4 ms·
They probably should have continued using the letters. The more things called ISIS the less important those letters are to any one thing, including the terrori
by wtvanhest 10y ago
They probably should have continued using the letters. The more things called ISIS the less important those letters are to any one thing, including the terrorist org.
- shitgoose 10y agoSure. NSA has plenty of resources to process and store all of them.
- rhcom2 10y agoThe name of the spy agency in the cartoon Archer, the International Secret Intelligence Service, also fell victim to this.
- smcl 10y agoThey handled that extremely well though - I can't recall the exact timing but ISIS was seemingly always on the verge of crumbling or being bought so they just sort of let it happen and the group made a seamless (if not painless) transition into ineffective drug dealers and bungling private investigators ("The Figgis Agency") Anyone stumbling across this comment and wondering WTF we're talking about - definitely check out Archer, it's pretty great
- ajross 10y agoThe "terrorist org" never used those letters in the first place. The acronym in Arabic is "Daesh". ISIS is an English-language acronym formed from a (bad[1]) translation of the group's name. Think about it: why would a decidedly muslim organization name itself in a foreign language after a forgotten infidel goddess? [1] Most western journalists rapidly moved off onto ISIL, which is a better translation (the name never referred to Syria the nation, but the geographical area better captured by "Levant"). Really only the right-wing sources continue to use "ISIS", presumably because it sounds more like a Bond villain's outfit.
- ino 10y agoIt is normal to translate acronyms. USA is EEUU in Spanish or EUA in Portuguese, for example. I'm not contradicting you, just clarifying.
- greglindahl 10y agoThe Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and offshoot Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) are additional examples.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> ISIS is an English-language acronym formed from a (bad[1]) translation of the group's name. Former name; they dropped the geographical modifier years ago, and it's just (translated) “the Islamic State” now.
- toomanybeersies 10y agoOr in the case of the BBC, they use "The Islamic State group", or "the so-called Islamic State", as an effort of denying them any legitimacy as an actual state.
- shimon_e 10y ago>right-wing sources ISIS on youtube: 5.2 million ISIL on youtube: 0.6 million
- booleandilemma 10y agoIf we want to make them angry we should be calling them daesh. https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/10/09/words-matter-isis-war-use-daesh/V85GYEuasEEJgrUun0dMUP/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/10/09/words-matter-...
- chrisseaton 10y agoCalling them a nasty name? Do you really think that's a mature and effective strategy in this situation?
- jleahy 10y agoThis actually happened a lot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_changes_due_to_the_Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_changes_due_to_the_Islami...
- dang 10y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13967100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13967100 and marked it off-topic.
- wtvanhest 10y agoYeah, that seems reasonable. This got way out of control.