Germany, where free speech is considered to be worse than sexual assault

Mark Steyn writes about the multiple sexual assaults committed by Middle East refugees across Europe on New Year's Eve, and the attempt by media and persons in power to equate the rapists with those who spoke up against the rapists:

So "the most savage" voices in society who need to be forced to "respect" others are not the thousands of men participating in a group sexual assault of female infidels, but the Tweeters and Facebookers who point out that these guys come from a very particular segment of the population. It's revealing that Anthony Faiola could even write that sentence and not be aware of its insulting absurdity. I have written for years about western feminists' acceptance of the "two-tier sisterhood" - one life for them, and another quite different one for women born into certain other, ah, cultural traditions. Given mass Muslim immigration, it was never likely that this division would be more than an interim phase, and, as German women are now learning, in the hierarchy of identity politics Islam trumps feminism.

This line from the Telegraph report is also striking:

It is not clear why the suspects were released but police officers have said they were overwhelmed on the night.

So the state lacks sufficient manpower to be able to detain those whom they arrest in the commission of a crime ...but they have sufficient manpower to be able to prosecute you for pointing that out.

...Oddly enough, there's nothing new about what Chancellor Merkel is doing. Germany was the intellectual and cultural colossus of the world in the 19th and early 20th century. Since then, not so much. Why would that be? Well, for all the tumultuous changes this last 90 years - from Weimar to Nazis to Commies to social democracy to demographic suicide - the German state in its various iterations has been no friend of free speech.



Anthony Faiola says the German government needs to do this because, what with the country's dark past, a sinister totalitarian streak is never far below the surface. But, when you import a million-man army into your country and then tell your citizens they can't discuss the subject, you're the totalitarian. The events of the last week make plain that the institutions of the German state are as corrupted by this century's official ideology (multiculturalism) as they were by last century's (you know what). The only reason we have even a glimpse of what really happened on New Year's Eve is because a multitude of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts revealed what the German police, political class and media would not. So now Angela Merkel has determined to bring them into line, too.

...So what can you say in a land where real crime isn't policed but thought-crime is? Let's leave the last word to one of those young men detained but then released on New Year's Eve:

One of those involved in attacks told officers: "I am Syrian. You have to treat me kindly. Mrs Merkel invited me."

That guy understands his rare privilege in today's Germany: He can say whatever the hell he wants, and you can't say anything back.

Read more here.