Commentary Round-Up: Risk Aversion, Nonprofits and Terror, Free Speech Concerns
Analysis from The Wall Street Journal, The Free Press, Reason, Washington Examiner, and UnHerd covers societal risk assessment, funding of extremist groups, legislative threats to speech, fraud prevention, and institutional failures in handling abuse scandals.
Americans may be losing their capacity to assess risk, according to Barton Swaim of The Wall Street Journal. He references Allison Schrager's book "Worth the Risk," which posits that a centuries-long societal pursuit of risk elimination has led to unintended negative consequences. Recessions, for example, are characterized as mechanisms that purge inefficiencies from economies, while the "terrorized response" to the pandemic normalized alarm, creating a climate of perpetual moral panic. This extends to public perception of artificial intelligence, with a recent poll indicating that 46% of Americans perceive a moderate to significant risk of AI leading to humanity's destruction.
The Free Press editors raise concerns about the use of nonprofit organizations by terrorist groups to fundraise and disseminate ideology. Their reporting highlights two tax-exempt nonprofits, Malaysia-based MyFundAction and the Islamic University of Minnesota, which allegedly support groups like Hamas. The article points out that American policymakers in 2001 were unprepared for such tactics, and asserts there is "no excuse" for a similar lapse in vigilance nearly twenty-five years later.
In California, a new bill, Assembly Bill 2624, has drawn criticism from Reason's Josh Pauzé for potentially chilling free speech. Initially aimed at preventing online disclosures of personal information intended to threaten an immigration support worker, the bill, even after amendments, could still suppress lawful speech about immigration service providers. This follows a pattern in California, where similar provisions were extended from reproductive healthcare providers to gender-affirming care.
The Washington Examiner's Byron York reports on an initiative by a potential future Trump administration to combat fraud, particularly in the wake of significant financial losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vice President Vance's proposed White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud aims to prosecute past fraud cases and prevent individuals suspected of fraud from receiving future government loans. This effort is framed as an attempt to undo the damage caused by widespread fraud during COVID-19 and presents a politically advantageous opportunity.
Fiona Goddard, writing for UnHerd, expresses outrage over former Conservative MP Rory Stewart's characterization of Britain's child grooming gangs scandal as "manageable" and "a thing of the past." Goddard, a survivor of such abuse, argues that Stewart's comments perpetuate a culture where victims feel unheard and that institutions have historically prioritized concealing their failures over preventing abuse. The article contends that institutions remain complicit and that the country requires a significant "reckoning."