(The opinions expressed in guest op-eds are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.)

While appearing at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Sustainable Development Impact Meetings in late September, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming touted that global elites “own the science” when it comes to climate change and COVID-19, as well as the fact that that the United Nations is colluding with social media giants to suppress all speech that they deem “misinformation.”

According to Fleming, who was appearing on a panel inaptly titled “Tackling Disinformation,” “We’re becoming much more proactive. We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do.”

Because they apparently own the science—as if science can be taken possession of—Fleming boasted that “We partnered with Google; for example, if you Google ‘climate change,’ you will, at the top of your search, you will get all kinds of UN resources.”

So, why did the UN collude with the world’s largest search engine to ensure that its preferred results about climate change appear at the top of all Google searches?

“We started this partnership when we were shocked to see that when we Googled ‘climate change,’ we were getting incredibly distorted information right at the top,” Fleming said.

In other words, the United Nations, one of the most powerful international organizations in the world, decided that they are the supreme authority on climate change science, and therefore, they must control the narrative by ensuring that dissenting voices are muzzled, if not silenced altogether.

In case those comments aren’t dystopian enough to send chills down the spine of anyone who believes in free speech and the scientific method, consider these comments by Fleming.

“Another really key strategy we had was to deploy influencers,” Fleming said, adding, “influencers who were really keen, who have huge followings, but really keen to help carry messages that were going to serve their communities, and they were much more trusted than the United Nations telling them something from New York City headquarters.”

To accomplish this, Fleming told the audience, “We had another trusted messenger project, which was called ‘Team Halo’ where we trained scientists around the world and some doctors on TikTok, and we had TikTok working with us.”

Moderating the “Tackling Disinformation” panel was the WEF’s managing director Adrian Monck, who stressed that the WEF is in the midst of a “political war on who owns the narrative” when it comes to societal issues like climate change and COVID-19.

To win this war, the WEF has enlisted the likes of CNN and several other mainstream media giants. According to Monck, “CNN is both an organization that’s trying to make sense of the world and trying to establish the facts; it’s also part of a political war on who owns the narrative.”

The panel also included an appearance by Brown University’s Claire Wardle, who let it be known that free speech, which is the bedrock of a free society, should go the route of the dinosaurs and join the dustbin of history.

“This idea that all speech is equal is not true, and I wish we could just have that conversation properly, Wardle said.

In other words, like in George Orwell’s Animal Farm in which “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” Wardle is arguing that “all speech is equal, but some speech is more equal than other speech.” Never mind the oxymoronic nature of this comment.

So, why does this matter? Why should everyday Americans care about this?

Well, the answer is simple. If you value living in a free society, one in which people are allowed to state their opinions without fear of retribution, then you should be terrified of a future wherein global elites and powerful institutions have the clout to stifle any and all speech they determine to be “misinformation” because it runs counter to the narrative framework they want to establish.

As of now, this seems to be mostly limited to the realms of climate change, COVID-19, and a few other societal issues, however, it would be downright naïve to think that the elites’ desire to “own the science” and control the flow of information would be restricted to only these areas.

If they are allowed to “own the science,” manipulate the dissemination of information, and silence those they deem purveyors of “misinformation,” we will no longer live in a free society.

Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is senior editor at The Heartland Institute.