The German state failed to live up to its propaganda/ideals in some important ways this year. This mainly concerns the systematic oppression of Arabs, Muslims, pro-Palestinian voices. The archive of silence website documents the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this systematic abuse of power.
The Germans in 2025 failed to uphold the first article of the Grudngesetz or the Basic Law on die Unantastbarkeit der Menschenwürde/the inviolability of human dignity; article five on freedom of the press and of opinion. Germany, in this regards, compares very well to oppressive systems in Africa like Tunisia and Morocco.
This oppression is systemic. It is generated by regions of the German system that are based on identitarian concepts–which are not inherently identitarian and rather universal– like remembrance and antisemitism.
It is systematic in the sense that it is practiced in a way organised enough to warrant this 2024 assessment by Human Rights Watch:
German authorities stifled civic space in 2024 by restricting individuals’ freedom of expression, assembly, and association. The police, among others, frequently resorted to violence at climate and pro-Palestine protests.[1]
Germany: Events of 2024 hrw.org
The report then adds:
This was also reflected in the 2024 edition of the European Commission’s annual Rule of Law report. [Ibid]
Are the assessments for 2025 any better, or worse?
Germany’s three-pronged oppression strategy: Shipping Weaponry, providing diplomatic support, police violence.
2025 witnessed the consolidation of an open and intentional oppressive strategy. Shipping weapons in contravention of humanitarian laws and the genocide convention; providing diplomatic clout to a state recognized scientifically and internationally as perpetrating a genocide and war crimes; and, domestically, cracking down on dissent–the three-pronged strategy has been unshakeable. Police violence, documented in an ongoing and infinite flow of videos online, also makes it apparent that not all citizens are equal in front of the law, which is another way the people failed to uphold the Basic Law.
2025 witnessed the consolidation of an open and intentional oppressive strategy. Shipping weapons in contravention of humanitarian laws and the genocide convention; providing diplomatic clout to a state recognized scientifically and internationally as perpetrating a genocide and war crimes; and, domestically, cracking down on dissent–the three-pronged strategy has been unshakeable. Police violence, documented in an ongoing and infinite flow of videos online, also makes it apparent that not all citizens are equal in front of the law, which is another way the people failed to uphold the Basic Law.
The silencing power of the white body-politic
While the fundaments broke– and this is the most important lesson to learn– they didn’t break for all. A minority of people was broken by them while the rest remained shielded economically, politically, culturally, and macro-emotionally: the body-politic offers a national framework of emotions that worked very well for the white majority in this country this year. As some lost the last hopes to belong in a nation that at least pays lip-service to remembrance, anti-racism, and anti-sexism–others preoccupied themselves occasionally by defending the nation against the AfD. Fair enough. But one remained skeptical as to why the genocide in Gaza didn’t gain traction or resonate with white Germans. Yes, Sudan didn’t gain traction either. However, one could argue that the fact that Germany is participating in the genocide should responsiblise Germans as the engagement is intentional, open, and said to be ethical and rooted in a historical responsibility to atone for the horrors of the Holocaust. Do lessons of the Holocaust tell us that never-again exclude Palestinians?
Berlin, and to a degree other cities like Frankfurt, skew the picture. If you focus on marginal cities–and they’re the majority–you could see that in Bielefeld, e.g., a decision was made by the leftist scene–including NGOs, anarchists, liberals, conservatives, environmental and political small groups, among others–to ignore the weekly Palestinian demo that has been taking place fro two years. The accusation right from the start included: they’re Erdoganists, they’re Islamists, and they’re anti-Kurdish. While some individuals may well be, this has been a single-issue movement laser-focused on Palestine. It is the single most significant movement in the history of Bielefeld city, yet it was abandoned by the dominant groups and people of most scenes, erased and will continue to be erased. Whiteness marches on.
Overall. This year Germany produced enough contradictions in the world that its only choice is to deny them or consider them part of life. The taboo nation got even more taboos on the list, not afraid that long lists deaden the soul. Rather, this has been a non-issue: there’s enough embodied expertise among the citizenry as to how one can deal with taboos. On the other hand, people implicated in the horrors in the Middle East met to talk, feel, cry, and support each other (and at times failed at it because we all know trauma separates and isolates). White Germans sought psychotherapists. Top topics: parental complexities, betrayal of friends and lovers, plus the occasional question How to deal with the political situation. And improved their working conditions.
The citizens of white Germany put all the weight of power to muffle voices in need of support. Instead of amplifying, they ignored and in the process oppressed. Power wielded separates people by driving wedges between them. From one side, the wedge is made out of indelible trauma. From the other, the wedge is made out of power and choice, and therefore inscribed in concepts of freedom, personal care, psychotherapy, traveling, and the centuries-long shared interests of the white class. The most traumatized class, and victims of everything.
Eyes on the prize, not justice!
The way forwards is to collectively organise in non-oppressive ways. The oppressed classes are by way of our oppression disorganized while the upper classes by way of their privileges organised. Organization is then a material need, and a material that we need to produce in plenty to successfully counter the attacks of the white privileged society and be able to better our position and rights. This is not easy: it’s almost like producing something out of nothing. We are disorganized in the first place due to our material conditions. How do we build the necessary social capital, knowing that the better-off use their material conditions–spaces of encounter, consumption power, and shared capital-maximizing strategies like marriages, trading, investing, lobbying, etc.–to sustain their social, cultural, and economic capitals against us? How can we create organizations that get us together while we are under attack conditions that aim to isolate us for better handling and exploitation? How can we get together not to achieve justice but to take what we can take?
By now, this text has to go with one more note on justice and ethics. The betterment of our material position has to be decoupled from ethics. We support Palestine not because Palestine will be a leftist country of solidarity. It surely won’t be. What any state is concerned with in the first place is its continuity at all costs. We support Palestine to be free: it’s the right of its people. We support others not because they’re good. Are we good? We support others so they get their rights. The question of justice, which is fundamentally emotional and embodied and a much more harder question about inequality over time, cannot be easily tackled in the absence of basic human rights and equality. There’s a priority to our struggles. When the have-nots conflate the fight for justice with the fight for equality, we’re burdening ourselves with fighting too many wars. Our resources, our bodies, are under-attack. It makes sense to pick and choose our fights. On the other hand, the white people preoccupied with discourses of justice are after the grandiosity of justice claims, often unattainable, because it is far more attractive and emotionally and socially rewarding than supporting others to be on equal footing. Nobody wants that drudgery. Everybody wants to shout propaganda: Justice for all or no justice at all. But then, as the financial year draws to a close, one can imagine how much financial peace some secured, and how much financial violence others endured. Eyes on the prize, not justice! † Does this make sense to you? Or should justice go in lockstep with the fight for "material"/basic...