Zawstydzanie w komentarzach internetowych – rekonesans pragmalingwistyczny

The text discusses the problem of so-called “hating” in online comments. This phenomenon is often identifi ed with hate speech, yet it is not an adequate comparison as it wrongly suggests that acts of verbal violence are motivated by this vilest of human emotions. In fact, language attacks are often accompanied by contempt for the victim. The victim of such an attack loses their dignity in the process of shaming. The presence of these two emotions: contempt and shame, encourages the perception of hate as a contemporary incarnation of the practice of lynching. A study conducted on more than eight thousand comments published on popular websites allowed to identify the characteristics of Internet hating/lynching. It is direct, mass, typical, common, and unethical.