John Kerry frustrated that First Amendment protects what the World Economic Forum regards as 'disinformation'
Hillary Clinton is apparently not the only failed Democratic presidential candidate presently frustrated over the political establishment's waning narrative control. Former Biden-Harris climate czar John Kerry noted during a World Economic Forum panel discussion on trade and so-called sustainability last week that the First Amendment remains an obstacle to being able to properly clamp down on so-called disinformation. According to the WEF's "Global Risks Report 2024," the greatest threats facing humanity over the next two years are "misinformation and disinformation" and bad weather. Early in the conversation about sustainability, Kerry — to whom President Joe Biden just months ago awarded the Medal of Freedom — bemoaned the loss of a "truth arbiter" in the U.S., noting that "there's no one who defines what the facts really are." Having an authority equipped to decisively correct would-be climate heresiarchs would apparently help expedite elites' planned transition away from relatively cheap, stable, and reliable fossil fuels. 'If it wasn't for that pesky Constitution, these commies could just roll right over us.' When responding to a question about "tackling climate misinformation," Kerry said, "Everybody's wrestling with that right now." "I think the dislike of and anguish over social media is just growing and growing and growing," said the former Obama secretary of state. "It's part of our problem, particularly in democracies, in terms of building consensus around any issue. It's really hard to govern today." "The referees we used to have to determine what's a fact and what isn't a fact have kind of been eviscerated, to a certain degree," continued Kerry, likely cognizant of the humiliation that regime-friendly fact-checkers have suffered in recent months. "And people go and self-select where they go for their news or for their information, and then you get into a vicious cycle." Kerry told the other World Economic Forum panelists, "You know there's a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities in order to guarantee that you're going to have some accountability on facts, et cetera. But, look, if people go to only one source, and the source they go to is sick, and, you know, has an agenda and they're putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to be able to just, you know, hammer it out of existence." Kerry indicated that in the face of this constitutional obstacle, which Bill Gates recently intimated was only really a notional obstacle, "What we need is to ... win the ground, win the right to govern by hopefully winning enough votes that you're free to to be able to implement change." Kerry characterized the 2024 election as an opportunity to "break the fever" and "bring ourselves back to a regular order." The Biden-Harris administration has worked feverishly in recent years to control the flow of information and decide for Americans what qualifies as facts. During the pandemic, for instance, the Democratic administration leaned on social media companies to suppress and sometimes outright censor Americans' free speech, even if the speech flagged by supposed arbiters of truth — such as those at the Stanford Internet Observatory — was accurate and possibly life-saving. The desire among Democrats to implement arbiters of truth was not unique to the pandemic. The Biden-Harris administration also established an outfit in 2022 for the purpose of "countering misinformation related to homeland security." The Department of Homeland Security's Disinformation Governance Board, which was derided by many as a federal "Ministry of Truth," was fortunately short-lived. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to Kerry's comments, writing, "John Kerry is correct. The 1st Amendment DOES stand as a major roadblock to them right now." Country music star John Rich said, "Yea, if it wasn't for that pesky Constitution, these commies could just roll right over us. Thank you Founding Fathers, for knowing someday we'd have tyrants like John Kerry to deal with." Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) wrote, "John Kerry and other elite democrats hate the Constitution. They see it as a road block to ruling over people. As a matter of fact, that is why it was written." The arbiters of truth for whom the former secretary of state longs would likely have taken issue with Argentine President Javier Milei's speech to the UN General Assembly last week, in which he characterized the brand of climate goals and other globalist initiatives favored by Kerry as "nothing more than a super-national socialist government program that aims to solve the problems of modernity with solutions that undermine the sovereignty of nation-states and violate the right to life, liberty, and property of individuals." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Hillary Clinton is apparently not the only failed Democratic presidential candidate presently frustrated over the political establishment's waning narrative control.
Former Biden-Harris climate czar John Kerry noted during a World Economic Forum panel discussion on trade and so-called sustainability last week that the First Amendment remains an obstacle to being able to properly clamp down on so-called disinformation.
According to the WEF's "Global Risks Report 2024," the greatest threats facing humanity over the next two years are "misinformation and disinformation" and bad weather.
Early in the conversation about sustainability, Kerry — to whom President Joe Biden just months ago awarded the Medal of Freedom — bemoaned the loss of a "truth arbiter" in the U.S., noting that "there's no one who defines what the facts really are."
Having an authority equipped to decisively correct would-be climate heresiarchs would apparently help expedite elites' planned transition away from relatively cheap, stable, and reliable fossil fuels.
'If it wasn't for that pesky Constitution, these commies could just roll right over us.'
When responding to a question about "tackling climate misinformation," Kerry said, "Everybody's wrestling with that right now."
"I think the dislike of and anguish over social media is just growing and growing and growing," said the former Obama secretary of state. "It's part of our problem, particularly in democracies, in terms of building consensus around any issue. It's really hard to govern today."
"The referees we used to have to determine what's a fact and what isn't a fact have kind of been eviscerated, to a certain degree," continued Kerry, likely cognizant of the humiliation that regime-friendly fact-checkers have suffered in recent months. "And people go and self-select where they go for their news or for their information, and then you get into a vicious cycle."
Kerry told the other World Economic Forum panelists, "You know there's a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities in order to guarantee that you're going to have some accountability on facts, et cetera. But, look, if people go to only one source, and the source they go to is sick, and, you know, has an agenda and they're putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to be able to just, you know, hammer it out of existence."
Kerry indicated that in the face of this constitutional obstacle, which Bill Gates recently intimated was only really a notional obstacle, "What we need is to ... win the ground, win the right to govern by hopefully winning enough votes that you're free to to be able to implement change."
Kerry characterized the 2024 election as an opportunity to "break the fever" and "bring ourselves back to a regular order."
The Biden-Harris administration has worked feverishly in recent years to control the flow of information and decide for Americans what qualifies as facts.
During the pandemic, for instance, the Democratic administration leaned on social media companies to suppress and sometimes outright censor Americans' free speech, even if the speech flagged by supposed arbiters of truth — such as those at the Stanford Internet Observatory — was accurate and possibly life-saving.
The desire among Democrats to implement arbiters of truth was not unique to the pandemic.
The Biden-Harris administration also established an outfit in 2022 for the purpose of "countering misinformation related to homeland security." The Department of Homeland Security's Disinformation Governance Board, which was derided by many as a federal "Ministry of Truth," was fortunately short-lived.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to Kerry's comments, writing, "John Kerry is correct. The 1st Amendment DOES stand as a major roadblock to them right now."
Country music star John Rich said, "Yea, if it wasn't for that pesky Constitution, these commies could just roll right over us. Thank you Founding Fathers, for knowing someday we'd have tyrants like John Kerry to deal with."
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) wrote, "John Kerry and other elite democrats hate the Constitution. They see it as a road block to ruling over people. As a matter of fact, that is why it was written."
The arbiters of truth for whom the former secretary of state longs would likely have taken issue with Argentine President Javier Milei's speech to the UN General Assembly last week, in which he characterized the brand of climate goals and other globalist initiatives favored by Kerry as "nothing more than a super-national socialist government program that aims to solve the problems of modernity with solutions that undermine the sovereignty of nation-states and violate the right to life, liberty, and property of individuals."
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Originally Published at Daily Wire, World Net Daily, or The Blaze
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