ABSTRACT
Worries about the epistemic and doxastic state of our societies are widespread. Here I assess a dominant discursive strategy that is being used in defence of an open, liberal, public sphere. Speakers that take themselves to be committed to a liberal public space regularly accuse their opponents of being post-truth and of producing fake news. A whole liberal counterspeech is being developed, which resorts to these terms. Here I argue that this discursive strategy may need serious revision. As a form of critical counterspeech, it appears to be vague and ineffective. As a form of polemic counterspeech (ad hominem) it turns out to backfire against the defence an open public sphere. Post-truth laments and accusations, I argue, introduce a Trojan Horse in liberal counterspeech, undermining what liberal speakers are trying to achieve.
