What you guys are saying is that all these people who turned to ISIS have been brainwashed, as you put it - radicalised.
IMO this is too 'pat', ticks all the boxes and nice and neatly squares it all away.
There must be something our Western society is missing. Alternatively there is something in the ISIS way of life that offers something better than what we have to offer with our way of life.
During the cold war era, I remember people going over to the USSR or to Cuba and staying. For some odd reason they preferred the communist way of life to our Western way of life, even though the nothing was available in the shops, accommodation was crap and the food very basic.
As it's a "war" it may not necessarily be about rejecting the Westernway of life but rallying to a cause.
Your sentence seems to have a contradiction.
Rallying to a cause of this nature is rejecting the Western way of life.
The other part of it is that the people who do go over to ISIS probably disagree with our way of life on a fundamental level and the path of righteousness offered by ISIS is alluring to them.
Sorry maybe i didnt explain what I meantproperly.
Fighting for and with brothers struggling against an "evil" regime in Syria isnt the necessary the same as rejecting the Western way of life. I cant be sure for everyone that has gone to Syria but pretty sure there primary reason isnt to go and live there as such.
Please dont think for one second i am agreeing with ISIS or what they stand for in any way.
The closest analogy i can think of is the Spanish civil war
That is similar to the allure of communism back in the cold war days.
Looks great on paper but crap in practice.
I'm sure we'll discover those who fled to join ISIS regretting it. ISIS is clever, it shows a sugar coated version of it's State and it's punishment of infidels and apostates. But not the actual brutal reality of it on a day to day basis where even the most devout of Muslim may end up finding themselves being crucified or shot etc. I believe ISIS apparently executed two women for witchcraft and consorting with Elves the other day. I kid ye not.
I see ISIS as two issues, Cult and Fascist.
For example, ISIS as a Cult, they will always quell individualistic and critical thinking.All cults do that, whatever the religion or belief it may be based in.People will always be persuaded by Cults individuals and whole families.
Furthermore,Isis are classic Fascist movement that fills the vacuum created by their states and aided by ours, the result is disaffected poor people who are open and desperate for anything that has not been.
Anyway, Fallon has begun the hearts and minds of air strikes in Syria, its whack a mole time and back on the carousel.
I don't for one minute think "all" the ISIS people have been turned, not by a long chalk.But those "volunteers" which raise an eyebrow, like the three wives and nine kids from Yorkshire, or the family of 12 more recently from Luton (?).They are the potential candidates for Internet brainwashing for the reasons given.
A lot of the young men are disillusioned with Western Life, the rat race, the discrimination etc and are much easier to convince, I imagine.Boys like playing with guns.Guns mean respect and "power and influence".Then throw in a good cause and away you go.I would imagine the thrill of firing heavy weaponry with live ammo and real targets is way more exciting that life as an unemployed semi-outcast in a Northern Town.
I think a lot of this is all just to do with circumstances.A bit of discrimination, a lot of youth unemployment, a lack of faith in a better future, the internet age making grass everywhere greener than at home and a whole raft of other 21st Century circumstances.Plus undoubtedly the abhorrent agendas of many rich and/or influential people under-pinning everything.
Well it must have been witchcraft as he's been dead for nigh on 40 years.Unless it was one of the Las Vegas wannabees.