VLC contributor living in Aleppo writing about the Paris attacks

Re:VLC contributor living in Aleppo writing about the Paris ... by Jtsummers on Tuesday November 17, 2015 @03:06PM (#10583593)

> Young people join ISIS not because they are "evil" (what, are they Darth Vader?). They join because ISIS makes a compelling case that the world would be a better place if it was rid of western domination.

I will not speak about young people joining ISIS, but I've known people who joined or wanted to join the military strictly to kill. These folks exist. You give them a strong ideological or philosophical reason to kill for and it brings in some of those sitting on the fence. In the case of the US military, I've not known anyone who made it through bootcamp with these attitudes (though I'm sure plenty have). They actively weed out these folks because, while their main mission involves killing, psychopaths aren't usually good soldiers. Groups like ISIS have no qualms in this regard, so these attitudes will survive their equivalent of basic training.

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Re:VLC contributor living in Aleppo writing about the Paris ... by drumdance on Tuesday November 17, 2015 @06:36PM (#10584823)

How do you explain the women joining ISIS?

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Re:VLC contributor living in Aleppo writing about the Paris ... by Jtsummers on Tuesday November 17, 2015 @07:12PM (#10584986)

I'm not going to attempt to explain it all. What I wrote about only explains some of the people joining.

And women can desire to kill too. Or see conservative Christian women in the US (where I am) choosing to deliberately set aside careers and other "modern" or "masculine" things for their beliefs.

I can't explain that either, seems bizarre to me to deliberately reduce your agency, but some people think it's the thing to do.

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