All Recent "Kony 2012" Threads Combined

i'm not claiming to have a solution, but i just think that everyone should stop and learn more about this particular conflict and others like it. learn about the history of the area, the history, the people involved. how can you support a campaign for military intervention without even understanding what you're intervening in? if the US send troops into central Africa, people will die. watching a 30 minute video (which doesn't spend a lot of its time explaining the situation) doesn't give you enough knowledge to make an informed decision.

understand that by supporting this campaign, you are advocating for western military intervention in most likely more than one poor country, not merely spreading information about atrocities.

i'm not saying that you,and everyone else sharing this video and talking about Kony aren't doing it for the right reasons, but i think that it's a knee-jerk reaction rather than a well thought out decision.

 

Didn't everyone say that about the US-led invasion of Afghanistan?

Who do you think should go in and take care of this? the UN?

I'm a dumbass and I stand corrected. Sorry. I didn't see a decimal place when looking up statistics. 5.6 million people in the Congo, 60 million people in WWII.

5.6 million people is still a shitload of people. I would still classify it as a major war with no easy solution.

 

The Taliban had backing. Millions of militant Muslims supported them. No one is supporting Kony, except for his military. They don't have the resources to make IEDs or suicide bombers, they're basically 17th century pirates with slightly better guns. We could easily get them.

 

What I got out of the video was this... There are 100 US troops there now in an advisory position. They are likely to be pulled due to lack of interest by our government. By making this situation known and supported by US citizens they are likely to stay. I didn't get anything said or implied about an invasion. (Going by the video only, mind you)

 

this should not be the US's domain. In a parallel universe I would be proud if my country led an invasion for something like this. However, in this universe I think the United States needs to stay the fuck out for several reasons:

1)We have a long history of invading other countries for greedy reasons. We don't lead invasions if we don't get anything out of it.
2)Because of this, the world hates us. The world thinks we need to stay the fuck out of others' affairs. If this situation went awry (and obviously it would) the world would eventually hate us for this too.
3)Our troops are stretched way too thin and have been for many years.

I wish people would leave the United States out of this discussion. It is not our job to intervene in this situation. If anyone does anything, it should be the UN. The world can't expect the U.S. to be the world's peacekeepers AND expect us to be isolationists and keep our nose out of things.

 

I'm skeptical that its that simple.

 

I didn't say anything about an invasion.

 

I must confess, I saw 'Invisible Children' years ago, shed a few tears, then returned it to the library and never mentioned it to anyone

This video serves, at the very least, to raise awareness which so many of us are tuned out from


Whether you buy the sticker pack, whether you support U.S. involvement, you can't deny that bringing it to the world's attention is as eye-opening as a doccumentary can be


Maybe this guy *is* using his charm, good looks, film-making skills, and other people's misery to put his kid through college

or maybe he really is a guy that cares enough about something to dedicate his life to it

maybe young people just want to feel good about being activists, but maybe this could have an impact


I usually err on the side of skepticism, but I don't really understand the reactions in this thread

 

Looks like Meliai has been racking up pretty good, so I'll submit two memes that closely illustrate my views....







....awareness is still good, in the rare case it will motivate someone not only to post a link to a cause/issue but do more and donate money or ever better their physical time and presences.

 

About the US-Led invasion in afghanistan, maybe they were, but the propaganda surrounding it came from the government down. This here is an account of a direct experience of 3 guys who went to Uganda...

 

Of course it's bad shit, but...... nobodys done shit for years, I remember reading about this shit when I was a little kid first exploring the internet, I remember hearing it on NPR before THAT even, and suddenly today I hear it again on NPR, and keep seeing it online.

Facebook cause of the week. Nobody will care again. If we cared about really helping the world we could have fixed this and a lot of similar situations around the world in a lasting way many times over, but we invaded our own middle eastern puppets....... We wage a war on american citizens who happen to like drugs, instead of fix this..... So I'm not all hopeful this time.

 

I don't see anything wrong with this. When you are employed aren't you suppose to get paid? I work in a non profit , and i got paid to support my transportation and food fee. What is the problem?

Don't they have to travel to spread the word?

The editing of the film was amazing....

Don't you need a office to get everything together?

This guy is changing the world and Uganda. I am so happy that someone has the heart to risk his life, to help save others.

 

I guess the thing that bothers me about this whole debate is that most of it stems from people hating on the organization. Because they don't like the way Invisible Children is managed, they shut out the whole campaign/idea. I mean how selfish are you really if 17 or your contribution dollars (or whatever) went towards salaries and video production? Worse comes to worse, print your own posters off the internet and fuck giving money to invisible children....The cause is still good.

That being said I had an argument on the Kony 2012 facebook group in my area. It was all around an article that someone posted that criticize this whole thing with all the same points that they still do. I'm going to post my response below. This is my opinion on the whole thing. I'd like to know your opinions on that matter.

''I'm having a hard time understanding why people are looking for ways to ''debunk'' or ''bring down'' this whole effort. Do you not understand that the whole idea here is to do good? That this whole movement stems from nothing but good intentions...

The person who wrote this article by saying he doesnt doubt that Kony is an evil man but that he ''strongly against the Kony 2012 campaign'' and starts to criticize the ''invisible children'' organization.

''Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production.''
OK. This has been going around alot in the last day or so. Only 32% went directly to Uganda, with the bulk going towards film production. Regarding their salaries, I can understand (find me a picture of one them driving a 300 000$ mercedes and I'll start getting upset). About the movie production thing..... IS ANYONE FORGETTING THAT THIS WHOLE THING IS AN AWARENESS CAMPAIGN??? This is not a ''Rebuild Uganada'' campaign, it's a campaign to make everyone in the world aware of what's going on over there. I don't see the problem. Actually, the fact that this organization, which is geared towards awareness, still gives 32% of their earnings to Uganda is kind of a bonus if you ask me. What we are trying to achieve here is to create new rules for this world. To show that the whole world is watching and that our brothers and sisters everywhere will no longer be ignored.

''Yeah but Joseph Kony hasn't been active since 2006''. OH. OK. Should we just forget about him then? Just forgive him and move on? I dont think so. What would that say to other warlords? Do what you want, then lay low for a while, the whole thing will blow over? What does that say to those legions of Ugandan families that lost their kids and suffered those atrocities? As far as I'm concerned, Kony is still on the top 10 world's most wanted....

''As Christ Blattman, a political scientist at Yale, writes on the topic of IC’s programming, “There’s also something inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous, about the idea of rescuing children or saving of Africa. […] It hints uncomfortably of the White Man’s Burden. Worse, sometimes it does more than hint. The savior attitude is pervasive in advocacy, and it inevitably shapes programming. Usually misconceived programming.”' THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN? OH NO, POOR US! I don't know about anyone else but I'll take a white man's burden any day before having my 8 year old child stolen during the night and made a child soldier. It shouldnt be seen as a burden. It should be seen as a responsibility. What happened to compassion? Chris Blattman is a moron.

''Still, Kony’s a bad guy, and he’s been around a while. Which is why the US has been involved in stopping him for years. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has sent multiple missions to kill or capture Kony over the years. And they’ve failed time and time again, each provoking a ferocious response and increased retaliative slaughter.''
I don't know much about these missions, but if I were to guess, I'd bet that these were very small scale missions where there were 50 or so men sent as nothing more than a diplomatic effort to show that we care. ''they've failed time and time again''. Dont give me that shit. Don't tell me that our advanced, highly trained, highly equipped armies are failing time and time again against ghetto-ass militias with machetes, child soldiers, 0 training, and fucked up old weapons. PUHLEASE!''

 

You might be right, but I hope you're wrong...

 

I wonder what will happen when the U.S. Runs out of oil to steal.

 

Sure has been a lot of talk about Kony all of a sudden after 25 years. Unfortunately these Internet trends tend to be as short lived as they are quick to trend. The US has already taken indirect action against Kony twice in 2008 and 2010. However if people think the US is putting its feet back down on sub-Saharan African soil again, think again.

IMO it's this idea in the US, even among the more educated crowd, that sees black Africa as naturally disposed to violence and lack of civilization. It's a view that seems to be moving toward the Muslim world as well which is increasingly being seen as a land and/or religion of ubiquitous violence. However when you look at it, the most violent players have been the imperial powers that shaped the regions.

 

World War 3. Complete chaos. Thanks for the information everyone! This is a good place to go for various opinions!

 

Ok, I guess the threads are actually combined, anyway

Here's a cool idea, make your own Kony posters

That way you can be a part of the big pop protest (aren't they all?) without supporting the capitalist filmmakers

I mean the 99% or the children of Uganda

choose a flag and fly it (there are other options of course, if you want to be less mainstream)

I always think it's pretty cool when people get involved in things, even when it's completely superficial (like buying stickers, or making doccumentaries, or posting on facebook)

It reminds people that they have a voice and it encourages people to care


Some of you said you thought everyone knew about the LRA (I did, but it was stuffed in the back of my mind with all the other stuff that doesn't effect my life), but you'd be surprised how many people don't know anything that isn't spoon-fed to them by the television

oh man I'm rambling... Anyway, I think he's a good filmmaker, people should care about stuff, and buying those stickers doesn't make a person any more foolish than buying -anything- does


imho

 

I believe the invisible children campaign holds like 65% of all donations. Haven't read through the thread (yea boo whoo) but i remember after seeing it i thought hey this is good. Went online to learn more about the issue and saw it all as complete propaganda. Like others have said, it's been going on for a long time, the timing is completely off. All that KONY2012 is doing is making the liberal kids think they are fighting for a cause.. Instead of the title being KONY2012 it should be renamed to "Watch this 30 minute documentary and become a social activist"

If you really want a better look at the invisible children campaign watch this..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzjFlULsY-c"]A critical look at KONY2012 - YouTube

 

Much of the above video is spreading a lot of false information. But also a lot of good important information. But the propaganda makes it unable to share.