Now, that’s funny. “Anonymous” bringing out the big guns.

@SoDakCampaigns

From SFGate, Hacktivist group Anonymous is using one of my favorite weapon of mass distraction on ISIS/ISIL The Rick Roll:

Anonymous is wielding a new weapon of mass disruption in its ongoing social media war with the Islamic State — Rick Astley videos.

The “hacktivist” group has been flooding all pro-Isis hashtags with countless videos of the red-headed bass-baritone, according to a recent tweet from the #OpParis account.

Anyone familiar with 1980s music videos knows how unsettling watching Astley sing and dance can be. In fact, as Dazed notes, tricking people to watch his “Never Gonna Give You Up” has been a staple of viruses, protests and other online pranks since 2007.

Read it here.

7 thoughts on “Now, that’s funny. “Anonymous” bringing out the big guns.”

  1. It has been said that politics make for strange bedfellows.

    I guess the same can be said for fighting terrorism, in all it forms.

  2. MC,

    Your comment reminded me of a policy paper from a think tank by a social/political scientist with a historian perspective.

    The summary of his point is for centuries, there was always a new paradigm that was going to change/reformulate the nation-state, the traditional powers over-react, but in the end the old way comes back. What is the old way? Bonds of familiarity, affection, and common interest.

    ISIS is a paradigm that religious and political ideology was going to over-take the historical old way. So was Nazism or Soviet revolution. And, so is the principles of Pan-Arabism or the European Union or even the marriage alliances of monarchies.

    But, none are ever sustainable because they never develop the unifying components from familiarity and affection even if they do have common interest. I think we are also seeing it here with the attempt to “federalize” the United States without regard to any state’s rights. I’m familiar with Minnesotans, Iowans, etc. but frankly California, New England, and the Deep South is a different “country.” If there is “affection” it mostly comes out of “common interest” and not shared experience (source of the most long-lasting affection).

    With that background, here is why your statement on “bedfellows” reminded me of this: We think it strange because we are missing the reality that the “opponent” (in this case ISIS) is a paradigm that violates the fundamental necessity of familiarity and affection. Thus, it isn’t “strange” but actually predictable they would oppose ISIS.

    1. I suppose there is nothing like a common enemy to bring people together. I wonder if ISIS or ISL understands they are doing more to unite the world than all of our world leaders combined

  3. I’ve always said one way to defeat these radical Islamists (gasp! I actually said that?) is to hire all the “ladies of the night” from Nevada and send them over to the battle fields in the middle east; have them all strip down to their birthday suits and run around over there. As I understand it, the radicals are supposed to kill themselves if they see a naked woman who is not their wife, so the mass suicide would decimate their ranks to the point where we could then move in and wipe them out. Sound good? Maybe in this way even Larry Flynt can help do something to contribute to societal good.

  4. If only our President were this clever. Lately he seems to be leading from behind just about everyone.

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