How to beat ISIS with a hoax, by Scott Adams of Dilbert fame

[thewayne]

It's an interesting concept that I think might be viable, which means no one will do it. He outlines 7 steps:

1. We will design the rumor to be unbelievable (to make it believable)
2. The hoax will quickly be detected, but it won’t matter.
3. Focus attention where we want it.
4. Over time, truth becomes whatever people hear the most.
5. 20% of any large group believes just about any damned thing.
6. Appeal to ego and emotion, not logic.
7. Visual imagery that you can’t get out of your head.

The hoax would take the form of a fake video of a meeting involving high-level ISIS leaders. I assume ISIS fighters do not know what the leaders of other units look like. And the video would not name the ISIS fighting unit, so it would be hard to verify its authenticity in a war zone.

The video would appear to be taken on a smartphone by one of the other ISIS leaders in a war-battered room somewhere in Syria. In the fake video, actors pretend to be ISIS leaders bragging about how they take advantage of the young, stupid recruits. The conversation might include various leaders saying such things as…

And you're just going to have to take a look at his blog to see the next steps. It just might work.

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/133795496921/how-to-beat-isis-with-a-hoax

Comments

[silveradept]

I don't think it'll go. Not because a convincing fake couldn't be created, but because you probably don't get to ISIS without some core beliefs that basically would shrug off any sort of idea of the survivors having children with their women as a bad thing.

Tanakh has a provision in it about who should marry a wife whose husband dies without fathering children. I suspect the form of Islam ISIS follows does, as well, plus playing up the rewards for martyrs. It's just not a tactic I can see as being effective, because it sounds like someone trying to upset Westerners, not believers.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Adams was on this kick about how teenagers only want sex, and if ISIS recruiters make it look like women will be thrown at them, then teens will do anything. I think it's a gross oversimplification, and that's a lot of what he's predicating his hoax proposition on. I can't see teens thinking so far ahead.

But it would be interesting to see someone try this.

[silveradept]

I can see them thinking that far ahead. Because teenagers, once separated from their group contexts, are quite capable of good decision making and reflective thought.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Aren't those the core steps to any modern political creation, though? Especially (6), with "patriotism" having been instilled as some kind of positive virtue in the preceding decades.