State television, from which a significant number of Poles get their news, consistently smears, in aggressive and defamatory language, the political opposition and anyone who thinks differently from the ruling party. The murdered mayor had been called a thief, a German, a homophile and a Mafioso. Furthermore, television propaganda has repudiated the justice system for the past three years, calling it harmful for citizens, in need of a complete changing of the guard; judges are accused of being a caste above the law. From his jail cell, this man would have seen precisely these messages, of bad guys and the necessity of radical solutions.

The news in Poland today feels like a new kind of monster, a Frankenstein ’s monster that has gotten out of control online and mutated into hate speech that can then be found everywhere else . Open your email, and you’ll see: “You’re a piece of trash, and you will die.” “We know where you live.” “We’re going to cut off that stupid head.” The internet hums with violence.

The body reacts to verbal aggression with reflexes. It curls up into a little ball and starts to sweat, adrenaline pumping. If this happens to many people at once, then we are in a mental war, where instead of bullets, words are fired. I believe absolutely that words must be treated as material weapons, every invective or threat as violence and aggression.

Unfortunately, as hate speech has proliferated, no one in Poland has been held responsible. The police take people’s statements and dismiss them. This tacit consent has demoralized weakened minds. Hate speech has seeped into public discourse and the process of lowering standards has become increasingly visible: elected officials publicly avow conspiracy theories; members of parliament post diatribes filled with hate, knowing that the more brutality and emotion there is in a tweet, the wider it will circulate.

Populists use language that is more aggressive and more hate-filled . They reach for scapegoats. In Poland, these scapegoats are the so-called crazy leftists, queer-lovers, Germans, Jews, European Union puppets, feminists, liberals and anyone who supports immigrants.

Add to this the silence and cynicism of the clergy, the clumsy, aggressive propaganda of state television, the consent of the police to anti-Semitic excesses, public demonstrations dehumanizing “enemies of the nation,” the denigration of the authority of the judiciary and the unforgivable destruction of the environment , and we have a suffocating atmosphere of hate, a highly emotional stalemate in which there can only be traitors and heroes.

In a healthy, normal society, people can disagree with one another , even have diametrically opposing views, and this does not at all mean that they must hate one another. The Polish authorities, however, have made the division of Poles their primary task .