Using Anti-Social Media to Fight the Bad Guys

The fanatical radical Islamic group variously known as The Islamic State, The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been making quite a stir in the Middle East with it's extreme brutality and demonstrated hatred for everyone who doesn't follow their religious vision. One of the things that makes ISIS so different from other rigidly bigoted religious groups is its facility with social media. The peaceful and tolerant adherents of ISIS not only cut off the heads of their prisoners, but post videos of the events on YouTube. They publish glossy magazines extolling their version of the One True Faith while giving instructions on how to build bombs in your home to kill people who don't believe the way you think they should*.

They're really blending the social media technologies of the 21st century with the values and customs of the sixth. And that's to be expected ... a video with high-quality images and rousing music posted to YouTube reaches a lot more people than a few clay tablets impressed with cunieform characters describing your latest atrocity.

So, it occurred to me to wonder whether or not ISIS's love of social media used in the most antisocial of ways might be able to be turned against them somehow. Here are a few ideas ...

1a. Send them handsome boxed sets of videos showing fully-clothed girls going to school and getting an education ("Girls Gone Mild").

1b. Send them handsome boxed sets of videos showing unmarried women talking with unmarried men (particularly - gasp! - Christians or Jews).

2. Offer advertising from Jimmy Dean's Pork Sausage to underwrite the costs of their media campaigns.

3. Flood the local airwaves in areas occupied by ISIS with reruns of "Three's Company," "Sex and the City," and "Commander in Chief," then sit back and watch their heads explode.

Any other ideas? Let me know.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* Actually, the article titled "Build a Bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom" was published in the al-Qaeda magazine "Inspire."