ISIS Is Not Winning the War of Ideas
ISIS is not succeeding because of the strength of its ideas. Instead, it exploits anincreasingly networked world to sell its violent and apocalyptic ideology to a microscopic minority—people who are able to discover each other from a distance and organize collective action in ways that were virtually impossible before the rise of the Internet.
.. That reach, and the group’s disciplined approach to social-media incitement andonline recruitment, allow ISIS to hunt among hundreds of millions of people and find a precious few thousand who are receptive to its message. It can identify and mobilize minute percentages on the margins of society; because society is massive, these numbers can sound impressive, out of context.