ABSTRACT
The following chapter presents a more detailed picture of the ideological involvement of the Polish fans. The overview of ideological engagement of fans is preceded by an analysis of quantitative data on fans’ political preferences which shows that they generally favour the right-wing and nationalist parties and they support strong conservative values in both economic and moral dimensions. Next, the fans’ narratives about their political worldview are investigated – on the basis of qualitative interviews we demonstrate how fans justify loyalty to particular right-wing ideas. Many respondents, reflecting on historical context, mentioned the influence of the skinhead subculture in the 1990s. History also explains the lack of left-wing groups in the structure of fandom, as leftism is still very much associated with the period of communist oppression. The third part of the chapter approaches examples of choreography, slogans, chants and banners that in a symbolic and performative way express the ideological foundations of Polish fandom. The main themes that are represented performatively relate to: Catholicism, the glorification of war and anti-communist heroes, patriotism, local identity and current political threads related to contestation of LGBT rights and anti-refugee resentments. All these values – strongly political in character – are discussed in fandom culture beyond the frames of political organisation as fans are staunchly loyal to politicians and their parties. It seems that fans’ conservatism is an expression of anti-establishment attitudes even if they are in line with ideologies represented by right-wing formations in Poland The chapter concludes with the assertion that, due to some internal structural constraints of fandom itself, future possibilities of fandom growth in terms of significant political and social movement seem to be rather limited.
