Dakota Beacon

What is Davos? Where is Davos? What is Davos all about?

Davos is a Swiss Alpine resort town in the canton of Graubünden. It is in the Rhaetian Alps with a permanent population in 2020 of 10,832. The municipality rises 5,120 feet above sea level.

Gaining prominence in the 19th century as a mountain health resort, Davos also has one of Switzerland's largest ski resorts. Davos is best known today for hosting the World Economic Forum (WEF) -- often referred to simply as "Davos" -- an annual meeting of global political and corporate elite. WEF most recently met on January 15-19, 2024.

The Forum resembles a great trade show of global capitalism. Switzerland is a deeply politically conservative country. Many of the Forum’s other leaders come from conservative backgrounds also. However, the WEF has tilted grossly leftward, or in contemporary parlance, progressive.

Increasingly alarmed at criticism from the right, WEF leaders slightly edged the event away from “stakeholder capitalism,” political engagement, and a corporate focus on climate change and diversity in 2024. Curiously, these had been WEF pillars from the beginning.

Kevin Roberts, President of the conservative thinktank Heritage Foundation, was shocked when asked to speak at the WEF. Roberts spoke on a panel entitled “What to Expect from a Possible Republican Administration” and offered points contrary to the views of most Davos attendees ruffling their feathers in the process.

Roberts told reporters afterward it was hard to believe he received an invitation to the annual meeting of world leaders and globalist figures. However, he welcomed the opportunity to give voice to the “forgotten people” who are not collectively heard from or considered by the Davos elite.

Roberts confronted hosts at the WEF challenging claims that the WEF protects democracy and called the so-called elites “part of the problem.” “It’s laughable that you or anyone else would describe Davos as protecting democracy,” Roberts told the panel moderator. “You’re part of the problem.” He said that the next conservative American administration will “be governed by one principle, and that is destroying the grasp that political elites and unelected technocrats have over the average person.”

Roberts’ tough words generated a lot of attention. Videos of his remarks received millions of views. Additionally, there was much news coverage with Fox Business, the New York Post, and Yahoo Finance reporting on the event. CNN reported that Roberts’ remarks “appeared to irk some in the audience.”

WEF had two big goals last year: 1) Rebuild trust in the WEF and 2) Reduce dissention among the non-elite. Instead, the WEF, working at counter purposes to its goal, proclaimed that the greatest peril humanity faces are “misinformation and disinformation.” Who would have guessed freedom of speech would become the biggest barrier to saving humanity? Which begs the question: How does one recognize “misinformation”? The simple answer would be that “misinformation” would deny that the Davos elites should rule the world, i.e., Davos deniers are a threat!

WEF’s latest Global Risks Report warns, “Some governments and platforms … may fail to act to effectively curb falsified information and harmful content, making the definition of ‘truth’ increasingly contentious across societies.” In other words, each country’s government must suppress “falsified” information to save truth. Of course, WEF presumes governments are founts of truth regardless of years of evidence to the contrary.

Remember when the COVID pandemic erupted and the WEF rushed to proclaim the need for a “great reset” to radically increase politicians’ power over every aspect of modern life? Klaus Schwab, founder of the WEF, authored a book justifying this argument titled “COVID-19: The Great Reset.”

Unfortunately, radically decreasing the non-elite’s living standards is the only way to save the planet, according to the fashionable WEF experts. Reducing the use of fossil fuels for transportation and for food production constitutes one major tactic.

In addition to Heritage Foundation’s President Roberts, the most effective rebuttal at Davos came from the newly elected president of Argentina, Javier Milei. He exhorted the friends of freedom around the globe: “Do not be intimidated either by the political class or the parasites who live off the state. The state is the problem itself.” Milei scoffed at people who are “motivated by the wish to belong to a privileged caste.” That was the ultimate slap in the face for the self-proclaimed global saviors at Davos.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).