Polarisation is a means of public protest. It exaggerates and simplifies complex matters through generalisation. The displayed certainty of a protest community to stand for the good or the right often leads to the heroisation of its identification figures. On the other hand, however, it also leads to strong rejection by the opposing side. In protest movements, polarisation is not an end in itself, but a means of “awakening” people: their aim is to encourage many people to act together.

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Heroisation and demonisation are the opposite effects of a friend-foe narrative. They increase polarisation and reinforce each other.
Heroising pop-culturally presented protagonists, who are despised and demonised by an opposition perceived as strong, can be a form of public rebellion. It creates an offer for self-heroisation, especially for young people who feel excluded from the dominant discourse. The media-effectiveness and appeal of extreme violence may amplify the effect. Intensely polarising heroisation can escalate into irreconcilability, especially when achieving one's own goal becomes increasingly utopian.

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Size is relative. For this reason, the attribution of heroic greatness requires contrast figures which are deprived of such greatness. In times of war, this is done through friend-foe polarisations. By referencing those who are weaker and in need of protection, it can lead to a second heroic polarisation between powerful men and defenceless women in need of protection.

In Nazi propaganda, the double polarisation of friends – enemies and protectors – vulnerable persons in the heroisation of Wehrmacht and SS formed an emotional basis for the Holocaust, the Porajmos, the crimes against Russian prisoners of war and the crimes against the civilian population in the Soviet Union.

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