Linda Glocke / I Will Destroy ISIS

About

“I Will Destroy ISIS” is an anti-terrorism comment posted by Disqus user Linda Glocke in an online news article about the execution of two Japanese hostages by members of the Islamic State (ISIS) that was originally published by KABC-TV in January 2015. While Glocke’s emotionally charged response quickly began circulating online as a generally relatable sentiment towards the growing threats of the Islamic jihadist group, the comment didn’t go viral until November 2015 after the ISIS claimed responsibility for yet another wave of deadly terrorist attacks in Paris.

Origin

On January 21st, Disqus user Linda Glocke wrote “I Will Destroy ISIS” in a comment to an article titled “Islamic State Group Threatens to Kill 2 Japanese Hostages” on ABC7.com, the website of ABC’s affiliate channel based in Los Angeles. The article has since been removed from the website, but Glocke’s original comment remains accessible through the archives of Disqus.^[1] About an hour after Glocke’s post, Redditor Jamesnufc took the earliest known screenshot of the comment and submitted it to the /r/me_irl subreddit (shown below)^[2] as a commentary on the Charlie Hebdo Terror Attacks that had recently taken place in Paris, France.

While the username in the screenshot was mildly blurred out in consideration of the commenter’s privacy, it was nevertheless sufficiently legible that other viewers on Reddit soon managed to identify the commenter’s name as “Linda Glocke.” Redditor Jamesnufc’s post accrued 4,304 points (99% upvoted) prior to being archived.

Spread

On June 15th, Redditor yalaagain re-submitted the screenshot to /r/me_irl^[3], where it garnered significantly less points due to its repost status, though it fared much better on Imgur^[4], garnering over 5,000 points and 660,000 views.

In the following months, Glocke’s declaration of a one-person war against the ISIS seemed to slowly fade into obscurity, but the screenshot saw its biggest resurgence on Imgur in November after the ISIS claimed responsibility for the series of deadly attacks that took place across Paris. On November 18th, Imgur user omglandshark^[5] submitted a photoshopped image of Glocke’s head superimposed over the body of a pilot sitting in an A-10 attack aircraft with her original Disqus comment placed at the top (shown below).

On the following day, Redditor RedditCensorsFreeSpeech submitted a compilation of additional photoshopped images inspired by the previous post.^[6]

On November 20th, Redditor itsokayyoucanlaughandjokearound posted a photoshopped GIF from the 2008 American superhero action film Iron Man, featuring Glocke’s face and the phrase “I will destroy ISIS”.^[7]

Meanwhile on 4chan, a number of other comments posted by Linda Glocke on her Disqus account have come under scrutiny; on November 15th, a discussion thread about Glocke’s political commentaries was started on 4chan’s /pol/ (politically incorrect) board.^[11]