As world governments mull strategies in their quests to stop the Islamic State, many people at home are wondering, “What can I do to stop ISIS?” The answer for many: Record a video calling them out.
It’s no secret that ISIS has a vast and effective social-media operation, so one way to combat ISIS from the safety of your computer is to taunt them on social media. Last week, a woman named Emily Longworth took to Facebook, calling out the Islamic State in a five-minute-long statement. It’s gone crazy viral, shared on Facebook nearly a quarter of a million times.
It’s a blustery defense of America, complete with long-winded metaphors: “My country is ready to release the chains of moral ambiguity that have suppressed our ability to defend our nation against all enemies sworn to destroy here.” “You are not indestructible from the shrapnel of our honor and liberty just because your god says you are.”
It ends with Longworth reciting a very strong quote from her father: “ISIS members, every one of you is a pig-eating son of a whore. Fuck you, your mother, your faggot prophet, and that offspring of a pig you call Allah. Am I being too vague?”
But Longworth’s message is just the latest in a well-worn genre of social-media post: the message to ISIS. For about a year and a half, YouTube and Twitter have been slowly accruing a large cache of threats and promises aimed at the terrorist organization.
What makes for a good ISIS callout video? Flags feature heavily in messages to ISIS. The American flag is either being celebrated, or, just as often, the ISIS flag is being destroyed in some manner.
A lot of other messages also feature guns and camouflage. The sometimes-spoken sentiment is that Obama and the Dumbocrats might not be willing to shoot, but these brave Second Amendment proponents will.
Really, though, most of these videos look like any vloggers’ videos. The key component of an ISIS callout is a dude, sitting in front of his webcam, shouting platitudes at nobody in particular. If ISIS has received these messages, they haven’t responded directly.
For the camera-shy, Twitter is the next best thing. ISIS and its supporters maintain thousands of Twitter accounts. Rather that tweet directly at any of them, however, many prefer to just yell “hey, ISIS” into the void.
