Attempting to rise above hashtag-diplomacy, the Obama Administration has turned from Twitter to YouTube in its latest attempt to deter American citizens from crossing over to the dark side by joining ISIS. Below is the  State Department’s august August video attempt to reach out through the world’s largest social media platform to graphically show the brutality that is ISIS. Under the Moniker ThinkAgain TurnAway, the video has only come to media’s attention in the last few days. The title is Welcome to the “Islamic State” land (ISIS/ISIL).

Does anyone in the Obama Administration really think that using sarcasm and mockery is an effective way to thwart those who are attracted to a maniacal, inhumane, extreme way of life? If a young person has a mindset to look into ISIS, it is almost a given that s/he is looking from something so far outside the mainstream of American life that showing him or her images of what actually attracts them to the cult of ISIS is not going to deter him or her from the desire to explore that fanaticism.

It makes me think of a parent whose teenage child is attracted to the darkness of the Goth style. Mocking the way that Goths dress and paint their fingernails and pierce themselves is not an effective way to dissuade young people. Indeed, it is more likely to drive them further into the arms of those whom the parent mocks.

If an American citizen is inclined to explore the possibility of joining ISIS and its ideology, showing him or her pictures of the very thing that is attractive to deviant personalities is not going to dissuade him/her.  Is it enough to say “If this video can deter even one person, then it was worth it.” Or must we also try to ascertain whether anyone was spurred on to join ISIS through watching the brutality that this State Department video depicts?

Just yesterday ISIS claimed to have beheaded another Lebanese soldier. As repulsive as this is to normal Americans, sadly it is exciting to some people who are searching for something–such as power, prestige, fear, adrenaline rush, or negative attention. That is why I am inclined to agree with a commenter name Scully who posted the following comment on the State Department’s YouTube video.

Maybe that last observation by Scully is more true—and more intentional—than Scully knows.