President Joe Biden’s specially selected Envoy for Climate, former Mass. Senator and failed presidential candidate John Kerry, wants a way to curb free speech and has suggested that the next administration should end or alter the First Amendment.
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“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,” said Kerry.
“So what you need, what we need is to win the ground, win the right to govern by hopefully having, you know, winning enough votes that you’re free to be able to implement change,” he added.
The “change” Kerry discussed appeared to be the end or significant reduction of First Amendment rights.
Kerry, who also served as the former Secretary of State for Democratic President Barack Obama, delivered his remarks last week during the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Sustainable Development Impact Meetings.
The WEF meeting held discussions on a variety of topics including climate, artificial intelligence, the food industry, and the “risks” of allowing people to express their opinions.
Kerry highlighted the “dangers” of social media, suggesting that social media sites that value freedom of speech are causing “anguish” and threatening democracy.
Federal regulations suppressing speech are, according to Kerry, on the table in this year’s presidential election. Although Kerry did not say it explicitly, the implication of his remarks was that a victory for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, would make restrictions on free speech rights and online speech regulations more likely.
He claimed that there is one candidate willing to implement changes opposed to free speech, but warned that the other might change things in the opposite direction, reinforcing the First Amendment.
This election, in Kerry’s view, will determine if the government will be able to wield power with enough force and speed to suppress free speech.
“I think Democracies are very challenged right now, and have not proven they can move fast enough or big enough to deal with the challenges that we are facing, and to me that is part of what this race, this election is all about,” said Kerry.
Statements from both Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), appear to confirm Kerry’s claim that the 2024 election will decide the future of the First Amendment.
“There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy,” said Gov. Walz on MSNBC in a resurfaced clip.
In fact, “misinformation” and “hate speech” are explicitly protected by the First Amendment, regardless of how the terms might be defined. For example, when Walz falsely claimed to have carried an assault rifle in a combat area, that misinformation would nonetheless be protected speech under the First Amendment.
Vice President Harris has also condemned social media outlets that allow unrestricted free speech, calling them a threat to democracy and threatening to take governmental action against platforms that don’t suppress “misinformation.”
“If you act as a megaphone for misinformation or cyber warfare, if you don’t police your platforms, we are going to hold you accountable as a community,” said Harris in 2019.
If any of these “anti-misinformation” policies are put into place, the government will become the arbiter of “truth” and determine which opinions are suppressed.
Elon Musk was quick to respond to Kerry’s comments, pointing out the increasing number of politicians, not just in the U.S., pushing for a crackdown on free speech.
“The puppets are saying this in unison,” said Musk on X.
Prior to Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, most major social media companies cooperated with the U.S. government to control, censor, and suppress speech according to governmental prerogatives.
The censorship of speech included messages skeptical of COVID-19 policies but also extended to things like Maine Sen. Angus King’s successful efforts to have his critics banned from Facebook and Twitter.
King’s efforts to censor his critics — both on the left and the right — emerged only as a result of Musk purchasing Twitter and giving documents to journalists that proved King and his campaign had leaned on social media companies to suppress anti-King voices.
[RELATED: Maine Republicans Rip Angus King for Conspiring with Twitter, Facebook to Censor Mainers…]
Attacks on the First Amendment do not only threaten freedom of speech.
Freedom of religion is also guaranteed by the First Amendment, and any change to the amendment could restrict Americans’ rights to worship God as they choose.
The WEF’s meeting coincided with the United Nations General Assembly, where President Joe Biden and other world leaders approved a radical international agenda calling for the online suppression of “misinformation.”
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That agenda also vowed to comply with the most radical environmental policies, calling for a complete end to fossil fuels, coal power, and gas-powered cars.
