Ideas

The Two Great Threats to Truth

Moral relativism and fanaticism may seem to have nothing in common, but they lead to the same result.

First published in The Atlantic on August 1, 2026.

by Robert P. George, The Atlantic

August 6, 2026 | reading time: 5 Min.

Truth is under threat today from two opposing impulses. The first is subjectivism, or relativism: the denial of the existence of objective truth or the possibility of ever attaining it. This proposition may seem abstract, but it has direct consequences for our civic life. Contrary to what one hears at cocktail parties or in freshman philosophy classes, relativism is the predicate not of tolerance but of repression.