Comment by Emi Baruch:
Offensive words, mockery, threats, swearing, humiliating qualifications, hostility and intolerance. This is the language environment that we observe from the parliamentary studios - and without a red dot appearing on the television screen indicating that the content is not suitable for adolescents.
The vulgar speech sounds perfectly free and with persistent repetition from the highest rostrum in Bulgaria. The undignified verbal outbursts, characteristic of a loose gang of street idlers, have become a common sound background of Bulgarian publicity. The threshold of tolerance gradually fell before our eyes until it completely disappeared.
How did it get to this point?
Street language entered the media a long time ago. The democratic mandate of change stripped away the costumed clichés of the casionary party nonsense. And this somewhat sympathetic riot began to swell, to seize territories, to gain self-confidence, to parade on the roads, in shops, in schools. Naturally, this speech formed an attitude towards everything, including politics. To hold back, cultural speech ceased to be sexy. It became elitist, niche, old-fashioned.
And not only did the audience stop being outraged by vulgarity, but vulgarity became a model of behavior. Vulgarity even began to be used to mark a community, as a sign of belonging. "You are vulgar and I am vulgar!"
Linguistic aggression provokes linguistic aggression. But linguistic aggression also provokes physical aggression. The frequent scenes of children fighting in malls in Sofia, Burgas, and Varna are the result of precisely this. The demonstration of brutal behavior in a public place, which the wild boys and girls themselves film and distribute with pleasure, aims for the same effect as the unbridled behavior of the representatives of the people in front of the cameras. Both choose this way to gain popularity.
Such is the script matrix of Toshko Yordanov, who calls his colleagues "moral waste", such is the arrogance of Kostadin Kostadinov, who promises from the highest rostrum to set the parliament on fire, such is the verbal register of the deputy in ten Bulgarian parliaments Hamid Hamid, who responded to a journalistic question with the words "wretch, trash, freak".
Almost a year ago, Delyan Peevski - Chairman of the PG of the MRF-NN made a special address on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day. It says that language is "A means of expression and self-determination of our identity". And more: that it is "our duty to protect, preserve and develop it".
What exactly is the identity of the oligarch who was sanctioned under the global Magnitsky Act, judging by his verbal expressions ("Who are you, hey?! Who are you, hey?!")? This is a question with many possible answers. How he himself protects and develops it is evident from his every public appearance.
Politicians set the tone for relations in society
If we analyze the relationship between language and thinking of those we have chosen to represent us, we will reach low points that are a sad characteristic not for the elected officials, but for those who voted for them.
The relationship between language and thinking has been the subject of decades of research. One of the questions that scientists have been asking is: what makes human speech different from the communication systems of animals? The short answer is that humans have culture.