Authors
Nicolette Makovicky1; 1 University of Oxford, UK Discussion
Visiting Slovakia in the Spring of 2022, I was struck by how often I heard the phrase: 'We have decided not to talk about this topic'. In the aftermath of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, ideological and moral fault lines had opened up between colleagues, friends, and family-members. Those who had supported pandemic measures clashed with those who argued they had been an illegitimate imposition. Others found they had radically different readings of Russia’s actions in Ukraine. In many cases, these fault lines were not entirely new, but in the heightened atmosphere, people felt they had little choice but to police their words (or give up communicating with certain others completely). In this paper, I want to reflect on the possibilities and limits of speech in creating solidarity in the context of increasing social polarization and political instability, considering the way that people navigated relationships with friends and family with radically different world views. I reflect on how these strategies articulated ongoing public discussions about civility and vulgarity in Slovak political discourse in the long run-up to the general elections in September 2023. 
