I haven’t written much about politics in years. I just read the newspaper and cringe. Sometimes I feel like I should “share” links – but with whom? Nobody on Facebook seems interested because it’s friends and family and coworkers and students from many years ago. Nobody on Google+ seems interested because most of the people I know there are there for the gaming with the exception of a small number of information sources, in other words, information just flows in one direction. Nobody on Twitter seems interested because I’m mostly following journalists and politicians and when I finally realized this, I figured there was no point in sharing anything because they don’t read what I’m sharing. *Information just flows in one direction.*
Luckily for me – unluckily for you, perhaps 😄 – this blog not only serves as a platform to share information, it also serves as my externalized memory. Which is why I’m trying to push myself to post interesting links *here* instead of on so-called “social” media – gated communities that will one day be replaced by something else, taking all the information down with them.
The not-so-religious fanatics of Da'esh
What I Discovered From Interviewing Imprisoned ISIS Fighters
some acknowledgment that the West created the conditions in which ISIS is thriving would be nice
John Pilger on ISIS: Only When We See the War Criminals In Our Midst Will the Blood Begin to Dry
sarcastic summary of the sitution in the Near East
a similar summary two years ago
I really need to find links to sources outside of Google+ since the inevitable sunsetting of G+ will drag down all those links as well.
Welche Schlussfolgerungen nicht aus den Terroranschlägen von Paris zu ziehen sind
#USA
(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)
⁂
Hi Alex,
I am interested in politics and welcome such posts, for one. By the way, I just read an article in The Guardian that you might find interesting, Mindless terrorists? The truth about Isis is much worse by Scott Atran.
Mindless terrorists? The truth about Isis is much worse
Cheers
– Enzo 2015-11-16 11:33 UTC
---
An interesting read! I hadn’t heard of Management of Savagery. Definitely something to remember for the *next* war, when we’re ready to bomb a foreign country. Wikipedia mentions “the value of provoking military responses from superpowers in order to recruit and train guerilla fighters” and I’m thinking this is the strategy all revolutions have been following since the French revolution. *Expose* the hypocrisy of the ruling elite by provoking them into acts of violence and use this to *radicalize and recruit*.
Yikes! I just googled for these keywords (*expose radicalize recruit revolution*) and stumbled upon *Selected Literature on (i) Radicalization and Recruitment, (ii) De-Radicalization and Dis-Engagement, and (iii) Counter-Radicalization and Countering Violent Extremism*. Using the same keywords and adding a country quickly leads to articles explaining this phenomenon and the dynamic of revolutionary movements. In my case, I just read The making of the Russian Revolution.
The making of the Russian Revolution
Sadly, I have no answers.
– Alex Schroeder 2015-11-16 12:18 UTC