Mainstreaming the Great Replacement: The role of centrist discourses in the mainstreaming of a far-right conspiracy theory

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The great replacement conspiracy theory has recently spread from the extreme right into more mainstream radical-right politics, and it continues to gain traction. This chapter analyzes one possible dimension of how this violent conspiracy theory has become politically permissible discourse, at least to some extent: its reiteration by centrist actors relying on mainstream language. The Netherlands is taken as a case study, as two prominent Dutch populist parties have openly endorsed (elements of) this conspiracy theory. The chapter first offers a genealogy of the most salient tropes of the population replacement conspiracy theory in recent Dutch history. Then, applying critical discourse analysis, it traces significant discursive parallels between these tropes and a 2017 campaign ad by the Dutch conservative-liberal party (VVD). Relying on scholarship on the discursive reproduction of systemic racism, the chapter argues that centrist (political) actors catering to far-right voters by mimicking part of their discourse may result in mainstreaming far-right ideology. The results of this mainstreaming are twofold: it emboldens the far right to become more extreme, which, in turn, means that, in the long term, catering to far-right discourses leads to the mainstreaming of increasingly extreme ideas.