Sieglinde Geisel

Literaturkritikerin (Deutschlandfunk Kultur, WDR, SRF, Republik). Schreibcoach, Buchautorin. Gründerin von

[Sieglinde Geisel @geisel_s]

Brillant!

[Volodymyr Yermolenko @yermolenko_v]

For all the striking similarities between Trump and Putin, there is a fundamental difference between them.

Trump is a product of a society of abundance, of excess — a lifestyle without limits. Do whatever you want, take everything from life. Step over every barrier, including moral ones. When external obstacles disappear (because all desired things are already accessible), an illusion arises that internal obstacles disappear as well. Other people turn into instruments and objects. They become things that feel nothing. There is no need to empathize with them. This is how excessive hedonism turns into cruelty.

Putin is a product of a society of scarcity, of deficit. His defining myth is “the blockade of Leningrad.” His key word is “privation” (lisheniya). In a society of privations are born Russia’s “superfluous people” (lishniye lyudi). In this psychology of suffering, the very idea of joy and pleasure disappears. “My only pleasure” is that someone else suffers more than I do. And so, when these “superfluous people of privations” gain power, they want others to suffer as well. “We suffered — now you must suffer too.” “You must be deprived of what is dearest to you; you must experience privation.” This is how an excessive cult of suffering turns into cruelty.

In the end, we have two types of cruelty, two systems of contempt for human dignity — both brutal, yet rooted in different sources. The “martyrdom-driven” cruelty is stronger than the “hedonistic” one. It has greater endurance and knows how to withstand pain. Its sadism is not spontaneous but carefully planned and sustained. It knows how to manipulate hedonistic cruelty, constantly feeding it new “pleasures,” including Epstein-style ones.

But the endurance of Ukrainians enrages this sado-Putinism. Because no matter how much we hurt, we do not intend to suffer more than they do. We preserve within ourselves the capacity for joy, even despite pain and loss. And this infuriates the Russian collective Putin. He does not know what to do with it.

[Pedro @mfphhh]

Wer bietet Trump in den USA noch die Stirn?

Die Bürgerrechtsbewegungen @womensmarch und #50501 haben für heute über 1400 Protestmärsche in allen 50 US-Bundesstaaten organisiert.
Motto: #FreeAmerica
Schauen wir nicht nur auf Trump.
Schauen wir auch auf das andere Amerika:
1/2

[Boris Alexander Beissner @boris_beissner]

#MargaretThatcher had her faults, but when it came to #russia, she was always very clear!

"As #WinstonChurchill said in the thirties, if you give in to aggression there will be no end to the humiliation you will have to suffer. Some people suggest there should be negotiations. What is there to negotiate about? You don't negotiate with someone who marches into another country, devastates it, killing whoever he stands in his way.
You get him out, you make him pay and see that he is never in a position to do these things again."
#UK #Ukraine

[Sieglinde Geisel @geisel_s]

@Megatron_ron @RepublikMagazin Part two: https://t.co/vrpy75PWIK

[Sieglinde Geisel @geisel_s]

@Megatron_ron The Swiss online magazine @RepublikMagazin has a two-part article on Palantir and Switzerland: https://t.co/4QV5JuenHM

[Sieglinde Geisel @geisel_s]

@wenig_worte @MelAmann Perfekt.
In einem "Politischen Feuilleton" habe ich im @dlfkultur kam 4.11. ebenfalls darüber gesprochen. Bei Macht geht es immer um die Frage, wer spielt wessen Spiel. Und wer mit den Rechten Taubenschach spielt, hat/ist verloren.
https://t.co/rTDfx9bMds

[Sieglinde Geisel @geisel_s]

@VictorinoxDACH Und: Gibt's Gratislieferung an die ukrainische Armee?

[Torsten Dittkuhn @TDittkuhn]

Wir führen #Kulturkampf-Debatten über Nebensächlichkeiten wie Wurst, Gendern, Flaggen & Lastenfahrräder, haben aber viel ernstere und größere Probleme zu lösen. Mit den Debatten lenkt man davon ab, für die Probleme keine Lösungen zu haben. Richtig! @roberthabeck bei #Lanz.

[Sieglinde Geisel @geisel_s]

WORD.

[Lisa 🇩🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺🌍🕊 @Lisa_Viaalpina]

Mit dem Rücktritt von Robert #Habeck verliert Deutschland einen der klügsten, integersten und visionärsten Politiker seiner Generation.
Danke Herr @roberthabeck für Ihren unermüdlichen Einsatz, für das Aushalten von Häme, Diffamierung und dem oft beschämenden Verhalten einer Opposition, die intellektuell nicht mithalten konnte.

Deutschland war nicht bereit für eine Persönlichkeit wie Robert Habeck. Stattdessen ließ sich der „deutsche Michel“ von einer orchestrierten medialen Kampagne einseifen bis hinein in die öffentlich-rechtlichen Sender. Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Union, angeführt von Söder, Merz, Spahn und Dobrindt, wurde ein Mann demontiert, der all diese Namen in Sachen Wissen, Intellekt, Weitblick und Integrität mühelos überragt.

Wer sich erinnern will, dem empfehle ich die Kolumnen von Christian Stöcker (SPON), insbesondere zu Energiepolitik und den Lobbyverstrickungen der Union. Und wer noch Zweifel hat, möge sich die Handwerksmesse 2024 ins Gedächtnis rufen, dort wurde Markus Söder von Habeck entlarvt, gestellt und mit Fakten belehrt.

Ich verstehe Habecks Entscheidung, aber ich bedauere sie zutiefst. Dieser Rückzug ist ein Verlust für die Politik und für unser Land. Was wir nun erleben, ist das Ergebnis einer neoliberalen Regierung, deren Führung sich um das Gemeinwohl kaum schert.

Robert Habeck war der erste und einzige Politiker, dem ich wirklich vertraut habe. Sein Politikstil war geprägt von Nachdenklichkeit, Empathie und echter Verantwortung.
Leider bevorzugt die Mehrheit offenbar Selbstdarsteller mit dünner Faktenlage und dicker Selbstüberschätzung.

Was wir hier erleben, ist kein gewöhnlicher Rücktritt.
Es ist das Drama einer Demokratie im Kleinformat: Ein fähiger Kopf wird medial sturmreif geschossen, diffamiert, zermürbt und am Ende gönnerhaft verabschiedet.
Das Muster ist alt, die Folgen fatal.

Und wer bleibt? Friedrich Merz, ein Mann, der Groucho Marx’ Definition von Politik verkörpert: „Probleme suchen, falsche Diagnosen stellen und falsche Gegenmittel anwenden.“
Das Ergebnis? Reformrhetorik ohne Reformen, hohle Phrasen, eine Karre im Graben und ein Land, das sich selbst blockiert.

Robert Habeck zieht weiter nach Berkeley, nach Kopenhagen. Verständlich. Wer in Deutschland weiter denken will als bis zur nächsten Talkshow, muss auswandern. Hier wird der Horizont auf DIN-A4 gefaltet, und wer größer denkt, wird klein gemacht.

Das ist die Geschichte einer Republik, die ihre besten Köpfe vergrault und ihre schwächsten feiert. Merz & Co. nennen das „Herbst der Reformen“.
Ich nenne es den Spätherbst des Verstandes.

Alles Gute, Robert Habeck.
Danke für alles.

[Sieglinde Geisel @geisel_s]

Sehr schönes ehrliches Interview.
Habeck halt.
https://t.co/Hew6XJLA8C

[Gabrielius Landsbergis🇱🇹 @GLandsbergis]

If Ukraine has no choice but to accept “de facto” occupation — that’s because WE failed.

Not because Ukrainians failed, not because some mysterious “shit happened”, but because for years we ignored all the warnings, repeated all the mistakes of history, kicked the can down the road and refused to do what it takes to defend the rules and principles that enable sustainable peace and prosperity. This is on us.

We are the architects of this de facto defeat, so now we are trying to pretend it came out of nowhere and we did the best we could to stop it. In a spectacular display of unbombed westsplaining, Mark Rutte is suggesting that everything will be OK in the long run, like it was OK in the Baltic States after decades of de facto occupation by jolly old Uncle Joe Stalin.

Well, I have shrugged off a lot of dumb hot takes about my country over the last few years, but this one is literally sickening. Rutte is revealing that the latest genius 5D chess move to save Ukraine is to casually throw millions of people into a black hole of oppression, torture, rape, kidnapping, murder and destruction of national identity — “de facto, but not de jure”.

And the proponents of this plan will keep a straight face while they cite the misery of the occupation of the Baltic States as a shining example that Ukraine should happily walk into.

In his FT column, Gideon Rachman says little to fill the gap in Rutte’s world view:
"The Soviet Union’s annexation of the Baltic states after 1940 was never legally recognised by the US and most European countries. But it was a fact of life, until, eventually, the Baltic states regained their independence."

Yikes, let’s unpack that.
The occupation wasn’t “a fact of life”, it was a fact of death.
“Eventually” was after decades of deportations, killing, grinding terror and violent attempts to turn everybody into russians.
“Regained their independence” was being crushed under Gorbachev’s tanks while western leaders pleaded with us to give up our fight for freedom.

So… this is the path to peace we are supposed to offer to Ukraine with a smile? These are the glorious new security guarantees that will erase the shame of the Budapest Agreement and allow Ukrainians to have faith in the future?

There are even US Ambassadors talking about how countries can “earn” certain territories and therefore presumably “deserve” them. Would it be paranoid of me to wonder if we just opened the door for Russia to “earn” Narva and Vilnius “de facto”?

The full article is continued at the link below.

[Devana 🇺🇦 @DevanaUkraine]

🛡️ 10 Lessons Ukraine Learned the Hard Way: Reflections from General Valerii Zaluzhnyi

Former Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces — and now Ambassador to the UK — Valerii Zaluzhnyi has published a powerful summary of what Ukraine has learned after over two years of full-scale war. These are not abstract theories. They are principles written in blood — forged under missile fire, in trenches, and through unbearable sacrifice.

This is not just a military doctrine. It’s a national reckoning.

1. The world believed we would fall. We didn’t.

Ukraine’s survival wasn’t due to preparedness — it was due to refusal to surrender. We endured not because we were stronger than the enemy, but because we were stronger than our own fear.

“Strength of spirit is the only true measure of strength.”

2. Peace isn’t given — it’s earned.

Security is not a right. It’s a responsibility. And it comes at a cost — sometimes unbearable. War doesn’t create values — it reveals them.

3. Allies matter — but only those who show up.

“An ally who doesn’t come is part of your defeat.”

Words, declarations, and handshakes mean little if not backed by action. Only shared risk creates real partnership.

4. Victory is not a date — it’s a process.

Victory isn’t a news headline. It’s slow, painful, often invisible. Those who demand instant wins have never dug trenches.

5. People are the most irreplaceable resource.

Not drones. Not tanks. Not money. Humans. Soldiers and civilians. Commanders and medics. Every life lost is a hole in the fabric of our nation. And every corrupt, careless decision in the rear is a betrayal of those at the front.

6. Russia is dangerous — but not almighty.

The enemy is brutal. But fear is their greatest weapon. When fear is neutralized, they collapse into chaos. Don’t underestimate — but never overhype.

7. Your worst day will come — and define you.

The darkest hour is inevitable. What you do then, how you stand — that’s who you are. For a nation. For a general. For a soldier in the mud.

8. Not all friends want your victory as much as you do.

Some “allies” prefer you to survive — not win. Their patience may run out before your war does. Ukraine must always want its own victory more than anyone else does.

9. Never rely on yesterday’s weapons to win tomorrow’s war.

Stagnation is death. War evolves — we must outthink, not just outfight. Technology is key, but only when paired with adaptability.

10. The enemy doesn’t fear the army. It fears a free people.

Zaluzhnyi’s message is clear: Ukraine’s real strength is not its generals or brigades — it’s its unity. Its people. Its truth.

My Reflection

Zaluzhnyi’s text is more than military reflection — it’s a moral map. A code of survival not only for Ukraine, but for any country that dares to fight for its freedom against a genocidal empire.

And perhaps that’s why Russia fears him so deeply. He speaks without shouting. He leads without posturing. And he reminds us that democracy is not soft — it is forged in defiance, discipline, and sacrifice.

These 10 lessons should be printed on every desk in every Western capital.

Because Ukraine may be the battlefield — but the war is global.

[Ruprecht Polenz🇪🇺 @polenz_r]

Das ist keine zufällige Korrelation, sondern Kausalität. Wirkliche‼️politische Ausgrenzung wirkt.

[Dutchy Patrick @DutchyPatrick]

It’s so confusing…

[Anna @AnnaDeMilanese]

BREAKING: Im ganzen Land massive Proteste gegen Donald Trump und auch gegen die Tech-milliadere ausgebrochen.
Nur auf ihren eigenen Plattformen ist davon natürlich nicht viel durchgesickert.
BITTE TEILEN WENN IHR DAS GUT FINDET, DASS IN DER USA DIE MENSCHEN FÜR DIE DEMOKRATIE EINSTEHEN.

[Sieglinde Geisel @geisel_s]

WORD.

[Dr. Ezzideen @ezzingaza]

They have found a way to make murder look like policy.

It is no longer done with fire alone, but with maps, checklists, and military briefings. The death of Gaza is not chaotic. It is scheduled.

They call it Operation Gideon’s Chariots.
A name that should belong to scripture, but belongs now to machines. It is not an operation. It is a philosophy.
Its aim is not to subdue an enemy but to eliminate a people’s capacity to exist.

Entire sectors of Gaza are being evacuated, not once, not twice, but again and again, like a punishment rehearsed until perfected.
A quarter of the population, over 500,000 souls, has been told to flee with no destination, no guarantees, and no right to return.

And where do they go?
To tents built on ash. To open ground already marked for the next offensive.
To roads watched by drones that decide, with no appeal, who lives and who is “mistaken.”

There are no shelters. No sanctuaries.
Only zones of temporary permission, which can vanish with a whisper from a command room.

This is not a war of mistakes. It is a war of method.
It moves in corridors: Netzarim, which slices the north. Philadelphi, which cages the south. Morag, which tears the center.
Each one a scalpel, carving the Strip into containment zones where movement, aid, even breath are privileges, not rights.

And food? Rationed.
Water? Turned off.
Medicine? Trapped at the border, waiting for military clearance.

And the world?
It watches, calculates, and discusses whether the bombing is proportional, as though morality can be measured in tonnage.

This is not strategy. It is spiritual anesthesia.

They have reduced suffering to “cost.”
They speak of “acceptable casualties,” as though children were decimals on a ledger.

You see, the new face of evil does not wear blood on its hands. It wears a lanyard and carries a clipboard.

This is what I feared:
not violence committed in rage, but violence committed in rational language, under fluorescent lights, by men who sleep well.

There are no longer lies in this war.
Only language that has been emptied of truth.

The term “humanitarian corridor” now means: "Leave your home or we will make it leave you."
The word “evacuation” now means:
"Begin walking and do not ask where."
And the word “ceasefire” is used as a comma between strikes.

Meanwhile, aid convoys are blocked, hospitals are flattened, and UN officials are told to “rethink their neutrality.” Because in Gaza, neutrality itself is a crime.

And still, the world negotiates, as if the destruction of a people is a scheduling issue. As if what is being debated is not murder, but timing.

We are witnessing not only an assault on life, but on meaning.

Even language is now wounded.

And the question that remains is not “Where is God?”
but: Where is man?

#GazaGenocide‌

[Sieglinde Geisel @geisel_s]

Am 9. Mai 2025 habe ich von der Universität St.Gallen den Ehrendoktor in den Sozialwissenschaften verliehen bekommen.
Freue mich sehr über diese Anerkennung!

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

We are in the second part of this.

[Sieglinde Geisel @geisel_s]

@drseanmullen @janaxpetersen