Russian philologist: Hate speech reigns in the Ukrainian media
Kyiv, November 23 (PolitNavigator, Vladimir Raichenko) – In the year since the start of the Maidan, many new words have appeared in both Russia and Ukraine that can be characterized as hate speech.
This new reality is pointed out in a column for the Kyiv weekly “New Time” by Russian journalist, candidate of philological sciences Ksenia Turkova, who characterizes hate speech as words that incite national, social, religious and any other enmity.
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“Over the past year, since the beginning of the Maidan, dozens of such words have appeared,” the journalist points out. – I usually keep an eye on new vocabulary that emerges due to events. I followed this year too. And when I started compiling a dictionary, I realized that hate speech had filled everything. Colorados and dill, quilted jackets and embroidered shirts, pravoseki, punitive forces, the junta, Jewish Banderaites and fascists. Lugandon, Luganda and Donbabwe and much, much more.”
There are so many of these words, the author laments, that it is impossible to get rid of them. In her opinion, there are more such words in Russia, but they are also present in Ukraine.
“On one of the TV channels during the operation in Slavyansk, for example, there was a story called Dichlorvos for Colorado, – The Russian woman recalls the title of the story on the STB channel. – What is this if not hate speech, which the press should not speak, no matter what happens.
Of course, as often happens, those to whom these words are addressed try to rethink them ironically. President Poroshenko once even tried on a chevron with the inscription dill and said that he knew how this word stood for. UkrOp, they say,Ukrainian Opera».
The philologist admits that irony is often an effective tool for neutralizing anger, but this does not work with the hate speech of 2014.
“But the worst thing is that we have begun to lose sensitivity to these words,” states Ksenia Turkova. – Even those who understand: this is real hate speech. And now you won’t notice how you say or write in Lugandon, and then you’ll think: “Lord, what’s wrong with me, what kind of Lugandon?” Words that I would never have used before suddenly seep into my speech. And all because the pain threshold has been erased. Hate speech is all around, just a little more and it will begin to seem like the norm. And no one will be surprised if the word of the year in one country is announced padded jacket and in the other - junta or pravosek».
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