Would you join ISIS if your life wasn't so pretty?

NO! I can put a bullet in my own head, thank you.

No. It’s like selling your soul to the devil.

@johnpowell I think there is another hook that pulls people into ISIS. Religion. Take a region in political turmoil, give them a beast figure to blame and then also give them a god who mandates they do some sadistic shit in response and you will get the psychopaths,the desperate, the angry and the unintelligent behind it in droves.

Me: no. I have already rejected religion and I hate so say this but I’m not really loyal to anything. At least no blind loyalty anyway. If things are bad I’ll simply leave for greener pastures or try to improve my situation as best I can. I’m pretty self serving but I don’t need much and don’t want much. I don’t hold grudges and I can’t say I have much hate. Perhaps some indifference. I would not even fight for this country unless it’s basically being invaded. Some people feel a sort of pull to a higher cause or have a need for grandeur or greatness. I have already been through my existential crisis and simply want to be left alone to live and die peacefully doing simple things.

ISIS just gave everyone a 50% pay cut. They’re not doing too hot either right now. They were funding through oil sales. They are having the same problem as the US oil industry right now, low prices, plus the refining capacity has been blown up and they are not in a position to get it repaired.

But, two years ago, with them running strong, if I was a 15 – 30 yr old with no prospects and being offered a gun and an income? Sure, I’d probably go for it.

No

You forgot that your friends and family finally offered asylum in the West are being summarily dumped back into the sewer camps.

I get your point, and I think it’s a very valid one.
I’ve had the very thought.
It’s no more of a siren song to the totally desperate than Donald Trump is to the overprivileged.

Interesting that spell check tried to change ‘overprivileged’ to “underprivileged”, like one doesn’t exist.

Our policies in the Middle East spawn more terrorists. They are not well-thought out.

I get where your coming from. If I were in my 20s, unemployed, no wife/girlfriend or children, no property, and was brought up with a religious doctrine that teaches “If you’re not with us, you’re against us. And we can kill those that are against us.”, I’d be looking for something to do, too.
If a charismatic guy came into my broken down village and offered me money, chance for reward (to the victor go the spoils Ad Victorum Ire Spolia ) a bit of excitement, and the opportunity to fight the Great Satan I’d sign up. I’ve got noting to lose and everything to gain.

The killing of innocents might bother me. But with enough religious encouragement and quotes from my guidance manual I’d get over it. “Anyone not with us is against us, and we can kill those against us.”
And if I knew one person killed by the enemy I’d be packing my bags.

Plus I get frequent flyer miles for participation in every overseas operation.

I guess that is why the armies of old completely and brutally wiped out their defeated enemies.

They are fighting the same wars with the same barbaric tactics that they’ve been fighting for hundreds of years. The US didn’t start them, they were already there before the US was created. It’s human nature to blame someone else for all your problems. That’s what ISIS does and it’s the same tactic that Hitler used. No I wouldn’t join up knowing that the death and destruct not only comes from the people instigating this situation but also knowing that it could turn back on me and my family in a heart beat.

For those of you who say you wouldn’t sign up. Would you answer them same if a bunch of crazed 20 somethings pulled into your neighborhood with radios and AK-47 blazing, roused everyone into the streets and then threatened to kill any male of age who didn’t sign up?

Then there’s that religious thing they got going on that I sure as hell couldn’t go along with. I couldn’t join them and I can shoot back.

@LuckyGuy So you could change your religious outlook so easily? Some would, I suppose, but I couldn’t.

So your question isn’t just “Would you join ISI[L] if your life wasn’t so pretty?”, it’s also something like, “if you were from a war-torn Middle Eastern country, your friends or family have been killed and reduced clean water, electricity and Internet and safety are all semingly being caused by Western aggression?”

And I understand that ISIL offers much-needed money to people and includes some not-directly-violent tasks.

Well, definitely not, because:

1) It feels clearly like a bad wrong idea.

2) It looks really dangerous.

3) It looks very likely to eventually have some sort of awful consequence, including violent death for me and my family.

4) I don’t want to work for people I don’t respect or trust.

5) I don’t want to perpetuate cycles of violence that are going nowhere good.

6) I don’t want to inspire others I know to do the same, for all the same reasons.

7) If I were going to dedicate myself to a cause for change, I’d choose something that seems positive and likely to change things, not escalate them, and that doesn’t endanger myself and others.

8) I’d look for just about any alternatives.

Also, as for your hopefully-joking Apple suggestion, I also would not work for Apple for some of the same reasons (1, 4, 6, 7 & 8 apply), and I hear Apple is a contender for worst employer ever, at that level ( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/07/apple_iphone_workers_imprisoned_in_virtual_slavery_report/ ).

However, if you mean, “Could we stop having violence in the Middle East if we gave the people there what they actually want, or maybe even if we just worked to make sure human needs there were met for everyone?” then yeah, probably, as long as we’re willing to actually listen and stop doing what we’ve done for decades. The place to start, I think, is removing corporate control of our own governments, so we stop trying to dominate the region to keep oil prices predictable for the sake of oil companies’ and mega-rich investors’ profits.

Just asked the butler this & he said he probably would, cheeky bastard after another raise methinks.

It’s easy enough to answer “oh gosh no, I would never join something like that” as we sit here comfy and cushy, knowing that we basically have no worries about comfort, stability, security, and access to even basic necessities (like clean running water), and secure in the knowledge that as we sleep tonight bombs fired remotely aren’t going to land in our house and kill half our family.

@kritiper First, I made the assumption I lived in that country. I tried to put myself in a Syrian’s place. Not easy to do while sitting in front of a warm PC, sipping a coffee and nibbling on some apple crisp.

Second. I am no fool. As the saying goes: You gotta’ know when to hold them. Know when to fold them. With a gun to my head I will be a loyal follower. If I’m dead, I’m worthless.
My presence would secretly cost them more resources than they could imagine. No lock would ever work again. Every piece of equipment would have a tendency to jam. Ammunition would be mislabeled. Communications would be unencrypted or encrypted with the wrong key. Radios would accidentally have burst ID working. Food would be spoiled. There are thousands of ways to hamper their efforts while appearing to be a loyal follower.
I’m not religious and do not believe there is honor in death. I would do all I could to stay alive for my family.

Sometimes I find it hard to answer these “if you’re life was unfathomably different than it is now, would you do X?” questions, but maybe I would join ISIS. If I knew what it was really about, I’d like to think I wouldn’t (I don’t think I’d be interested in killing civilians abroad), but to many people joining, ISIS is just another side in a complicated war where all sides have committed atrocities. That said, I have a lot of respect for downtrodden refugees who are doing all they can to get away from ISIS and have purposefully avoided joining any side in the war. I don’t think joining ISIS is a necessary consequence of being negatively affected by war.

I’d also like to know what “oppression” the members of Boko Haram have been facing that leads them to do things like this: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/01/31/world/africa/ap-af-boko-haram.html

A little historical perspective for you, @DominicY.

Of course, that’s not the same thing as Nigerians killing Nigerians for control over Nigerian soil.