What to we make of successful ISIS recruitment?

Submitted by Jeff (United States), Mar 4, 2015 at 13:40

It was previously unimaginable to most people that a group could entice thousands of people from around the world to join its ranks with videos of mindless, repugnant, violent behavior. Each new atrocity, proudly broadcast, it occurs to me that the purpose of the video is recruitment. And what's more, it works; it serves the purpose. There's a reason Hitler didn't distribute recruitment films showing SS atrocities around Europe and the USA in the late 1930's; it wouldn't have worked. Something is frighteningly different in this case, and that something makes ISIS videos an effective recruitment tool. And that something is not a lack of jobs and opportunity.

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