ENDGAMES
I received an unsolicited email today with a video attached, from an American evangelical survivalist (is there any other kind?) writing about the predicted end of days, who employed scaremongering, conspiracy theories, biblical texts and emotional blackmail to try to relieve me of my money. After all, what will I want with money when Armageddon arrives, as he’s sure it will, before 2017? Even with the Faraday Cage (all part of the purchase) which he claims will protect my electrical equipment from attack by Russian-launched ‘weapons of indignation,’ this Third World War will wipe out all unbelievers and the suffering will be unbearable. It has been foretold and it will happen. He knows, as sure as eggs are eggs, that Armageddon is just around the corner. There is only one way to survive.
Of course this is a secret, known to only a select few, but only the Amish will have the skills to survive. The author, who describes himself as a fervent Christian is not Amish, but studied their lifestyle. A complete handbook on surviving this apocalyptic catastrophe could be mine for a sum. Surely I owe it to my children to offer them this protection? I clicked the exit at that point.
Slipped into this long, rather rambling video are references to Obama, Putin, the Jewish nation, the Whore of Babylon (otherwise known as the Statue of Liberty) and Iraq and Iran.
Why am I telling you this? Because it struck me that this video is a mirror image of some DAESH or ISIS recruitment videos. The messages are the same:
This is SECRET. This is powerful INSIDE KNOWLEDGE. People will want to KEEP THIS FROM YOU. YOU ARE CHOSEN to have this special knowledge. Others are IN LEAGUE against us, especially Jews. The SACRED BOOK has foretold this. ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE to the cause is required. SEE WHAT HAPPENS to those who disobey. OTHERS WILL SUFFER if you do not comply.
There are many parallels. I don’t personally know any survivalists, but I know a few people who, given a gun and license to kill wouldn’t hesitate for long. Religious groups awaiting the Second Coming also have quite a record for self-harm when it doesn’t happen on the appointed day.
We have to be careful not to engage in this dialogue with evangelicals, from whichever religious group they hail from. So to the man who sent me the video, thanks, but no thanks.
