Three-step rhetorical model of conspiratorial populists

A threefold claim that nativist populists put forth in their support of the people can be identified. First, they tend to create an external threat to the nation discursively. Second, they accuse a domestic elite of betraying the people, often even of siding with external aggressors. Third, they position themselves as the true defenders of the ‘pure people’ they vow to protect against both the elite and these malignant outsiders, that is, against those they have discursively created. In this presentation, I will demonstrate that populistic conspiracy theorists share these traits across both countries and themes. Three predominant cases of contemporary conspiracy theories are in focus: Eurabia in Europe, the Deep State in the United States, and anti-Western sentiment in Russia. I will analyse how populistic leaders apply the rhetoric of Neo-Nationalists in all three cases, i.e., discursively creating an extraneous threat to the nation, accusing a domestic elite of betraying the people into the hands of the aggressors, and positioning themselves as the true defenders of the pure people they vow to protect, against both the elite and these malignant outsiders.