and feel. If the government reaches out to Google to do this, it is not a violation of our first amendment rights as technically the government is not the one trying to censor us. It still doesn’t make it right, I believe that people need to be able to see both sides of what others think and be able to make correct judgements for themselves.

    Even the American Conservative has been largely hidden from the higher results sections of search engines. Now I may not know a lot about politics or even care about them at all, but I do know that the two main groups of politics are labeled as Liberal and Conservative. It seems highly illogical that one of the two major groups are not given the same results in search engines as the other party. It is highly unfair that a search engine is trying to sway younger voters to certain sides just because the company that owns the search engine has their own political opinion. People should be allowed to decide for themselves which political party they want to follow or relate to. If they don’t want anything to do with politics, that is also fine. There is no need to push someone about a decision that they either aren’t ready to make or want to learn more about before they make it.

Blog Post #6 - Difference Between Internet and WWW

 Did you know there is a difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web? I bet most people reading did not know that they are different. Thanks to our presentations, we learned the difference. The World Wide Web is a software that runs within the internet and they rely on each other to work properly. One is incomplete without the other!

Blog Post #3 - Eight Values of Free Expression

    Free Expression is very important and is something that needs to feature more prominently in peoples lives. Freedom of Speech is our First Amendment, and most people don't really know what they can and can't say, or when they think that they should say something or not. Of the Eight Values of Free Expression, there are two that stand out to me the most. The fourth Expression, which is Individual Self-Fulfillment, and the sixth Expression, to Promote Tolerance.  

    The expression of Individual Self-Fulfillment, which could also be described as Self-Actualization is something that I see more and more people starting to focus on nowadays. People are starting to take the time necessary to go and find themselves if they need to. Only about a decade ago or so, I would say that people would never go and try to "find themselves" but even in media and TV there are a lot more instances of people going to go and focus on themselves. They do it so that can hope to better understand themselves and figure out what they need or want to be to better themselves and so that they can be better for others. I completely agree that sometimes people need to take some alone time and work on themselves. 

    The other Value of Free Expression that I noticed was the sixth, Promote Tolerance. Over the last few years there has been a large increase of people that have been dubbed, Cancel Culture. These people literally went around and started petitions to get certain things changed because they were either offended or didn't like the reasoning for why it was called the way it was. Some notable changes include the Aunt Jemima Syrup, getting rid of Pepe Le Pew from Looney Tunes, and even a few movies have been heavily frowned upon, not to mention many actors and authors were cancelled for past actions. 

    But the moment I realized that this group had just grown up too soft was when they wanted to get rid of a character on a children's TV show called Paw Patrol. Paw Patrol is a children's animated cartoon about dogs who go around helping their town each with their own gimmick, one is a builder, one is a firefighter dog, and one specialized in water rescue. The was a dog on the show named Chase, and he was a police dog, Cancel Cultured wanted him off the show because they didn't want the police to be seen as good guys at the time. This is a children's cartoon show, they might've taken it too far. 

    But I must say that my favorite memory of Cancel Culture is when they tried to get two NHL teams to change their names. I was so happy to see that both teams just said, "Absolutely Not" (The Chicago Blackhawks and The Vancouver Canucks).  

    The point I am trying to make is that just because you don't like something, doesn't mean you can go around trying to change it. Sometimes in life there are going to be challenges or people who you need to rise above and just tolerate for a while, you can't just skip the challenge or avoid the person you don't like, eventually you are going to have to learn how to deal with and overcome adversity.

Blog Post #2 - Supreme Court

After reading the link below, I've dug up a lot of old memories that I used to know about the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States). But I also learned a few new facts that I didn't know or remember. 

(https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/supreme-court-facts)

One thing that I learned was I did not know that the SCOTUS actually denied citizenship to African American slaves back in 1857. Sadly the biggest surprise for me in that fact was that they even allowed this case to go all the way to the SCOTUS in the first place.

I think the most important thing to know about the SCOTUS is that even if they commit to a decision, it doesn't mean that it can't eventually be overturned in the future. We saw an example of this recently with the Roe vs Wade case, and I know that people are now very upset by the change, but it doesn't mean that it cannot be changed back. 

I think that the most surprising thing that I discovered during my readings were how many major cases had been decided during my life time. Towards the end of the article there is a list of significant cases throughout the history of the SCOTUS and it is very interesting to see that the three latest significant listed have all happened since I was born.

The video itself did not really change my views on the SCOTUS, I feel that I have always had a fairly open mind about the SCOTUS and that I don't think that there was anything significant in the video that would change my mind.

Blog Post #1: TOP 5 NEWS SOURCES

 There are many outlets of news sources that have been started all across the globe. Everyone has there favorite ones, or ones that they trust more than others. I have put together my own list of the 5 News Sources that I trust the most. 

#5 - ESPN (https://www.espn.com/) 

Starting off my list, I have put ESPN. I am massively into sports from all over the world. I love know who the top dogs are in certain sports leagues and I love seeing how athletes performed in a game that had just occurred. With ESPN I can check a variety of sports and their different leagues, while being able to keep up to date on games that are happening.

#4 - Fox News (https://www.foxnews.com/)

Next up on my list I have selected Fox News. Whenever I turn on my TV at home this is almost always the first news site that comes on. I have very easy access to Fox News and for someone who doesn't always check the news, it is nice to see what is going on in my local area at home.

#3 - The Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/)

The Wall Street Journal is probably the largest newspaper to be featured on this list in the US. It also is the only entry on this list to include stocks in its website. It has won several awards for posts and columns and I think that it does a good job of just telling the truth with facts.

#2 - The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/)

The New York Times is easily the most influential newspaper across the United States. In my opinion it is easily the top news site in the country. Some of its coverage takes a left-leaning and progressive view of the world which is fine. The New York Times also has a classic feel of reporting about what it going on in America.

#1 - From Friends and Family!

I am not someone who goes out of my way to check the news. I will very rarely ever look at a news site unless it is for a school project. So when I found out about what is going on in the world it is usually from other people. I always make sure to do my best to know what is going on completely so that I am able to see the story from both sides. I listen to these people because I trust them to tell me what is going on, and I know to trust when to take the information into my own hands.