Vice President & Chief Accounting Officer, Churchill Downs
Search every verified Jon Rauch interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and contributing editor for National Journal and the Atlantic, has been active in discussions on free speech, the nature of knowledge, and the intersection of gay rights and religious liberty. In a 2021 podcast appearance, Rauch discussed his book "The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth," describing the "constitution of knowledge" as a system of norms and institutions that keep society "moored to reality." He argued that free speech alone is insufficient for producing knowledge due to inherent human biases, and that structured social conversation and institutions are necessary. Rauch characterized attacks on this system as a deliberate disinformation campaign, attributing them to Donald Trump and his allies, as well as to "cancel culture" on campus. He also stated that social media companies face a "Herculean job" in building barriers to propaganda and intimidation. In a 2017 lecture at the University of Illinois College of Law, Rauch addressed the conflict between gay rights and religious liberty. He described the Equality Act and the First Amendment Defense Act as emblematic of a hardening of positions into "legal and political trench warfare." Rauch argued that religious people and institutions have a "legitimate and well-founded claim" to accommodation, even if their actions are seen as intolerant. He contrasted an "absolutist" model of non-discrimination, which he said militates against balancing interests, with a more flexible approach that he argued offers less social resistance and more political hope for future claimants, including transgender people. Rauch characterized the conflict as a "canary in the mine shaft" for whether society will adopt an absolutist or pluralistic interpretation of non-discrimination.
“The constitution of knowledge is the system of norms and institutions that we all rely on to keep us as a society collectively moored to reality as opposed to unmoored to reality.”
“Free speech is essential and important, but it's not enough to make knowledge because humans are inherently biased and we don't see our biases. The only way to turn our views into knowledge is through structured social conversation and institutions like courts, law enforcement, scientific organizations, academia, and n...”
“The attackers on the constitution of knowledge are not just wandering off the reservation; this is a deliberate, systematic, very sophisticated disinformation attack on the institutions, norms, and practices that keep us moored to reality. This is Donald Trump and his allies and people in cancel culture especially on c...”
“Donald Trump is the greatest propaganda innovator since maybe Goebbels. He figured out how to take Russian-style propaganda tactics like flooding the zone with lies to swamp good information.”
“The only way the error-correcting mechanism of knowledge works is if you have lots of viewpoint diversity. If one side of the argument is afraid to speak up or isn't represented, you get a distorted, manipulated reality.”
“Social media companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter are spending millions hiring thousands and innovating to build institutional barriers to propaganda and intimidation, which is a Herculean job.”
“If you turn your newspaper over to your readers and get rid of all the editors, what you get will be raw sewage. You have to have people making decisions about what goes and doesn't go, and social media is no different.”
“Academic freedom and free speech do not include the right for a biology professor to teach creationism as a fact. These distinctions are important and well thought out in first amendment law.”
“The constitution of knowledge is by far the most benign and powerful social system in the history of humanity. It has transformed our species from small tribes with separate truths into a species-wide network finding knowledge at a fantastic rate.”
“The biggest threat to liberty is not government but enforced social conformity that makes the person of genius or eccentric reluctant to voice out-of-the-box views.”
“The Equality Act includes a provision revoking any protection which religious objectors might enjoy under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, while the First Amendment Defense Act shields the objectors from discrimination but leaves gay people wholly unprotected from discrimination under federal law.”
“Both bills seem to be based on moral conviction not merely on strategic positioning; in that respect they're emblematic of an unfortunate development where an issue that once had prospects for reasonable accommodations has hardened into legal and political trench warfare.”
“Religious people and institutions have a legitimate and well-founded claim to be cut some slack by law and society even if they sometimes use that slack to behave in ways that strike many people as intolerant and hurtful.”
“Many gay folks see religious objectors as desiring to discriminate in the name of religion and to leverage religion to obtain an explicit license to discriminate, viewing it as an aggressive effort to deny LGBT people legal protections and social equality.”
“The absolutist non-discrimination model militates against the balancing of interests in courts and legislatures because allowing even a narrow license to discriminate is seen as eviscerating the entire principle of non-discrimination.”
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The University of Illinois College of Law presents the fall 2016 David C. Baum Memorial Lecture on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, ...
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