Affective Polarization in Online Reactions to Turkey’s 2024 Stray Animal Law

This study analyzed social media reactions to the stray animals law enacted in Turkey in 2024 at an emotional and discursive level. The main purpose of the study was to reveal how supportive and opposing views on the law were structured in the context of social identity and affective polarization. A total of 2,178 entries were collected from Ekşi Sözlük, labeled as "supportive", "opposing", and "neutral", and analyzed through discourse strategy and emotional tone assessments. The findings show that the supporter group used a shorter, more analytical, and security-oriented language, while the opposing group adopted a longer, emotionally expressive discourse grounded in moral and conscientious values. According to the VAD analysis, the opposing group displayed higher valence and greater emotional diversity, whereas the supporter group reflected a more distant emotional tone with lower valence and dominance scores. Rhetorical analysis revealed that logos was more prominent in the supporter group, while ethos dominated in the opposing group. Both groups described the opposing side using exclusionary language, which indicates that social identity boundaries were reinforced through discourse. These findings suggest that emotional and rhetorical practices in digital debates over public policy do not merely reflect individual opinions, but also help construct group identities. The study contributes to the literature by showing how emotional and identity-based factors shape group positions and language use in public debates, particularly in a local context.