Linguistic Construction of a Conspiracy Myth: Radio Maria and the Covid-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

In the following article a religious conspiracy narrative will be examined from a linguistic perspective. The basis is a radio broadcast by Don Livio Fonzaga, director of the clerical station Radio Maria. In the program, broadcast on November 10, 2020, he argues that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a work of the devil and is being used by his demonic henchmen to create a new atheistic world order. After introductory remarks on the concept of conspiracy, the paper then elaborates the conspiracy narrative on the lexical, semantic, phraseological, and metaphorical level. As a conclusion, it can be stated that Don Livio Fonzaga's hypotheses and options are only argumentation surrogates that do not stand up to plausibility standards.