A truth concerning a fact that happened, however ontologically strong it may be, since the past cannot be erased or changed, can nevertheless be politically fragile. Attempts to conceal and manipulate factual truths inconvenient to power are possible because truth appears fragile in the presence of power. This fragility implies that truth is not infrequently less plausible, or at least no more plausible, than lies. Truth is then often faced with another kind of threat: that posed by the neutralising conditions of truth, which deprive it of its status, depower it, empty it, make it fall into nothingness. The article considers a particular aspect, that of the warlike character of political life, in which the adversary is seen as an enemy. This warlike character, to which populist movements also contribute, constitutes both a context for the legitimisation of lies and a condition for the neutralisation of truth. The consequences are serious because, when truth loses its specific status, both argumentation and correct information become impossible to practise or irrelevant.
