Unfortunately, I don't read German. But that headline! "Kölns OB Reker erntet Shitstorm wegen 'Armlänge'-Tipp." One word jumps out. And it kind of proves my point in reverse. I know how "Shitstorm" sounds to me, but I've got to doubt that German readers are feeling it the same way. A search at the same news site shows that Germans seem to have accepted the English migrant "Shitstorm" without any serious scrutiny:
(Click to enlarge.)
"Shitstorm" is in the OED, defined as "a frenetic or disastrous event; a commotion, a tumult," with the oldest usage going back to 1948, Norman Mailer's book about WWII "The Naked and the Dead": "The hell with Brown... He's been missing all the shit storms. It's his turn." It's also in Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1962): "They finally got to arguing with each other and created such a shitstorm...." A good substitute for "shitstorm" is: "clusterfuck." "Clusterfuck" is also in the OED. It's first in-print sighting was in a 1969 Vietnam account: "These are the screwups that the American public rarely hears about. They happen often enough over here that we have a term for them—‘cluster-fuck’!"
Now, back to what I was looking for, the news about Henriette Reker's advice to women. In English. The Guardian has "Cologne attacks: mayor lambasted for telling women to keep men at arm's length":
Asked by a journalist how women could protect themselves, Henriette Reker said: “There’s always the possibility of keeping a certain distance of more than an arm’s length – that is to say to make sure yourself you don’t look to be too close to people who are not known to you, and to whom you don’t have a trusting relationship.”... Reker also advised women to “stick together in groups, don’t get split up, even if you’re in a party mood.”We're told Reker seemed caught off guard and groped for an answer. There's perhaps unintended revelation in unprepared blurtings, but something this unplanned isn't really a "code of conduct." The shitstorm in social media has the hashtag #einarmlaenge (which means "an arm’s length"). Example:
Christopher Lauer, a politician, tweeted: “Man: 'I had intended to mug this woman and molest her, but shit! She’s an arm’s length away from me!'”
Alles geklärt oder.. #einearmlänge pic.twitter.com/3q3PqOmXWU— S. Wintschnig (@SWintschnig) January 5, 2016IN THE COMMENTS: Discussion of the shitstorm/clusterfuck distinction.
Posts
87 comments:
That meme is brilliant.
Shitstorm und drang?
There may be actually a clusterfuck inside zis shitstorm for which we are needing, how do you zay, a more high-precision German word?
You're fighting against the reality that the only safety ultimately is to don the burqa. Muslim men are trying to force German women into the burqa. Only the Atlantic Ocean is preventing them from doing the same here.
You didn't expect fag hag feminism to lead to this, did you?
Feminism and gay rights can only exist under the umbrella of Judeo-Christian culture and the rule of law we dastardly hetero white Christian men created.
You and your fag hag feminist friends blew it to hell in a pique of spoiled brat spite... because you were greedy and you wanted everything with no compromises, so you kept insisting that you were just like niggers under Jim Crow. You've created a fatal weakness within the one culture that protects and respects you.
Christianity is feminism. Christianity is respect for homosexuals. It's not intellectually perfect, but people are not intellectual machines. We aren't, nor do we want to be, the brain in a jar that you aspire to be.
You know what Germany needs? Slut walks. And laws like California's "Yes Means Yes" to start teaching consensual sex standards. Because clearly Germany has been lacking in teaching men not to rape.
Shitstorm isn't anything like a clusterfuck.
A thesaurus might suggest it but only as an aid to finding the right word when you only have the other.
If you execute the wrong cleric, you get a shitstorm.
If your work project goes into a death spiral, you get a clusterfuck.
Be introspective Henriette. You're floundering around for a reasonable way for women to protect themselves and the only thing you can advise is to keep an arms length away from people you don't know or stay home. Does this cause you to realize for the first time mass and unassimilated immigration from these cultures causes a decrease in either security or freedom for existing citizens? Or have you know this all along, believed it an acceptable tradeoff, and lied to the public?
Or are you so self-unaware you don't realize your social preferences are so internalized you cannot even understand they are limiting your thoughts?
What rhhardin said, above. A shitstorm may result from a clusterfuck. Or a clusterfuck may contain shitstorms. In this case, the former; a shitstorm arose because of one tiny aspect of the clusterfuck that is German immigration policy.
Warum nichts "scheissesturm"? I'm feeling a bit of schadenfreude that they don't have their own word for that.
How do you solve a problem like Shariah?
Words in other languages lose their power to offend, even if we know what they are.
The NY Times would never use the word "shit" in an article or headline. If they did, there would be millions of complaints.
If they use the word "merde", everybody would know it meant shit and nobody would care. It is just not an offensive word in English.
When I was in school I read of a psychology experiment where a campus (Department? Dorm?)replaced the word "Fuck" in spoken vocabulary with "pipe". As in "Pipe you!" or "What the pipe is that all about?" By the end of a month or so the word pipe could not be used in polite conversation. Even in its normal, tubular, meaning.
John Henry
"Shitstorm" in German doesn't mean quite what it means in English. In German, it connotes an outburst of protest on the internet. Any other sort of protest isn't a "Shitstorm." It's a perfectly respectable word in German: It appears regularly in the titles of articles, and Chancellor Merkel has used it a couple of times in addresses to the Reichstag.
rhhardin -Yes
Shitstorm is more unanticipated and random, clusterfuck is the result of a group effort.
"Reker seemed caught off guard and groped for an answer" - well put.
The hills are alive with the sound of Muslims!
I always thought that a clusterfuck had something to do with anaconda sex. Anacondas apparently gather in groups when they're procreating. It's difficult to tell who's doing what to whom, but they're all trying to screw each other. A custerfuck, on the other hand, is when you get surrounded by aliens with hostile intentions. These women were victims of a custerfuck.
So long, Deutschland. Auf wiedersehen, good night.
Have we really shifted off course so far that People cannot bring themselves to say the obvious: that these women were asking for it?
Party dresses, fuck-me heels and suck-your-cock red lipstick -- men are supposed to ignore the signs the women are consciously sending?
Man is an animal, driven by animal lust: Propagating the Species is Survival of the Species. Lulled by the illusory safety of Paper Law, Women have forgotten that.
In the West we have gone too far with Civilization, letting a Vague Concept remove all vestiges of Instinct and Response. Look at the remains of Ancient Greece to see what 'Civilization' eventually does to a Society: given the time, all that remains are Stone Columns and Piles of Rock.
Muslim Men are much more in touch with their true maleness -- what you can feel in the Skin, not what you have been forced to read in books and hear in lectures. As such, Western Civilization abhors Them, simply for being True to Themselves, while the Western Civilization itself withers away in clouds of Convoluted Thoughts and Restrictions about what it means to be Civilized.
The Snowballing Madness of Western Civilization has removed us from Our Reason for Being: we are in an M. C. Escher drawing, going round and round up and down meaningless stairs.
Women are NOT the Only Reason for the Crisis of Western Civilization, but Correcting Them -- gently, at first --would do us the Most Good, Most Quickly.
I am Laslo.
"Strong Arm" is the term used for a street robbery without using a weapon other than a threat of a beating.
This reveals the way male bands of teens and twenty year olds invade a peaceful place where the local men are 40 and up and have their way as if they are the ones armed with weapons.
Hence the wonderful "No Go Zones," which are local areas of foreign conquest accepted by police.
Western Civ has got to go.
Brought to you by "modern" Western leftists.
I do read German, and the headline there is saying "earned (or reaped) a shitstorm for the Arms-length Tip".
It's very precise. The following description "Frauen sollten künftig Abstand zu Männern halten, um sich vor sexuellen Übergriffen zu schützen, sagte Kölns Oberbürgermeisterin Reker. Damit erntete sie Hohn und Spott - vor allem auf Twitter. " is:
"Women should now keep their distance from men, in order to defend themselves from sexual assaults, says Cologne's mayor Reker. With this she reaped scorn and mockery - especially on Twitter."
Since the women in question were in a crowd of men who were deliberately pressing in on them in order to rob and molest them, and the women were physically incapable of keeping their distance, a more pointless "tip" has never been given, and the hapless but politically correct mayor has in fact reaped what she has sown - a shitstorm.
Shitstorm in German is now a recognized word and entirely appropriate in this context. Furthermore, during Fasching women are completely unable to not be in crowds in public, so the mayor's "tip" amounted to telling women that they were not free to walk the streets. The women in Germany are thrilled beyond expression by this helpful information.
But how can the women of Germany embrace multiculturalism at arms length?
Clusterfuck = the guy who sends the agents to confiscate the guns from Americans.
Shitstorm = what happens when the agents execute his orders.
Any questions?
If you put "shitstorm" into an English-to-German translator, you get "shitstorm." (I tried it.)
As for the "clusterfuck"/"shitstorm" distinction: noted. But I do think the problem in Germany is a clusterfuck. I can see why one wouldn't want to call the reaction to the mayor's remark a clusterfuck.
How do you solve a problem like Shariah?
Jason I just want to acknowledge your posts here, so take a "like" out of petty cash.
Duden, the definitive dictionary for German speakers, defines "Shitstorm" as a "storm of indignation" on the Internet, usually accompanied with insults. Duden offers "Beschimpfung" (invective) as a synonym.
So the headline reads "Cologne's Mayor Reker Harvests a Storm of Indignation because of 'Arm's length' Advice." ("Tipp" is also a loan word from English, by the way.)
“There’s always the possibility of keeping a certain distance of more than an arm’s length – that is to say to make sure yourself you don’t look to be too close to people who are not known to you, and to whom you don’t have a trusting relationship.”
For once, I agree.
traditionalguy: "Hence the wonderful "No Go Zones," which are local areas of foreign conquest accepted by police."
ARM and the rest will be along shortly to explain how these "no go zones" don't exist. In the same way that Islamic extremism doesn't really exist. These women in Cologne don't really exist. Those Jews at Charlie Hebdo had it coming. The danger is really from tea party types in the US, whom the left, after excusing everything from the 9-11 attacks to mass beheadings by Al Qaeda, now "hilariously label Al Qracker or something.
Once again it bears repeating, the more violent and savage (particularly on an expanding international scale) the islamists become, the more the left will double down on defending them and transferring all of the lefts "courageous and righteous" concern to American conservatives.
The increasingly strong Red-Black (left-islamic) Alliance continues apace.
Maybe Shitstorm is just a shortened version of saying Bull Shit causes disorder. Germans do not like disorder. They like right angles.
"direct deposit said...
But how can the women of Germany embrace multiculturalism at arms length?"
Oh well played, sir.
My husband confirmed Alan and MaxedOutMama -- in fact, he has the feeling that Shitstorm is used more commonly in German than in English and that the meaning is not simply the English meaning.
In German, the colloquial word for a cell phone is a Handy, which is an English word, strictly speaking, but its German meaning doesn't exist in English.
Another fun fact -- and I need to dig into this more: he'd casually read the headlines at Spiegel.de and had no idea that the perpetrators were immigrants.
Oh, and by the way, my impression has always been that Scheisse, in German, doesn't register at the same level on the "naughty word spectrum" as shit does in English. It's not as mild as "poo" but somewhere in-between.
We are about to see a Shitstorm about how Ted Cruz became a natural born American. He was born as a Canadian citizen to an American born mother who had taken on a Canadian citizenship. Did that dual citizenship of the mother renounce her tenuous connection that alone could make her future Canadian born baby into an actually natural born American?????
Why is Cruz ashamed of his heritage? Canada is a wonderful country.
Ann Althouse said...
If you put "shitstorm" into an English-to-German translator, you get "shitstorm." (I tried it.)
As for the "clusterfuck"/"shitstorm" distinction: noted. But I do think the problem in Germany is a clusterfuck. I can see why one wouldn't want to call the reaction to the mayor's remark a clusterfuck.
A bit of word play that is actually funny.
What can you say about the Germany situation but ... "unexpectedly.
Think of the diversity benefits we could have here if we just import 100,000 of these invaders. Yay.
Note: Arms length is also just about shotgun length.
Keeping at arms length, staying in groups is valid if you are going to a dorm room party or walking the streets on an average night.
It is not so good when you are faced with a mob intent on harming you...If only someone would invent a mechanical device to defend yourself against multiple attackers in a short amount of time. It would have to be light and easily used by a smaller framed person. (maybe we could call it the anti-rape or (AR)
Jane the Actuary said...
Oh, and by the way, my impression has always been that Scheisse, in German, doesn't register at the same level on the "naughty word spectrum" as shit does in English.
LOL
One only has to look at the construction of an old fashioned German toilet to know that Germans are interested in all facets of "Scheisse"
Blogger William said...
I always thought that a clusterfuck had something to do with anaconda sex. Anacondas apparently gather in groups when they're procreating. It's difficult to tell who's doing what to whom, but they're all trying to screw each other.
The Royal Navy calls it, or used to call it, a "snake's honeymoon"
As in "Oi! You lot have a regular snake's honeymoon going on here. Get it sorted. Now!"
John Henry
I linked to that article in yesterday's discussion!
I think shitstorm tends to be a reaction to something. Clusterfuck, while it may be caused by someone's actions is a result of that, not an intentional response to it. I had a boss once who referred to major fuck-ups as abortions.
Shitstorm is the situation you get into. The cluster fuck is the situation after the shit storm has hit.
Cologne to Damascus is about 1900 miles. That's a good comfortable Armlänge.
I was wrong, I linked to a different article using the same phrase but that article also said that the city intends to issue "Verhaltensregeln für Frauen".
MaxedOutMama said...
"I do read German, and the headline there is saying "earned (or reaped) a shitstorm for the Arms-length Tip"."
I'd also accept "garnered a shitstorm".
Mary Beth said...
I linked to that article in yesterday's discussion!
I think shitstorm tends to be a reaction to something. Clusterfuck, while it may be caused by someone's actions is a result of that, not an intentional response to it. I had a boss once who referred to major fuck-ups as abortions.
With my military background and vintage, my preference is for that Vietnam classic:
FUBAR
though I have been know to use:
SNAFU
Clusterfuck, and
Goatscrew
Appropriate movie link
(From Airplane!)
If we wanted to aggravate our hostess, we could translate the headline as saying that the mayor "garnered" a shitstorm.
"I've got to doubt that German readers are feeling it the same way. A search at the same news site shows that Germans seem to have accepted the English migrant "Shitstorm" without any serious scrutiny" Funny. How many foreign terms are ever adopted with "serious scrutiny"? Hoe would you propose that they scrutinize this particular term? Anyway, Germans don't feel it the same way (but pretty close!), partly because most European media have different standards and through common use take the sharp edges off "bad" words.
"Code of conduct" = Sharia Law.
Ann Althouse said...
"If you put "shitstorm" into an English-to-German translator, you get "shitstorm." (I tried it.)"
Ann, enter it as two words; shit storm
> Germans seem to have accepted the English migrant "Shitstorm" without any serious scrutiny.
Maybe, or maybe it was just a good fit. German humor and conversation tends to the proctological. When I lived in a German workers' dorm and worked in the fields, an old farming lady was happy to show me how to save toilet paper by sticking my finger through it ;)
"Lie back and think of diversity." #LiberalTipsForWomen
I believe the implication was not that 'shitstorm' and 'clusterfuck' were synonymous, but rather, related-enough, recent, funny-sounding English compound words, that if the Germans also imported 'clusterfuck,' they might well construct a word to encompass both and go meta.
Or maybe they would import the word and give it a much different meaning, which might be humorous to an imagined English-speaking visitor:
'Are you going to Klaus's year-end Klusterfuck?'
'Don't forget the lederhosen!'
This was a rather vain and ill-thought attempt at humor, upon reflection, perhaps highlighting the deep connection between language and thought; and mental states within a given language resting atop my own questionable epistemological foundations, specifically as an English speaker might view a German speaker.
I will try and put more thought into precise definitions, and the mental states and images they might conjure in what are very different minds from my own, as I view some of my own mental states and thoughts while composing a comment.
After all, the Althouse common section ought to require such fidelity to the little common ground we do share in such a strange world.
There should have been a "shitstorm" all over Europe long ago. Every big city with a Muslim population has had this problem for years. Like the violence in US big cities its something polite and culturally aware folks don't talk about. Gives them something to feel superior about.
Jane - Germans tend toward the literal, and discussion of bodily functions is less "taboo" than in polite English society.
There's less of a nudity taboo, also.
Did no one ever think that there was going to be an integration problem in Germany when masses of young men, who generally do not even speak the language, found themselves wandering around in places where it is normal to have a nude beach or park in or near a city?
Reker, btw, has doubled down on the Regeln ("rules") for women, which will be prepared with police cooperation and published, thus lending weight to the idea that women will be blamed for their own victimization, especially since at least one of the victims over New Year's reported being blamed by the officials for her own behavior when she reported the assault initially. This shitstorm isn't going to die down very quickly.
Germans cuss a lot in public... well, they say "Scheisse!" a lot in public. It's consider impolite because it is a vulgarity, but it is a very common phrase there.
make sure yourself you don’t look to be too close to people who are not known to you, and to whom you don’t have a trusting relationship
That's good advice, which used to be embodied by something the Germans called "die Grenze".
Ah, Reker "groped" for a response. How appropriate.
Mezzrow, I really liked your definition.
I have felt for a long time that everything is a Cluterfuck, with a Shitstrom coming.
No wonder Trump is doing so well.
Interesting etymology on "shitstorm" and "clusterfuck." I guess they (largely) replaced SNAFU and FUBAR and TARFU which were, I think, characteristic of WW2 and maybe much earlier military dialect. Maybe each war needs its own verbal markers.
How does one say "shitstorm" in Arabic?
erntet means to reap or harvest... so the Oberbürgermeisterin brought this Shitstorm down on her self. She has clusterfucked herself. And she had so much sympathy before this because some anti-immigrant German about slit her throat. As the Germans say, "Whannsinn!".
Lt. Scheisskopf was an important character in Catch-22.
All of his friends wondered what he was up to. "I wonder what shithead is up to?"
I have heard very prim and proper people use the term SNAFU in professional settings. Once it was a school staff meeting, and the principle used it. I fell out of my chair when she did it.
I went to her office later and asked her if she knew what the term meant. (We had a pretty good relationship) She thought it meant a bureaucratic obstacle, and didn't even realize it was an acronym. She was a little embarrassed when I told her what it stood for.
A shitstorm is when there is trouble approaching from outside/above. (IE your boss)
A clusterfuck is an unpleasant situation, usually caused by incompetence from above that you are expected to deal with.
SNAFU (Situation normal, all fucked up) is a form of resignation
FUBAR (Fucked up beyond all recognition) is when something that would have worked has been sabotaged by the intervention of other.
"Oh man, what a clusterfuck. This whole exercise is FUBAR. There's going to be a shitstorm at the review on Monday. Oh well, it's just SNAFU for this unit."
Wenn ich "Armslänge" höre, entsichere ich meinen Browning.
As for the "clusterfuck"/"shitstorm" distinction: noted. But I do think the problem in Germany is a clusterfuck. I can see why one wouldn't want to call the reaction to the mayor's remark a clusterfuck.
The situation is a clusterfuck, the reaction is a shitstorm, and the hapless mayor who made the comment is an omnishambles.
How does one say "shitstorm" in Arabic?
I'm going with The Drill SGT's "goatscrew".
Jason said...
How do you solve a problem like Shariah?
This comment deserves more love. Well played, Jason!
Kölns OB Reker erntet Shitstorm wegen 'Armlänge'-Tipp.
This is just a euphemism for....."I'm completely incompetent, and I intend to do nothing about it. So, let's just kick the can down the road."
I see a shitload of shitstorms on the horizon
I'm waiting for Hillary to say that the clusterfuck in Cologne will be used throughout the US as a Donald Trump recruitment ad. Schadenfreude, baby.
Mary Beth said...
How does one say "shitstorm" in Arabic?
I'm going with The Drill SGT's "goatscrew".
I had not made the connection MB, but very nice. I think the thread winner is
Jason said...
How do you solve a problem like Shariah?
But you deserve to place high in the rankings
Shouting Thomas:
That's an insightful observation. The religious or moral philosophies (i.e. behavioral protocols) in societies were promoted principally by the matriarchy, not the patriarchy, in order to create a hospitable environment for women and children. If God needed to be invented, then a father figure for developing boys would create a role model for them to aspire to. And Mother Nature was chosen as a model of reality for girls. Natural imperatives reconciled and tempered by a religious or moral philosophy that promoted self-moderation and personal responsibility in order to enjoy liberty in a civilized, stable society.
Laslo Spatula:
say the obvious: that these women were asking for it
When there is an exception, then, yes, risk management is an individual practice. A mob action or uniform behavior, as a commonly held principle, as an allegiance or membership, is evidence of a class-based structure. When the violations are serial or general, then the deviant or dysfunctional behaviors need to be addressed by society.
The German culture and language has a very different relationship with excrement than those of the English-speaking people. As far as scatology goes, they're pretty much for it. NNTAWWT
Using "...caught off guard and groped..." regarding the politician's poor response to questions was just low, Althouse.
"How do you solve a problem like Shariah?"
This absolutely REQUIRES a meme with a picture, suitable for Facebook posting.
And here's the answer:
https://youtu.be/bwc1Kbv9dVY
I don't think that "goatscrew" would be an acceptable substitute. But it might be a good distraction.
Where is the cell phone video? Surely there is some?
Clusterf*ck implies a certain chicken with its head cut off futility. The participants have screwed up. Sh*storm is about the intensity of the reaction. Worse than simply hitting a fan.
In aircraft maintenance meetings, a certain commander was frequently briefed that certain planes were AFU or TU. He happened to be a devout Mormon. When he learned what the acronyms meant he put an end to their use in his meetings.
Well, those feminist chickens are coming home to roost! Wait a minute, those are buzzards, waiting for some road kill! Let's see, hordes of horny young jihadis, who have nothing at home, who have been promised white slaves......really, no kidding......seems like it's time for some real strong independent woman type whip butt, right? What's that? A strong woman has zero chance fighting a strong young male? And in packs, like wolves? Surely German feminists wouldn't lie to silly young women, would they?
There is an easy solution to this problem - change the gun laws in Germany, and allow ethnic Germans to arm themselves. This is the fastest way to teach immigrants about the local traditions.
Think of all those strong feminists, cowering at home.....afraid to go out and meet Mohammed.....oh well, think of all the viscous mockery and false accusations of rape! Now, it seems, they're going to find out what rape really is. If they're not killed.
Will Germany fight back? Can't say. The women aren't worth fighting for. They're all feminists. The men have no promise of a family. This us extremely important.
Jason (epic!) How do you solve a problem like sharia?
When problem comes around
You must whip it
You will never live it down
Unless you whip it
No one gets away
Until they whip it
Whip it good
...or else as Anthrax says:
Au revoir, auf wiedersehen
You won't see another morning
You won't see another evening
Good night
She has the right idea, but an arm isn't long enough. An ocean or two would do the trick. Or even just a good high wall. Best of all, a high-caliber revolver.
And just BTW, consider that all the German mucky-mucks are saying that they are going to catch the persons responsible for this outrage. And every last Muslim in Cologne could tell you their names, where they live, and which corner they'll be hanging out on tomorrow. And they won't be catching any of them.
When packs of feral dogs are roaming the streets of your city, attacking the citizens, the solution is not "finding the dogs responsible".
"IN THE COMMENTS: Discussion of the shitstorm/clusterfuck distinction."
lol. I guess i came to the right place after all.
Next up: Discussion of the fuckyou/eatshit distinction.
Subotai has mentioned low testosterone males as a problem in Germany. Feminism and cowardice are like hand and glove. Europe will fight off the invaders, or will submit. If feminists are involved, all is doomed. The point is this.......those folks will live or die without our help.There are pressing matters here.....so, Europe doesn't have the money to fight? Uncle Sam ain't there to help you.
This might be off thread but i think this misses a larger point about immigration not only for Germany & europe but for the USA as well. That the Islamic faith has some serious issues with modernity generally and western culture more particularly is not in dispute and, if that is correct, why would you import that conflict into your country?
james conrad said...
"That the Islamic faith has some serious issues with modernity generally and western culture more particularly is not in dispute and, if that is correct, why would you import that conflict into your country?"
1, to prove to myself that I am not a bigot,
2, Because the future must not belong to those who insult the Prophet of Islam.
3, Because I hate white people so much I am willing to see my own welfare cut off as long as their society is utterly destroyed.
One of those will work for most people.
LOL, well, it doesn't work for me. There is a name for those 3 reasons listed above, it's called suicide, count old dad here out!
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