Hierarchies of Distrust: How Far-Right Conspiratorial Communities on Telegram Navigate Competing Truth Claims

Far-right conspiratorial communities claim to seek truth while distrusting nearly everyone: mainstream media, governments, scientists, and even each other. How do they navigate this landscape of total distrust while maintaining collective coherence? Drawing on observations of five German Telegram channels, I analyze 551 posts containing explicit truth claims and their comment sections. I identify a hierarchy of distrust that structures how these communities authenticate claims and relate to each other: (1) “The system” (absolute distrust), (2) alternative media that “don't go far enough” (conditional trust), (3) mainstream sources confirming community beliefs (instrumentally useful but suspect), (4) community authorities (presumed trustworthy but not infallible), and (5) own truth. Truth claims function to position sources relationally within this hierarchy. Authentication occurs through practices of comparative distrust, character judgments, and selective evidence use. Internal disagreements target specific placements, not the hierarchy itself, thus sustaining coherence and avoiding fragmentation. This study introduces “hierarchical distrust” as a key organizing mechanism in conspiratorial communities and complicates discussions around post-truth organization. In practice, interventions should account for this hierarchical complexity and the relational work that sustains these communities.