Jeff Mannes

Jeff Mannes

@jeffmannes.bsky.social

Social scientist, activist, freelance writer, and Berlin tour guide (sexual history, queer/trans history, club culture, kinky culture). Comments on politics and society.

86 Followers 79 Following 50 Posts Joined Nov 2024
11 months ago
Antisemitism in Germany, Israel, Palestine, and My Role as an Activist | Berlinguide

💬 If any of this moved you, challenged you, made you pause—please share it.
And if you want to read the full piece, it’s here:
👉 berlinguide.de/antisemitism...
#Antisemitism #Palestine #Germany #JewishVoices #Activism #QueerVoices (12/12)

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11 months ago

Never again means never again for everyone.
Jews. Palestinians. Everyone.
When Germany mocks Palestinian victims,
when it silences Jewish voices,
that commitment is broken.
And my heart breaks with it.
#NeverAgainForEveryone (11/12)

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11 months ago

The result?
Criticism of Israeli policy = "antisemitism"
Standing with Gaza civilians = "antisemitism"
Even when it’s clearly not, by any academic standard.
#PalestineSolidarity #SpeechRights (10/12)

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11 months ago

What’s the root of all this?
Different definitions of antisemitism.
Germany uses the #IHRA definition.
But many Jewish activists use the #JerusalemDeclaration.
One conflates criticism of Israel with hate.
The other doesn’t.
#JDA #HumanRights (9/12)

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11 months ago

In 2023, Jewish individuals or groups were targeted in 25% of all documented censorship cases in relation to Palestine.
Jews make up <1% of Germany’s population.
#DiasporaAlliance #FreeSpeech (8/12)

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11 months ago

Example: Yuval Abraham, a Jewish filmmaker, was called antisemitic for showing solidarity with Palestinians at the Berlinale.
Another? Jewish artists being cancelled. For standing in solidarity with Palestinians.
#Censorship #JewishSolidarity (7/12)

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11 months ago

But here's what’s breaking me right now:
Germans accusing Jews of being antisemitic—
for speaking up for Palestine.
Descendants of Nazis, lecturing descendants of Holocaust victims.
Let that sink in.
#Palestine #JewishVoices #Germany (6/12)

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11 months ago

You will never hear me say:
"I’ve never said or done anything antisemitic."
Because unlearning takes work.
And no one is immune.
#Accountability #ActivistLife (5/12)

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11 months ago

Antisemitism is not a problem of “the others.”
It’s everywhere:
Left & Right
Christians, Muslims, Atheists
And yes, ordinary Germans too.
#Antisemitism #UnlearningHate (4/12)

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11 months ago

When I was 10, I watched my first Holocaust doc. I remember my feelings. My thoughts. The horror.
I wanted to know:
How can humans do this to each other?
That question has shaped my life.
#HolocaustEducation #HumanRights #Empathy (3/12)

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11 months ago

I come from a community exterminated in the concentration camps.
I now guide people through Berlin's dark history.
I do this to honor the commitment to Never again.
But today, I’m not sure Germany means it.
#Holocaust #Activism #NeverAgain (2/12)

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11 months ago
Antisemitism in Germany, Israel, Palestine, and My Role as an Activist | Berlinguide

🧵Antisemitism in Germany, Israel, Palestine—and my role as an activist.

What I’ve witnessed since Oct 7 shook me to my core.
This post is personal. Political. Painful.
👉 Read the full story: berlinguide.de/antisemitism...

#Antisemitism #Palestine #Israel #Germany #QueerVoices (1/12)

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11 months ago
Preview
Mit dem Kopf unterm Klo: Queere Utopie im BDSM-Studio SIEGESSÄULE-Autor Jeff Mannes ergründet er, was Orte wie BDSM-Studios emanzipatorisch macht – für Menschen, die dort ihre Fetische ausleben, aber vor allem für Sexarbeiter*innen.

Jeff Mannes (@jeffmannes.bsky.social) bietet kinky Stadtführungen durch Berlin an. Eine Station: Das #BDSM Studio Atrium. In seiner Kolumne ergründet er, was Orte wie diese emanzipatorisch macht – für Menschen, die ihre Fantasien ausleben, aber vor allem für die dort beschäftigten #Sexarbeiter*innen

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1 year ago

And Elon will lose.

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1 year ago

Harness that empathy. Take care of it. Be kind to yourself and others. No matter how dark the times are or are still going to be: Empathy will survive. Empathy will be triumphant again eventually.

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1 year ago

#Empathy is a superpower that has shaped this beautiful planet for eras. Don't let Elon tell you otherwise.

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1 year ago

But competition is just a tiny part of the evolution of the species. A much more important factor for the evolution in this planet is the cooperation between the species and between the members within a species.

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1 year ago

But make no mistake: Empathy is not weakness. It is power. It is alongside cooperation the driving force of #evolution on this planet. #Libertarians like Elon often say that the evolution is based on competition and that's how they rationalize their hardcore capitalist ideologies.

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1 year ago

They need to tell themselves (and the world) over and over again, that their weakness is strength and the other people's strength is weakness.

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1 year ago

They might say things like "empathy is not at all bad" but what they actually mean is that... well yeah, it is. Anyone with more empathy than themselves (which is the majority of humanity) is actually weak. And they are strong.

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1 year ago

They project their feelings of weakness and inferiority onto others and say that people with empathy are actually the weak ones and they themselves the strong ones, the "next evolution of humanity".

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1 year ago

Because people high in D lack the ability for true empathy, a core weakness of theirs, and because they can't handle that feeling of incompleteness very well (often leading to inferiority complexes, jealousy, insecurity, and fragility) they will often try to rationalize this and flip it around.

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1 year ago

Elon Musk can cut #USAID funding, leading to countless people being cut off from their #HIV medication. He will understand that this will kill these people. But he will not care. He will not feel the suffering he causes.

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1 year ago

People with a high D-score lack a core component of what makes a human, well, human: the ability to empathise and care for one another.

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1 year ago

In other words: They might be able to say "I see that this person is sad". But they will not actually feel it. They will not empathise with that person and, frankly, not care that that person is sad.

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1 year ago

Each person has a D-score between 1 and 5. The higher a person's D-score, the more dark and dangerous parts their personality has. People with a high D-score may be good at cognitive empathy, but they often have little to no capacity for emotional empathy.

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1 year ago

D describes the tendency to ruthlessly pursue one's own interests, even when this harms others (or even for the sake of harming others), while having beliefs that justify these behaviors. It is the common core of dark personalities such as #narcissism, #psychopathy, or #sociopathy.

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1 year ago

D, the Dark Factor of Personality, is a theory developed by professors for psychology Ingo Zettler, Benjamin E. Hilbig, and Morten Moshagen.

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1 year ago

The important thing about Elon, however, is not that he is #autistic. It's that he probably has a personality with a high D-score, a so-called #DarkPersonality. Which means that he has also reduced or no capacity for emotional empathy.

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1 year ago

Even though they are often not good in "reading" the emotions of someone (cognitive empathy) they will still feel what the other person feels (emotional empathy).

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