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from the when-you-DO-NOT-want-them-to-"think-of-the-children!" dept.
A couple of weeks ago this story was reported by The Daily Beast :
Members of an American-backed rebel group in Syria beheaded a young child in a grisly execution video.
The footage surfaced early Tuesday of members of Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki and a captured child in Handarat, near Aleppo. The young boy, who appears to be prepubescent, is then executed on the back of a pickup truck.
The gruesome videotaped murder of a child drew outrage on social media and the promise of an inquiry from the group's leadership, which has previously received U.S.-made weapons and American funding. The group no longer gets such backing. But it's also renewed questions about which rebels the American government has supported in Syria's ongoing civil war.
[...] State Department spokesperson John Kirby told The Daily Beast. "We strongly condemn this type of barbaric action, no matter what group is responsible. We encourage al-Zenki to investigate the incident and expect all parties to comply with their obligations under the law of armed conflict."
[...] the group's leadership issued a statement condemning the beheading. It said it formed a committee to investigate how such a crime could have happened.
More video from the incident has been released:
The victim is seen among a group of fighters from the US and Turkish backed militant group, in the same red pick-up truck that features in their video of his execution. In a chilling exchange the jihadist militants can be seen taunting the child, taking selfies, and threatening him with 'slaughter'.
When asked about his final wish, the child asks to be shot rather than slaughtered. Their shocking answer? "Slaughter. We are even worse than ISIS"
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday August 02 2016, @05:43PM
I've given up on those people. There is nothing that can be done to change an authoritarian follower's mind; it's something on the irrational, emotional level, and if an authoritarian-type does not implicitly trust you, s/he will NEVER listen to anything you say no matter HOW correct it is and no matter WHAT terms you couch it in.
There is only one thing to do with memetic plague-bearers like this: contain and ridicule, in the perhaps-vain hope that some cosmic ray will hit their brain just right and flip the exact biological bit needed to get them to see reason...and prevent others from being infected. It's not fair, but ridicule sets off the same parts of the brain actual physical assault does, doubly-so in the case of someone whose identity is completely tied into their politics. There's also the social/psychological group-dynamic aspect of it, that being, people will be less likely to support the ridiculed one even if that's not necessarily rational.
For my part...the gloves are off. We are looking at a potentially civilization-ending catastrophe here. I will be dipped in shit if I don't fight this. Yes, this is the same scummy tactic the hard authoritarians use, and I am not proud of myself for having sunk to this, but I don't see any alternative. Reason does not work; you may as well give medicine to the dead :(
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...