Can we make truth great again?

During the 2024 US presidential campaign, the proliferation of lies reached an unprecedented level. This confirms that we have entered the era of post-truth and alternative facts. Beyond true and false, anyone can claim their interpretation and narrative. Is there a way to prevent fake news and political manipulation that threaten democracy?
This essay traces the path that has led to this relativism over the last forty years on both sides of the ideological spectrum: the reign of storytelling, the empire of emotion, identity politics, victimization, autofiction, cancelation, philosophical deconstruction, the virtualization of the world by artificial intelligence… have all decimated universal reason. To save truth and the positivity of facts, François Noudelmann explores other resources, such as indignation in the face of lies and the alliance of doubt and revolt, which allow us to still believe in a common language.

François Noudelmann lives in New York. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Literature at New York University. A former Collège International de Philosophie president, he wrote numerous essays translated into a dozen languages. His publications include The Philosopher’s Touch. Sartre, Nietzsche, and Barthes at the Piano (Columbia University Press, 2012), Les Airs de Famille, Une Philosophie des Affinités (Gallimard, 2012), Un Tout Autre Sartre (Gallimard, 2020), The Genius of Lies (Max Milo, 2024), among many others. For a dozen years, he was a radio producer at France Culture and the author of the novel Les Enfants de Cadillac (Gallimard, 2021).