[SamoyedFurFluff]

I’m a little confused on the statement “truth isn’t political”. This kind of goes against what I understand politics to be, which is the negotiation of a broader societal trend, which doesn’t itself have to do with whether or not the societal trend has a factual basis. The truth may be that cigarettes cause cancer, but the politics are obviously that acknowledging this would encourage society to implement top down policies to limit cigarette use. In this way, “cigarettes is a carcinogen” is a truth with significant political weight, which is what I understand a political truth to mean. Is my understanding different from yours?

[muxl]

If I'm understanding the parent comment correctly: a fact may have political implications but it doesn't depend on politics. In other words reality is independent of our interpretation of it (i.e. philosophical realism). The rub of course being that coming to know facts about most things is a highly social process filtered through interpretation and biases. Everything can be political if it needs to be decided upon by a group.

EDIT: I have avoided using "truth" here because it's a more general term than "fact" which has the connotation of being in reference to something concrete.