Kony 2012
 

This campaign is really huge right now, everybody is talking about it all over facebook, twitter and tumblr. Around 3000 people are taking part in Glasgow alone, don't know what the situation is around the rest of the country. Here is the video at the center of the campaign.

Basically it's to raise awareness about a war in Africa and this war criminal named Joseph Kony. They are giving away t-shirts and bracelets, trying to "make Kony famous".
Here is the article I read opposing the campaign.
Visible Children - KONY 2012 Criticism
It makes good points. So what do you guys think? Is this a worthy cause or will it do more damage than good?

I think the intentions are good, but I'm not sure how much good it's really doing (as in helping find him).

I read that article I linked and it talks about how they have tried to capture him before and it's just resulted in slaughter. If his soldiers are kids and they're being killed then I don't think I really agree with this campaign. The guy needs to be stopped but I can't take part if it just causes more violence.

Found this on my tumblr feed, felt I should probably share it here as well.

I mean they at least brought attention to someone most people would be willing to just cynically dismiss as an unfortunate part of day-to-day life in that region, but after reading through some of the links associated to what I've quoted, I'm not sure if I would want to be seen supporting this group.

Here's another interesting article on the topic that I found earlier today.

I got into a few talks with people on different statuses about this whole thing. One fine young lady said it was "stupid" because it was critical of Invisible Children. Oh okay so you're getting upset over legitimate criticism of an organization you found out about, when, like yesterday?

You know, if only 1/3 of my donation went to actual relief while the other 2/3 went to PR bull**** and travel expenses, I'd be mad too. Then again, I've never actually donated to an African relief fund so I can't complain since 32% > 0%.

I only support military action when it's related to defending my nation and its immediate allies, for a few reasons:

(1) There is no such thing as a humanitarian military expedition; groups that lobby for such expeditions invariably have a motive, a realpolitik motive. They simply dress their expeditions up in the language of human rights, a current example being the sabre rattling against Syria, which is largely promoted by Sunni interests (see, Saudi Arabia) and Likudniks.

(2) Those crying out for such intervention either (1) invert the relationship between a society's superstructure & base, and/or (2) believe we can radically change these nations via some sort of nation building-lite. How people can believe this in the face of empirical failures such Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, (etc.), is beyond me.

(3) I believe our values our unique to our people, and that exporting them via guns & bombs is another form of imperialism, which offers no tangible benefits to the exporter.


...for those wondering what I was referring to by superstructure, see:

http://www.stowaway.net/images/base_super.jpg

This is disgusting. His crimes are, but the supporters of this campaign are worse. Nobody gives a shit about the children. Everybody's needed someone to hate since Bin Laden was killed and this is ripe for the picking. You don't care. You just like the thrill of the manhunt.

I'm surprised at the small amount of posts in this thread, I expected it to be a widely discussed topic.

Personally I think the video is exceptional in the way they've managed to get such a large amount of the population interested in something which has been going on for 20 years, although I am critical of the organisation (invisible children) and the likely outcomes of what it's campaign will lead to. I don't think too much of their money expenditures; from a business perspective the way they've advertised is only likely to bring in more people donating; which in theory is a good thing.

I've tried to keep up with all the articles being posted about this (there's a hell of a lot), and there's a lot of criticism online, but very little in the mainstream media... To me it just seems like they're creating a figure to hate, very similar to Bin Laden. I'd heard about the LRA situation in Uganda about 2 years ago, but even then I knew that Uganda was in a state of recovering from the crisis, and it's only recently that anything is being done about it. It reminds me of the fact that very few people I know seem to know little to nothing about the Rwandan genocide.

It seems strange to me that this is happening at a point where the "crisis in uganda" is actually fading, and communities are actually currently rebuilding; I think all this publicity is likely to make conflict worse.

Also, I'm in no way endorsing any kind of crazy conspiracy theory; but it is a fact that Uganda have untapped natural resources.

I'm glad to see a thread on this, as it's a movement I'm becoming quite passionate about. I've read probably over a hundred articles in the time since the video was posted, both in criticism and defense of Invisible Children. I always read things critically (and I've been encouraging everyone I've had conversations with to do the same), and when looking at both sides of the arguments at hand I've come to the conclusion that it's something I personally want to get behind. Absolutely, 100%.

As the author said in one article I read earlier today, whenever there's something that goes viral like this and something that a large percentage of the population eagerly gets behind, there will always be an equally large amount of people just waiting to shit all over it. No matter who is right in any given case, there will always be people waiting for their chance to burst someones proverbial bubble.

I waited to donate money until after I had done research about the finances of Invisible Children and despite the criticism against them I felt that they are using their funds in much the same way that I would. I'm a poor college student, and I'm not about to give my money away to anything I find to be remotely sketchy.

I feel like a lot of people are getting caught up in aspects of the video that are not necessarily relating to the bigger picture. Much of the criticism toward IC relates to the fact that the war is not in Uganda, but I felt that the video made that pretty clear... the point was not to raise awareness about a war in Uganda, it's about keeping people interested in Kony and the LRA so that the efforts made so far in regards to Kony's arrest are not revoked or withdrawn. The military advisers from the US that are currently in Central Africa will be pulled out if the issue does not remain a prominent thing to both the powers at be and, consequently, to the public. IC has been trying to get the US government to commission military aid for nearly a decade now, if the window closes and Kony is not arrested this year than a lot of their efforts will have gone to waste.

I think the video was great in that it reminds the general public that there are important things to care about, and no matter how hokey or overly-sentimental it may be, I think it's reminding young people that they have a voice and that they should use it. That being said, I certainly have my own criticisms of the movement and my own list of annoyances in regards to IC and the video itself, but in my opinion it's more important to have this incredible spark of interest in activism, whether it's used in regards to the Kony 2012 campaign or elsewhere.

I would love to talk more to people who are interested or curious about this, either publicly or through PM.

Effective propaganda is effective.

People need to learn to think critically. Your menstruating heart - it can't bleed enough for two.

1 - IC support the Ugandan Military, not the ugandan people.
2 - Kony has been on the run since 2006
3 - Obama increased US military aid in 2008 already, long before this video was released.
4 - There are plenty of warlords in africa who will step in to fill the void kony will leave.


The solution to africa's problems isn't to continuously raise awareness of individual issues, its to continuously raise awareness of the fact that Africa is a continent that is largely ****ed from top to bottom. The countries there have corrupt regimes, the people there are poor and under-educated, and the are plenty of very bad people with an awful lot of local power, if not global power.

Stopping Kony won't solve anything, and IC's campaign is very likely to make things much worse. The campaign is reckless and steps need to be taken in more ways than creating a figurehead for hatred and encouraging further violence.

As far as I'm concerned, the best thing we can do for africa is wait and help in smaller, more measured ways. Especially since the warlords that run large portions of africa have enough raw man(child)power to seriously damage any attempt at large scale international intervention. The technological and tactical superiority of an army can't and doesn't compensate entirely for the fact you're facing an enemy that massively outnumbers you. Sure, you'll hit them harder than they can hit you, but they're GOING to get their shots in before you manage to beat them down entirely.

Re: People waiting to **** on these movements:

I don't think people take issue with activism or world needs. I think the problem with these kinds of events, be they raising awareness for Uganda or child abuse or anything else, is that the participants make a mockery of activism and change. I myself hold these events in high disregard, because for every one person who does something substantial about the issue, there are a hundred thousand more lazy, self-righteous infants who partake in a trend and believe that their status update is doing their part to make a difference.

I think that doing fuck all and believing you are a hero is even worse than apathy, and if this is the way activism is headed, society is just as fucked as if it didn't know or care. Watching a video is not activism. Posting a status is not activism. Formulating an opinion through second-hand information and social propaganda is not activism.

I respect the hell out of anyone who makes an informed effort towards positive change, but I have nothing but contempt for most of these piggybackers. That's why there is backlash over these issues. It's not because we skeptics are selfish or against change, it's because facebook-activism makes a travesty of humanitarian work.

If someone could show me that five million facebook updates made a real impact, not just a sanctimonious public scene, I would put both my feet in my mouth on the spot, but I see no reason to be optimistic about change based on a viral video.

Getting sick of all the naive, pretentious people taking part in this on facebook. I have been called sick, ignorant and given evils all week just because I don't want to help fund a war. People get so high and mighty over things like this.

A lot of people are getting really involved in the campaign, and this is for very honourable motives. However, the trouble is that not everything is what is seems, and in this case the awful truth is that the campaign is certainly not going to be having the effect that many people imagine it will have. In this case, it is clearly outrageous that children were kidnapped in order to support a resistance movement, but it cannot be assumed that any charity claiming to be fighting against it must be honest and the money you give will be used in the way you expect.
It seems that for a start, Kony hasn't been in Uganda for six years, and therefore claims that he is threatening the children there must be taken skeptically. Furthermore, where the money this charity collects ends up is also questionable, because only a third of the donations actually end up in Uganda.

The article Loathsome Pete quoted says much more, but the clear lesson is that anything as political and driven as much as this ought to be looked at first, because sometimes what you find is not pretty.

http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Wil...83_3427454.jpg

Sorry, I had to.

This is absolutely true and I think everyone needs to realise it.
They themselves know that what they do will have no effect, but want the warm feeling of having "fought some evil", despite having done nothing at all.

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...05924546_n.jpg

^ That picture is perfect. Stealing it.

And did anyone watch this interview? It's with the man himself. I believe it's one of the only ones he's ever done. Not sure what to think of it.

You're welcome!
For some reason, I didn't quite picture him as acting that way, nor from what I've read about him did I get the same impression.
To be honest, I can't make anything of that video either.

Invisible Children Co-Founder Jason Russell caught masturbating in public
 

Title pretty much says it. If someone wouldn't mind posting a link to the story so the rest can enjoy it, that would be super.

here's the story for people who are too lazy to google it.

" San Diego police say Jason Russell, a co-founder of activist group Invisible Children and one of the creators of the "Kony 2012" video, was detained Thursday night in Pacific Beach after he was allegedly found masturbating in public and possibly under the influence of alcohol, according to NBC San Diego.

According to the station, police say they received calls around 11:30 a.m. reporting that a man running through traffic and screaming, while in "various stages of undress."

Officers say when they arrived on the scene the film maker was cooperative, NBC San Diego reports.

The marketing campaign is an effort by Invisible Children to vastly increase awareness about a jungle militia leader who is wanted for atrocities by the International Criminal Court. He is also being hunted by 100 U.S. Special Forces advisers and local troops in four Central African countries.

The "Kony 2012" video, about the atrocities carried out by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army went viral, drawing nearly 80 million views on YouTube. The controversial video put Kony in the international spotlight, but also drew disapproval from critics who say the video oversimplified the conflict."

-CBS

I didn't read everything so I don't know if this already has been said.

I don't know if anyone's heard the rumor going around that Kony's already dead.
I saw a Youtube video (ONE video, so I'm not using this to completely support my claim) by a girl who is Ugandan. Her parents came here straight from Uganda and laughed when she brought up the campaign saying something along the lines of "Kony has been dead for years." On top of that, many Uganda's are infuriated and don't like being made out to be the way the video portrayed them.

Pretty funny stuff. I guess Kony wasn't all that he wanted to rub out.

And here's your link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_1...n-says-report/

http://theoriginalgreenwichdiva.com/...wn-picture.jpg

Beer out the nose funny.

Kony Kits, now featuring a Krazy Jason bobblehead.

Hahaha... He looks like he's about to Hulk out.

Don't make him horny, you wouldn't like him when he's horny....

But, seriously, that looks like some furious masturbating.

Here's the video. It's the TMZ version, so it's censored for all you kiddies, but it's still probably NSFW.

Jason Russel has officially changed the slogan "paint the town red" to "paint the town white" and sited his behavior on last Thursday as a practical demonstration.

A bit hard to judge from that brief footage but I don't buy it. Looks like a put-on to me. I don't know why he would choose to do it but that's my gut response to that video.