Politeness Strategies in YouTube Comments on PragerU’s Video : ‘Israelis or Palestinians – Who’s More Tolerant?’

This study examines politeness strategies in YouTube comments on PragerU’s video “Israelis or Palestinians – Who’s More Tolerant? within the polarized discourse of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Guided by Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory and Herring’s (2004) Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis, 100 purposively selected comments were analyzed qualitatively. The comments were categorized into bald-on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record strategies. Findings indicate that positive politeness, often used by pro-Israel users, fosters in-group solidarity, while negative politeness, more frequent among pro-Palestinian and moderate users, mitigates disagreement through indirectness. Bald-on-record strategies assert direct ideological stances, whereas off-record strategies like sarcasm and irony enable indirect critique across groups. The study concludes that politeness strategies not only manage face but also function as tools for ideological positioning and identity negotiation in online political discourse, offering insights into digital pragmatics in polarized contexts.

Keywords: politeness strategies, YouTube comments, ideological stance, CMDA, digital discourse