Amputation of disability as hate speech pattern in Poland

What is it about?

Disability hate speech is still not recognized in Poland as a significant social, legal, or political issue. The reason for this refusal to admit the presence of disability hate speech in Poland can be directly linked to the Communist period from 1945 to 1989 and its after-effects–widespread prejudices which remain today. Communist ideology involved amputating disabled people from the rest of society as a result of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine that glorified “socialist man.” Disabled people were not regarded as compatible with an ideology that promoted itself as developing a more evolved level of humanity. In Poland, Communist ideology subjected disabled people to open repression, scorn, shame, and isolation. Disability hate speech in Poland cannot be understood without understanding this background of Communist oppression. This chapter explains how the unique experiences of Communist oppression in Poland have shaped both historical and contemporary disability hate speech. No previous studies have highlighted the specific dynamics of disability hate speech associated with Communist ideology in a post-Socialist country. While disability hate speech has been the subject of foreign sociological studies on disability (Sherry, 2010), the concept of “disability hate speech” and its links to Communist ideology have not been recognized, even where hostility to disability has been recognized as an issue by Polish pedagogues studying school violence (Tłuściak-Deliowska, 2017), bullying in general (Plichta, 2010) or risk behaviours and cyberbullying towards people with intellectual disabilities (Plichta, 2017).

Featured Image