Goal
Engaging in public digital discussions, be it on their own channels in social media or on news sites, identifying and recognizing comments with different hate speech formats.
Steps
Prepare a bingo sheet (in example a 4x4 or 5x5 matrix)
Hate Speech Bingo
Step 1: Ask participants to find hate speech comments in their social networks or on news comment sections of relevant blogs or media websites. There are a lot of people using different kinds of phrases to manipulate the public discussions. Please write them down in the matrix.
Step 2: Participants should see if they can find phrases similar to those mentioned here. If one column or row is crossed out, they have a “Bingo!” and the activity is done.
- Why in our country?
- We first!
- One should be allowed to say that!
- They are the problem!
- They should integrate themselves!
- I’m not right-winged/alt-right, but...
- They just staged that to cover up the truth!
- If they don’t like it here they should go somewhere else.
- If they do it, it’s especially bad.
- Normal people could not allow ourselves something like that.
- They/them!
- Politicians don’t care about us!
- Statistics never lie!
- They manipulate statistics
- Everyone knows I’m speaking the truth!
- In our country women are not treated like that.
- They don’t even work!”
- ....
Reflection
- What has been found: Are there similarities?
- Try to identify patterns together.
- What rhetorical tricks or phrases are used more often than others?
- Where did people write these phrases (in social networks, groups, in comment sections)?
Reference
- Adapted from http://upgrademeblog.com in the frame of the project STEPS -Survival Toolkit for EDC in Post-factual Societies
Experiences
Because this topic focuses on populist talk and their rhetorical tricks in public discussions (on the internet), the verbal forms might vary greatly between different countries and languages and will need adjustments for international groups.
