Abstract

The advent of post-truth is not an unexpected surprise. Indeed, it is the rebirth of a communicative practice that aroused well-justified reasons for concern among scholars of twentieth-century ideologies. In addition, you can find it even in the current politics of post-truth – enormously amplified by the media, and especially digital media. Of course with some differences. The main one consists in the legitimation of emotional privacy and the knowledge of ordinary people rather than the one of the collective truth imposed by the Party or the movement. The thesis of the article is that what is most seriously lost is not the truth but rather the bond of trust that freely unites citizens, given that we live in a world of multiplied truths where it is difficult or impossible to distinguish between valid and apparent truths, between reliable and improbable theories, between sworn and inconsistent statements. For this reason, it is now urgent to have discerning available criteria to distinguish between the different discursive positions: such criteria imply a critical point of view to relate competing or even alternative perspectives