The Courage to Be Right, by Michael Toscano

By Michael Toscano, Frist Things, June 20, 2024

Michael Toscano is executive director of the Institute for Family Studies.

There is tremendous pressure to be wrong these days. It takes a lot of character to be right. Much about First Things—a magazine I have read devotedly since my days as an undergraduate—is worthy of admiration, perhaps nothing more so than the courage of its writers and editors to simply say what is right in public.

The left threatens those who gainsay its political and cultural program. But these days, there are serious threats from the right, too. Who can forget the swarm of conservative pundits on social media who attacked the editors of this magazine for simply being right about the fact that much of the Covid regime was a destructive, anti-human force masquerading as charity toward one’s neighbor? When mass loneliness—which can destroy the heart of a nation and leave its people susceptible to the worst forms of tyranny—emerged as a political form and was elevated to the pinnacle of moral duty, First Things risked the invective of fellow conservatives for being willing to see through the mask. That’s when the magazine secured my enduring loyalty. …

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