When Humor Morphs Into Horror
My Atlas of Prejudice was born in 2009, when a gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine triggered an energy crisis across Eastern Europe.
As an Eastern European who remembers communism, I don’t have the convenient luxury to blame the West for everything tragic that happens in this world. Even in 2009, I thought of Russia as an ominous force that was biding its time to bare its teeth. And time gradually proved I was right.
But no matter how suspicious I was of Russia’s ambitions, I couldn’t imagine that one day Putin would launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, justifying it with arguments that don’t hold water even on a kindergarten playground. Most of them sound too ridiculous to merit any serious rebuttal, but there is one that sends chills down my spine. The accusation that the West promotes “pseudo values contrary to human nature” reeks of unrestrained hatred and homophobia.
I’m looking at the map above and I can’t laugh anymore. What was once a joke is now full-blown horror. The Europe of 2009 is fianlly dead and along with it, died my project.
