Page 148 - Šolsko polje, XXIX, 2018, no. 5-6: Radicalization, Violent Extremism and Conflicting Diversity, eds. Mitja Sardoč and Tomaž Deželan
P. 148
šolsko polje, letnik xxix, številka 5–6
and similar. The number of very specific and identified cases is staggering;
actually, these were not cases of particular hate speech, but its mass out-
burst (Vezjak, 2017). It stood to reasons that the state prosecutor’s office
would provide a sensible explanation as to why they had not taken action,
even though criminal charges were raised.
In their analysis of the language of the “anti-Semitic mind” in pres-
ent-day modern Germany, Schwarz-Friesel and Reinharz (2017: p. xiv)
find that the World Wide Web has become the largest and most influ-
ential propagator of anti-Jewish statements, in particular in social media:
“You ugly little Jews, mankind’s rats, one should gas all genetically
declared Jewish criminals.” Or, “The Jews are to be blamed for everything.
Therefore we should eliminate the Jews, in whatever way we can.” These
are two examples among thousands in online comments, in chat forums,
on Twitter accounts, on Facebook, and so on.
They also list some cases that bear a strong resemblance with the
quoted users from Slovenia – insofar as these refere to Jews: “Its time again
for proper Aryans to turn on the gas! [. . .] HEIL HITLER!” (Schwarz-
Friesel and Reinharz, 2017: p. 131), “I’m going to give you a grand gassing
in Auschwitz!” (Schwarz-Friesel and Reinharz, 2017: p. 251), or “It’s get-
ting to be time again for proper Aryans to turn on the gas!” (Schwarz-
Friesel and Reinharz, 2017: p. 268). Sometimes, the use of gas is aimed at
Israelis, too: “The Israelis are the rats of the world and should one and all
be poisoned with Zyclon gas, the way you do with rats” (Schwarz-Friesel
and Reinharz, 2016: p. 268). Such anti-Semitic discourse has largely dou-
bled up on anti-Muslim today. In his analysis of islamophobia, Lean (2017:
p. 66) highlights the significant surge of anti-Islamism and the role of so-
cial networks in this regard:
Conversations about the anti-Muslim blogosphere cannot overlook the
role of social media. Indeed, without it, write-ups about Muslim-led vio-
lence and the threatening cloud of ‘Islamic extremism’ that are so domi-
nant on the Internet today would not enjoy the traction and success that
they do. Social media replaces traditional advertising. While Facebook
has been influential in the past, it is Twitter that, more recently, stands
out as the platform that is so crucial to getting Islamophobic messages
out to the masses.
Kompatsiaris and Mylonas (2015) detect a significant linguistic sim-
ilarity between anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hatred in the membership of
the Greek extremist party called Golden Dawn, that some consider fas-
cist: the vocabulary, as in the case of Hitler’s Germany, is aimed at mi-
grants, Jews and Bolsheviks, who contain an element of “impurity” and
146
and similar. The number of very specific and identified cases is staggering;
actually, these were not cases of particular hate speech, but its mass out-
burst (Vezjak, 2017). It stood to reasons that the state prosecutor’s office
would provide a sensible explanation as to why they had not taken action,
even though criminal charges were raised.
In their analysis of the language of the “anti-Semitic mind” in pres-
ent-day modern Germany, Schwarz-Friesel and Reinharz (2017: p. xiv)
find that the World Wide Web has become the largest and most influ-
ential propagator of anti-Jewish statements, in particular in social media:
“You ugly little Jews, mankind’s rats, one should gas all genetically
declared Jewish criminals.” Or, “The Jews are to be blamed for everything.
Therefore we should eliminate the Jews, in whatever way we can.” These
are two examples among thousands in online comments, in chat forums,
on Twitter accounts, on Facebook, and so on.
They also list some cases that bear a strong resemblance with the
quoted users from Slovenia – insofar as these refere to Jews: “Its time again
for proper Aryans to turn on the gas! [. . .] HEIL HITLER!” (Schwarz-
Friesel and Reinharz, 2017: p. 131), “I’m going to give you a grand gassing
in Auschwitz!” (Schwarz-Friesel and Reinharz, 2017: p. 251), or “It’s get-
ting to be time again for proper Aryans to turn on the gas!” (Schwarz-
Friesel and Reinharz, 2017: p. 268). Sometimes, the use of gas is aimed at
Israelis, too: “The Israelis are the rats of the world and should one and all
be poisoned with Zyclon gas, the way you do with rats” (Schwarz-Friesel
and Reinharz, 2016: p. 268). Such anti-Semitic discourse has largely dou-
bled up on anti-Muslim today. In his analysis of islamophobia, Lean (2017:
p. 66) highlights the significant surge of anti-Islamism and the role of so-
cial networks in this regard:
Conversations about the anti-Muslim blogosphere cannot overlook the
role of social media. Indeed, without it, write-ups about Muslim-led vio-
lence and the threatening cloud of ‘Islamic extremism’ that are so domi-
nant on the Internet today would not enjoy the traction and success that
they do. Social media replaces traditional advertising. While Facebook
has been influential in the past, it is Twitter that, more recently, stands
out as the platform that is so crucial to getting Islamophobic messages
out to the masses.
Kompatsiaris and Mylonas (2015) detect a significant linguistic sim-
ilarity between anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hatred in the membership of
the Greek extremist party called Golden Dawn, that some consider fas-
cist: the vocabulary, as in the case of Hitler’s Germany, is aimed at mi-
grants, Jews and Bolsheviks, who contain an element of “impurity” and
146
