Spoušť - Příběhy o lásce a nenávisti – Hudec Marek (2024)

How far can hatred lead society? The shooting at the Tepláreň bar was not the act of a single radicalized young man; the space for it is opened by the hate speech around us: the language of public debate, politicians' speeches, comments on social media. Marek Hudec's report is a very personal text that shows the terrifying consequences of searching for any 'common enemy.' Matúš Horváth and Juraj Vankulič, murdered on October 12, 2022, on Zámocká Street, are unfortunately just two more among many who paid with their lives for a completely natural thing – they wanted to choose whom to love and who they wanted to be. Marek Hudec reconstructs the events of that dreadful night based on numerous interviews with witnesses and the victims' relatives, as well as what preceded it. The lives of both victims, their families, and friends. And the shock they and the entire society went through. He also provides us with a much broader context: he takes us into the environment of the Slovak LGBTQ+ community, among activists, and into the recent past when homosexuality was treated as an illness in Czechoslovakia. We witness recurring stories full of intolerance, baseless hatred, persecution, or even simple indifference. It is clear from them how much responsibility each of us bears for the development in society. We see how easily…