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Obama Deploys New Logo to Defeat ISIS
Chafing under criticism that they aren’t taking the threat from ISIS seriously, the State Department has launched an initiative to bring the barbarian terrorists to heel. Foregoing crude tactics like the threat of force or aggressive diplomacy, the Obama Administration has returned to what it knows best. They have created a logo:
This doesn’t offend me as an American; it offends me as a graphic designer. That is a rough-looking pile of clip art. But if the seven fonts and eight colors prove insufficient to scare away the jihadists, State also has a blog post outlining their strategy to defeat Islamist terror solve violent extremism.
Their detailed plan? To ask commenters for suggestions:
This week, the White House hosted a Summit to Counter Violent Extremism to highlight domestic and international efforts to prevent violent extremists and their supporters from radicalizing, recruiting, or inspiring individuals or groups in the United States and abroad to commit acts of violence. These efforts have become even more imperative in light of recent, tragic attacks throughout the world. At the Summit, Secretary of State John Kerry said, “Our goal today is to take this chance to think broadly about how to prevent violent ideologies from taking hold, and how to prevent terrorist networks…from linking up with aggrieved groups elsewhere, and how to prevent them from thereby expanding their influence.”
Secretary Kerry described this effort as the “the defining fight of our generation” and a task not just for governments but everyone, including civil society, the faith community, foundations and philanthropists, and the private sector. The Secretary urged the Summit participants to provide their ideas and suggestions on how we can counter violent extremism, and we ask you:
What solutions do you think are most critical to countering violent extremism?
We are so screwed.
If you would like to submit your ideas to the team that shipped James Taylor to Paris, here’s the link. But if you advocate a solution that requires a carrier group instead of MS Paint, get ready for a detailed IRS audit. The Obama administration might wear kid gloves when dealing with the Islamic State, but they’ll switch to brass knuckles for domestic critics.
Published in General
I can’t submit ideas right now. I’m far too busy slamming my head against the desk in total disbelief. Try back in a few hours.
Isn’t Obama the guy who brushed off the Bay of Pigs with the “I wasn’t even born yet” response.
It seems that was his high water mark in geopolitical analysis;
Hey rainbow people, the administration is giving away your crayons;
“Engage” looks like a Ricochet ad. Hmm.
When Misthiocracy can’t come up with a remark snide enough for the occasion, you know you’ve come up with something really stupid.
So our foreign policy and diplomatic efforts are spearheaded by the ASB?
What is the partner logo supposed to represent? A lego house?
The mentor logo suggests flashers.
Time for chocolate.
“Communicate.” They got that one right. (No face-to-face or touching.)
Follow the link. Read the suggestions. There really are people in the world more stupid than the Obama administration.
Rebecca B.
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France
February 20, 2015
A few brief ideas: In the longterm, use pertinent & effective campaigns/programs to renew secular ethics with teenagers around the world. (Debate contests, philosophical curriculum…even teach the history of human rights & why certain nations do not accept them. Arts and other programs, too, can help erase marginalization.) Linked to the feeling of marginalization is a lack of sophisticated & nuanced, facilitation-style oral expression among teenagers which needs to be taught widely around the world. Such educational projects should not be undertaken by one nation alone, but in partnership with groups of foreign countries to move beyond “hokey” hero themes & simplistic clichés as seen in big budget movies which somehow come to represent American & Western ideals abroad. Young people today need meaning & need access to sincere paths to achieve it. A program of summer school or specialized summer camps can be a vector for ethical development through student-chosen focus (sport, dance, beaux arts, theater, music, film, as well as classical subjects) in an atmosphere of reduced grade pressures. Two summers at home and two abroad could provide invaluable understanding and hopefully reduce the plague of national rivalry for future generations. In the shorter term, attack the problem of extremists’ appeal through addressing its solid-root in hate (of “the West”/”Imperialism”/”Colonialism” & its scars) which has become a rallying point for vague ideas of perceived unfairness, exclusiveness, hypocrisy (as most of the world sees no difference between “collateral damage”+torture and filmed executions–in fact, ironically, much of the world sees public executions by extremists as more daring and less hypocritical than technological/industrial wars fought behind a mask of justice). With Western political credibility ebbing, its values face broad skepticism. The West needs to explain why it works with some dictators, yet criticizes others–too many mixed messages over time have lessened respect for the West & broadened appeal for those who dare to challenge it. As for neutral unifying subjects, respect for the earth, ecology, is an obvious theme amongst the young, but only if industry & political power follow suit, or it won’t be consistent and will serve to perpetuate the viewed double standard. As for tackling extremist groups more specifically, revealing the cult-like techniques used by them (be sure to investigate the use of auditory & visual subliminal influence in internet & gaming images), will help unmask their propaganda to their prey. Taking a clear, intellectually viable stand against bullying and intimidation would aid the world greatly, as it’s a flourishing scourge which is, once again, moving through the cracks in international thought. In another vein, international criminal courts seem to have influence on a global level. Overall, violent extremism needs to be seen as a symptom of broader dysfunctions.
Maybe Obama should sack John Kerry (who served in Vietnam) and replace him with Rebecca B.
I didn’t bother submitting my own suggestion on how to deal with ISIS, which is: feed them to pigs.
In my not-brief-enough captivity in the education prison, I was occasionally forced to endure … pause to summon the strength … workshops. Brainstorming. Small groups. Breakout sessions. (Please make the memories stop!)
Over the years, I realized that this is what people did when they didn’t know how to address an issue. So they talked around it, and adopted every ritual that made it looked as if they were attacking it, without actually attacking it.
This White House is so embarrassingly academic.
I came out of the trades to try teaching high school students at a tech school for a few years. It was very illuminating, and so depressing.
Every bit of that above, from the oh so precious logo to the summit and every word spoken at it, sounds exactly like the time-wasting money-spending self-congratulatory earnest-but-deluded insultingly silly contempt-inducing kind of things the administration would put on when they had absolutely NO idea how to fix a problem but wanted to look like they were doing something, something that looks so serious and professional, that made me walk away after four years and head back to the real world (“…the private sector, it’s brutal, man – they expect results!) shaking my head.
The saddest part is that when you talk to the participants at any one of these things afterward one at a time, they will agree that it is all [insert masturbating gesture]. But they keep putting them on, and they keep going to them.
On a positive note, John Kerry seems to have found his perfect place.
We Are Doomed. (you were right Mr. Derbyshire)
Terry and I just talked about this on the podcast (watch for it later tonight or tomorrow). I’ll paraphrase what he said in response to my comments on “man with the axe’s” suggestion for #bringbackourheads. It’s something you want to be funny… but the more you think about it the less funny it becomes. It’s just way too true. #bringbackourheads is so pointedly ludicrous and such a perfect example of Obama’s policies and strategies that it cannot even really be funny. It’s just horrible. #bringbackourgirls couldn’t possibly be funny because it is real. Those are real girls sold into slavery and raped or tortured and killed. Real horrible things are happening, and the most powerful man in the world… meh. President selfiestick. So here he is fighting the violent extremism in our own backyard. My own neighborhood… the violent extremism that I now is there, not because I felt unsafe while I was out in the yard this last weekend with my 3 y/o washing his trike, but because, well… because even Christians and conservatives have the potential, right? Because it can happen to anyone!
But it’s NOT happening to anyone. It’s NOT happening in our backyard. I feel 100% safe from violent extremism, and I am just as confident in Obama’s new logo as I am in #bringbackourheads. But it isn’t funny, because it is real. He’s really doing this. We’re really reacting to “violent extremism” in this way.
Wait, that isn’t a parody?
Alien Space Bats?
The logo is an important step, but I won’t believe that Obama is serious about violent extremism until it reaches Threat Level Selfie.
The solution to violent extremism almost certainly does not begin in my community. So, in addition to Jon’s failing it’s design, I’m going to have to ding it on content as well.
Darn it. My PPACA approved doctor told me not to drink coffee. So how can I engage?
And really, do I want Forrest Gump to mentor me?
Let’s take an inventory of the clip art as it applies to that non-religious, non-state organization that seems to like cutting people’s heads off:
Engage: Yes. We need to build more Starbucks in Kobani. That will solve the problem.
Mentor: I think there’s a lot of this going on right now in the Middle East, if the Israel-hating kids videos are to be believed. We just need to channel this into “how to feed pigeons in the park” type of conversations
Support: great icon for the “love shack”. Great place to keep your 72 virgins
Communicate: ISIS seems to already have a pretty good grasp of YouTube and Twitter. Our work is done.
Partner: ISIS seems to be more of the “nice little business you have here, pity if anything were to happen to it” type mentality. Building a few whole foods stores in Aleppo should solve the problem.
Educate: see mentoring… “And this, kids, is how you chop off a head…”
All we need now to solve the world is to have a tweet from a pouty-faced Michelle Obama holding up a sign reading #EMSCPE
As a long term corporate employee I’m not surprised. A “process” is what you want to present to the higher ups. And man do powerpoint charts look good.
Also they may have been trying this to make themselves look smart by using a version of OODA loops.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop
The BHO logo is missing the only link that really counts- Responsible Parenting.
Puppies! Puppies and cupcakes! But not cupcakes with those little silver dragees on them – those look too much like shotgun pellets. Nonviolent cupcakes!
You say that as if it were a bad thing.
Scene to two terrorists…
Terrorist 1: We have slain the infidel and have the world shaking in fear.
Terrorist 2: The only thing that can stop us now is a catchy logo!
A third man runs in, looking terrified and dismayed: “Bad news, guys…”
My initial response is that the process becomes the point of an exercise, not the problem/solution that the process was meant to address. The process given in the logo above is endless and does not have a solution. The process is the solution, move on.
BTW – Don’t want to bog things down. I looked at your bio. I have determined we cannot be friends. Perhaps this is a valid place to start the CVE dialog.
You’d be surprised. I hate most consultants and process consultants especially. As you say, the “process” becomes the work product instead of the checklist for achieving the work product. When process documentation becomes more than a checklist, it’s being done wrong. The last time I was in the Heart of Darkness (i.e. Washington), they didn’t like my suggestions for how to improve the process modeling group at all.
I thought the same, that this looked like something lifted from a recent, or long past in-service
torture sesssionI was compelled to attend.Or maybe something a 6th grader might submit to prove they knew how to insert clip art into a document or digital slide.
If America is like Rome 2.0, I wonder, where are the vomitoriums? I need one. now.
Evidently not which means . . .
Well sure, but talk about the wrong attitude. How can no one be seeing this?
Come now Mr. Gabriel, the opportunities for comedy are momentous. This is comedy gold, comedy gold I say! Does no one recall “AttackWaaaaaatch.” as Mrs. Mollie Hemingway so pithily stated it?
Time to start now on your suggestions to State about Custom Candy Hearts and Pajamagrams for ISIS.
I am so on board with this.
That logo looks like a Coat of Arms carried by Christians in the crusades.
<dang, I couldn’t find an example; my photoshop is weak>
nuh uh.
Jerusalem Cross? Or are you thinking of something else?