# Ok, so what the hell happened in Germany in NYE? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 8, 2016, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-so-what-the-hell-happened-in-germany-in-nye/742538 "2016-01-08T23:28:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 42
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-so-what-the-hell-happened-in-germany-in-nye/742538/821 "2016-02-14T20:52:11Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > It’s always funny how people who say this stuff don’t realize how monumentally stupid it is. If you agreed with some military spending do you think it would be a valid rejoinder for me to cry “How many jets are you going to build? How many are you going to keep in your garage?” Pro-choice people haven’t gotten this memo yet either - they regularly ask pro-life people how many kids they’ve adopted. Maybe we can eventually agree all questions of the sort are dumb, regardless of whom they’re asked of. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-so-what-the-hell-happened-in-germany-in-nye/742538/822 "2016-02-16T01:49:30Z")
Here’s one explanation of what happened: > [@](#): > > What long seemed like the foreign spectacles of faraway places now feels like a clash of cultures playing out on the West’s very soil. Differences once defused by distance and a sense of superiority have become an imminent threat. People in the West are discovering, with anxiety and fear, that sex in the Muslim world is sick, and that the disease is spreading to their own lands. [The Sexual Misery of the Arab World](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/opinion/sunday/the-sexual-misery-of-the-arab-world.html?_r=1) ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-so-what-the-hell-happened-in-germany-in-nye/742538/823 "2016-02-16T02:14:56Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Pro-choice people haven’t gotten this memo yet either - they regularly ask pro-life people how many kids they’ve adopted. Maybe we can eventually agree all questions of the sort are dumb, regardless of whom they’re asked of. I agree right now. What the fuck does that have to do with immigration or the refugee situation? ---
**Author:** ![T.M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ad7895/32.png) [@T.M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.M)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-so-what-the-hell-happened-in-germany-in-nye/742538/824 "2016-02-16T09:23:45Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > I agree right now. What the fuck does that have to do with immigration or the refugee situation? It is about splitting the debate when one side starts to lose ground. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-so-what-the-hell-happened-in-germany-in-nye/742538/825 "2016-02-16T18:52:58Z")
\*\*Gary Kumquat, \*\*I’m trying to understand what you’re aiming at in this thread. “We, the West, are no better than those we criticize?” “The attacks were unrelated to Islam or culture?” ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-so-what-the-hell-happened-in-germany-in-nye/742538/826 "2016-02-17T06:12:59Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > \*\*Gary Kumquat, \*\*I’m trying to understand what you’re aiming at in this thread. “We, the West, are no better than those we criticize?” “The attacks were unrelated to Islam or culture?” How about neither of those sophomoric statements? “I think chaos such as the NYE issue in Cologne is inevitable when hundreds of thousands of refugees from some of the worlds poorest regions arrive en masse, fleeing carnage and war. So the trick is to ensure those conditions don’t happen. Which brings us back to the whole “why is the middle east so completely fucked” topic, which funnily enough has not much to do with religion, and huge amounts to do with the predictable consequences of imperialist meddling.” If that’s not clear, feel free to point out the bits that you don’t follow. ---
**Author:** ![T.M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ad7895/32.png) [@T.M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.M)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-so-what-the-hell-happened-in-germany-in-nye/742538/827 "2016-02-17T14:59:08Z")
> [@Gary\_Kumquat](#): > > How about neither of those sophomoric statements? > > “I think chaos such as the NYE issue in Cologne is inevitable when hundreds of thousands of refugees from some of the worlds poorest regions arrive en masse, fleeing carnage and war. So the trick is to ensure those conditions don’t happen. Which brings us back to the whole “why is the middle east so completely fucked” topic, which funnily enough has not much to do with religion, and huge amounts to do with the predictable consequences of imperialist meddling.” > > If that’s not clear, feel free to point out the bits that you don’t follow. It is alright playing the blame game the trouble is it all comes down to who wrote the history book you are reading, the problem is what is happening now and how can the disaster sorted ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-so-what-the-hell-happened-in-germany-in-nye/742538/828 "2016-02-29T19:09:46Z")
> [@Gary\_Kumquat](#): > > Oh goody, we’re back to that whole West v Islam thing. > > Tell you what, let’s make it Christian v Islam, and I’ll pick both sets of countries. Waddya say? I’m plumping for Turkey, Indonesia, Turkey, Malaysia, Morocco and Lebanon. I’ll get tutted at, probably even shouted at, and imagine the police will tell me to cover it up or get lifted. > > You get Uganda, CAR, EG, Honduras and Venezuela. Best of luck, and believe me you’re better off not mentioning being gay. > > Or alternatively how about a t-shirt saying “Fuck the US of A”, and I pick which American city you’ll wear it in? It’s likely to be in Texas, but I’d have to give it some thought. Hell, if you fancy coming this neck of the woods why not try wearing a “Fuck the pope” t-shirt in certain areas of Glasgow and see how it plays out. I think someone who did those things in Texas or Glasgow \*would \*be safer than someone in the Middle East claiming that Mohammed was a fraud. So I don’t see what you’re trying to get at here. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-so-what-the-hell-happened-in-germany-in-nye/742538/829 "2016-05-06T13:22:51Z")
First trial. First acquittal. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/algerian-faces-trial-over-new-year-sexual-assault-in-cologne/2016/05/06/ae950c12-1361-11e6-a9b5-bf703a5a7191\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/algerian-faces-trial-over-new-year-sexual-assault-in-cologne/2016/05/06/ae950c12-1361-11e6-a9b5-bf703a5a7191_story.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-so-what-the-hell-happened-in-germany-in-nye/742538.md?page=41)