The Linguist

26 The Linguist Vol/60 No/1 2021 thelinguist.uberflip.com FEATURES foreigners by their assumed religious denomination instead of, for example, by nationality or ethnicity. The Polish data also included references to muzułmański character ('Muslim character'), replacing the religionym with a reductionist attribution of a stereotypical set of characteristics to a religious group. The term 'Muslims' is found next to 'men', 'radicals' and 'dangerous' and this is contrasted with a 'girl' (not a woman) and 'Polish' (not a religionym). The trope becomes 'Muslim man' vs 'Polish girl', which are not corresponding antonyms. There is no mention in the data of Muslim women or of Arab men who are not Muslim. What aboutism In cases where a crime has been committed, strategies of victim blaming or victimising the perpetrator, depending on their nationality, are not uncommon. What are less explored are counterfactual hypotheses or conditionals. These refer to 'what about…' reactions where posters attempt to trivialise the case by comparing it to other (unverified) cases where the victim's group was the perpetrator of crimes against the perpetrator's group: "Let's recall how many tragedies took place because of British pseudo-football fans. These cockneys have been playing up hard for some time now," (translated from Pudelek, 12/9/16). Cockneye is a derogatory term used to describe English people by Poles who live in the UK. It does not have the same connotation as 'cockney' in English. In a similar trope, a UK reader wonders: "So who is responsible for the blood of British people killed by migrants/immigrants would that be the BBC because they support un-vetted people coming here," (Daily Mail, BTL comment, 17/9/17). In addition to turning the tables on the story by victimising the British perpetrators, as if the Polish victim deserved his fate, the poster describes migrants as 'un-vetted'. The assumption is that all people coming to the UK are potential criminals. Fictional anecdotes and unverified stories are common strategies of trivialising or justifying an event, often starting with 'What about…?' For example, these BTL comments from Daily Mail readers (17/9/17): "Hold up. How about the British guy who tortured [sic] in his own home by 4 polish criminals??"; and "Polish drivers killing loads of English on the roads, is that Brexit as well?" The implied message is that there are double standards. Overall, hate speech works as the catalyst in a chain reaction initiated by discriminatory comments, bias confirmation, homogenising hierarchical divisions and othering, which in turn systematises hate with cumulative effects. In the Jóźwik case, the judge ruled manslaughter. To the readers of The Daily Mail and Pudelek, this was a vehicle to express pent-up resentment and draw battle lines. Notes 1 Hall, S (1997) 'The Spectacle of the Other'. In Hall, S (ed) Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi: Sage, 225-239 2 Strani, K and Szczepaniak-Kozak, A (2018) 'Strategies of Othering through Discursive Practices: Examples from the UK and Poland'. In Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, 14,1, 163-179; Strani, K and Szczepaniak-Kozak, A (forthcoming) 'Cyber Hate Speech in the UK and Poland: Online reactions to the murder of Arkadiusz Jóźwik'. In Monnier, A et al (eds) Online Hate Speech against Migrants, Palgrave Macmillan 3 Reisigl, M and Wodak, R (2001) Discourse and Discrimination, London: Routledge A tragic incident turned into a divisive debate over the political narrative of antypolonizm COUNTERING HATE The far-right Democratic Football Lads Alliance at a demonstration in Birmingham. There has been an increase in extremism around the world, reflected in similar discourse in the UK, Poland and elsewhere

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