The far right, religion, and conspiracy theories: a discourse-theoretical analysis of the case of Poland

The relationship between varied religious landscape and conspiracy theories has not received specific attention in contemporary scholarship. This paper addresses this gap by analyzing the articulation of radical voices, conspiracy theories, and arguments opposing religious plurality. The article focuses on the discursive practices of far-right representatives in debates about religious plurality in Poland. I analyze radical right-wing arguments on YouTube and how users within the Polish context have responded. On the one hand, users in Poland who oppose religious plurality are narrowing their Christian values to traditional Catholicism and propagating conspiracy theories about interreligious dialogue. On the other hand, the people accused of being the founders of great conspiracies are not physically present; only their image is being constructed. Such a conclusion leads to a clearer understanding of Poland’s far-right movements, which shape their identities through religious norms (arguments) and religious chauvinism (context of exclusivism that improves the quality of argumentation) to an imagined “Other.”