Speaking

Quoting Terry Cochrane, "The Matter of Language", in Paul A. Bové (ed) Edward Said and the Work of the Critic: Speaking Truth to Power (Duke Univ. Press 2000):

...Paul de Man remarks on Nietzsche's definition of truth: "Tropes are neither true nor false but are both at once. To call them an army is however to imply that their effect and their effectiveness is not a matter of judgment but of power. What characterizes a good army, as distinct for instance from a good cause, is that its success has little to do with immanent justice and a great deal with the proper economic use of its power." Although de Man primarily seeks to read the figures of Nietzsche's text and to show how the anthropomorphism of its language plays out its assertions, his comments are revealing of the dual power that inhabits language. De Man refers to this power as "epistemological" and "strategic," tied simultaneously to the production of knowledge and to persuading, to convincing, to provoking actions. In other words, as a product of ongoing institutionalization, language enforces, cajoles, and convinces, but its power is also more insidious because it lurks in its concepts, in the very matter of thought. Conceptually, this power is an antecedent to judgment, which acts in the name of that power even as the judge can do little more than assert his or her impartiality.

I found this here, where Bob Mcmanus quotes it, glossing it: 'It is a little interesting about what precipitates these hegemonic battles, conducted entirely on the terrain of ideology with dueling pseudo-facts, with propaganda of the dining-room and comment thread, in order as I said, to force an affiliation with a side, tribe, an army.' His take on the 'power is an antecedent to judgment' bit: 'It is the passion that precedes the argument that coerces. Always. "I need you on our side."'