[joe_the_user]

It's kind of odd to think what ISIS' media operations brought it. Initially they seem to have garner a variety of international recruits, I most from a Muslim background but some not. But either way, a lot of their appeal was an absolute nihilistic rejection of "modernity". It seems like the appeal involve a kind of fundamental alienation combined with being a flavor of the month - sort of the appeal of leftism but lacking any sense that things can be improved.

I suspect shutting down their media probably stopped having an effect through novelty wearing off, all the best recruits being recruited and the world moving on to (inadvertently or not) selling some other reactionary rebellion - and the group being militarily defeated in Syria.

[082349872349872]

One of the lightly ironic points Linebarger (in his textbook, Psychological Warfare) makes is: never trust a psywar person as a reliable narrator, to accurately and straightforwardly report how effective they may have been. Their déformation professionelle is, after all, self-serving sophistry.

(I trust Linebarger more than Bernays because the former also catalogues not only his failures, but sotto voce, even touches upon those of his mid-twentieth century society.)

Bonus clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLNAkPsjAEk (what's the hip hop equivalent?)