The "Stop Joseph Kony" Thread (campaign against Ugandan guerilla leader)

[Blind Theory]

Originally Posted by torqueofficial

Where did you read the first point there? I would like to read that article bro .

Third paragraph:
The Educated Field Negro, We got trouble.

And here is another for shits n' giggles (so to speak):
Worst Idea Ever? | Wronging Rights


You can find those same links in Loomer's post on the first page of this thread.

[PeteyG]

It's been said already but I just wanted to put in my two cents.

I think the idea of getting rid of the leaders of evil organisations, such as Kony, is great even if it is a little short sighted, and if people want to go ahead and support IC then be my guest.

I on the other hand don't wish to support Invisible Children, as much as I like their idea of raising awareness of this guy and what he is doing. In fact I would go as far as saying that I wish they weren't going to get any funding for what they are doing given what I can see of them.

It really seems like 3 college students took a trip to Africa a decade ago with a camera to go and look for an unheard of issue to champion and start a charity for and become wealthy in the process.

Their propaganda is somewhat biased and dishonest, misleading and made to encourage sharing by people who will watch it once and pass it on due to it seeming like such a polarized issue, and as far as I'm concerned a cause based upon even the slightest deception is not a cause worth fighting for. If they were more up front and honest from the off then I would be more inclined to support them.

Their youtube video has been viewed more than 11 million times at the time I write this, that alone will be gaining them a large portion of money.

What I said above about the aim being a little short sighted, what I mean by this is that great, let's aim to get Kony taken down and the LRA dismantled by the end of 2012, but what then? What will this charity organisation that we have given a butt load of power and financial ability do next?

[pink freud]

Another point on "what happens next?"

OK, let's say this is successful and the bastard gets arrested and all that. The video is all "yay! Let's reunited these kids with their parents and it will all be hunky dory!"

NO. ....ING. WAY.

Anybody who is paying attention knows that professional soldiers have a difficult time adjusting to civilian life. How do you think preteens who were abducted, forced to kill, mutilate and rape other children are going to function when this is all over?

Better be earmarking some of that unspent charity money for intensive counseling, because this doesn't end pretty.

[shredguitar7]

The dude knows how to get peoples attention..

[The Beard]

This whole thing is starting to piss me right the .... off

I came into this thread to post that "one does not simply destabalize a ugandan warlord by liking a status" picture.

Literally half my friends on facebook have changed their profile pictures to "Stop Kony" posters and do the whole "#stopkony" hashtag thing.

Whoop-de-shit. What good does that do?

This whole shebang has good intentions, but a lot of the data is wrong, there are extremely shady undertones, and like a previous poster said, it has kind of a "look at me! I care about this so I changed my profile picture" feel to it and all of these people that "care" are hardly going to do anything more than sit back and watch what happens.

This whole thing just makes me:

[Cancer]

My 2 cents, but first, a preface:

A: I'm writing this at 2:30am, so its WAYYYYYY past my bedtime, and I'm tired,
B: I reserve the right to completely change my mind tomorrow,
C: I have barely read the other responses here, so I'm repeating what's been said, please see A:

Firstly, I'm going to drop this link, and say nothing else about it:

The Daily What

Secondly,

You know what kept gnawing my guts over and over again as I'm watching this? "Should the entire planet be involved with this? Why is this the responsibility of JUST the US?" At least for a little while we had worldwide support after 9/11, your tellling me you can't get that here?

Last thought:

This guy clearly cares about what happening in Uganda, or at least he communicates it well. Ultimately, IMO, that is NOT his underlying agenda. I believe, but cannot prove, that river underneath it all is ..... He trying to prove a point.

He trying to prove that common humanity can effect change in the reaction of the power elite by use of social networking tools. He trying to see if change can happen from the ground up, as oppose to top down, like it's currently believed.

I find myself wondering why he didn't start this movement if South Africa, since the culture there is very similiar to that of Europe and the States.

Good night all, past my bedtime.


tl;dr?

After I woke up:

Advertising has two components, a product, and an action. I think this guy is trying to see if that mechanism can used for something good as opposed to selling us crap. Ask yourself a question which would you rather do. Buy (action) a bar of soap (product)? Or, take out (action) a brutal dictator (product)?

[Loomer]

The backlash against IC is gonna be so very delicious to watch.. If it's brewing as it is already, imagine what it'll be when the mainstream media picks it up just how shady/incompetent they are.

At least, let's hope this whole mess brings some more focus on how NGO's operate, and how foreign aid can be applied in the best manner possible. It should be obvious to anyone with half a brain, who sees past the propaganda bullshit, that this whole Africa issue is not something that can be solved quickly by pouring money down shoddily-planned projects that offer only short term solutions.

The need for viable, well thought out and most of all LONG TERM solutions is greater than ever, and it's time people learn that instead of just perpetuating this ....ing useless "awareness"/facebook-activism shit.

[Fiction]

All I'll point out is, today, my facebook is almost Kony-Free, just goes to show how things can blow over so quickly with some people.

[Loomer]

Originally Posted by Fiction

All I'll point out is, today, my facebook is almost Kony-Free, just goes to show how things can blow over so quickly with some people.

"I totally saved the world by clicking "Share" that one time. Go me."

[Asrial]

Just to join;

I saw the video last night, not knowing anything before.
I shared it, and got linked the visible children tumblr-post.
After MASSIVE critique from an ass that didn't read the "i will take this down shortly, shaddap", I unfriended a douche from FB, deleted the video and never looked back.

I agree that Kony should go and die in a bonfire, but the case is so deep...
First up, I'm heavily against military, and IC supporting one of the more shady armies? .... no.
Second, how can we exactly do a difference? "Liking" a post? Lolwut. Even if the entire globe stood out and said "arrest Kody!", you wouldn't get anything at all. He's on the top priority over men to be caught, the international systems KNOWS, god dammit. That's why Osama took so long too; if they knew where he were, then blimey, he would've been caught the very instant.
Third, and as stated; then what to do with the traumatized children? They're dangerous. Do you want to put them in rehab and heavily medicate them? Grind them to patties? Leave them be?

[Loomer]

I'm all for grinding children into patties, but then again that's just me...

[Asrial]

Lovely morbid :]
It's easy to be an activist, but there's just times where it won't do a damn thing.

Demo against ACTA? Yes, worth it, as it gave politicians a clear message about not signing the horrid treaty.
Demo against Kody? No, because if the gov knew where he were, he would obviously be history by now, and since he is so high priority, then what the balls, think they still don't know?

[Quikblade]

I was going to write a longwinded reply basically saying im not sure lol, the IC is obviously a bit dodge but the cause on the surface of things is a good one which is easy to get behind.

So im gonna offer an alternative veiwpoint instead. (Maybe it should be a different thread)

I see a lot of people argueing that we need to sort things out at home (be it in America or Europe). There is also those who say it is not simply as easy as taking down Kony, and i agree.

Theres a lot of problems in this world that we need to adress and most of them can be filtered down to being economic. We need a radical change in the system so that there is no upper, middle or lower class. These classes are defined by your wealth so i think thats the place to start. Get rid of the economic system.

That is not a easy thing to do in itself and i think thats the problem with the whole situation of the financial crises atm. If we simply dropped the economy major public disorder would surely ensue, but its something to think about.

I suggest anyone who hasnt already checked it out check out the Zeitgeist Movement.

I reckon there will be a few people who have some negative stuff to say about it especially as it has a anti-religous theme at the start and im sure people will accuse me of being a conspiricay theorist if they watch the 9/11 part.

I however would say that its worth looking at some of the ideas expressed about the banking system and the resource based economy in the later part of it. There's 3 movies so quite a bit of veiwing and i cba getting links cause im at work (just google it).

Anyway thats more then i meant to put just trying to be constructive as opposed to just saying this probly wont work.

[The Reverend]

Originally Posted by Quikblade

I was going to write a longwinded reply basically saying im not sure lol, the IC is obviously a bit dodge but the cause on the surface of things is a good one which is easy to get behind.

So im gonna offer an alternative veiwpoint instead. (Maybe it should be a different thread)

I see a lot of people argueing that we need to sort things out at home (be it in America or Europe). There is also those who say it is not simply as easy as taking down Kony, and i agree.

Theres a lot of problems in this world that we need to adress and most of them can be filtered down to being economic. We need a radical change in the system so that there is no upper, middle or lower class. These classes are defined by your wealth so i think thats the place to start. Get rid of the economic system.

That is not a easy thing to do in itself and i think thats the problem with the whole situation of the financial crises atm. If we simply dropped the economy major public disorder would surely ensue, but its something to think about.

I suggest anyone who hasnt already checked it out check out the Zeitgeist Movement.

I reckon there will be a few people who have some negative stuff to say about it especially as it has a anti-religous theme at the start and im sure people will accuse me of being a conspiricay theorist if they watch the 9/11 part.

I however would say that its worth looking at some of the ideas expressed about the banking system and the resource based economy in the later part of it. There's 3 movies so quite a bit of veiwing and i cba getting links cause im at work (just google it).

Anyway thats more then i meant to put just trying to be constructive as opposed to just saying this probly wont work.

I hate to derail this thread, but let me just say that all other things being equal, humans will invent striations in class and just generally do stupid shit. In a resource-based economy, perhaps intelligence or physical ability or god-forbid attractiveness will become dividing factors, given enough time. There's no solution to the instincts that make us shitty. Capitalism and communism would work just fine if the problem was in the actual process or system.

I applaud you willing to actually think about a solution. I'm tired of seeing "Kony-haters" on Facebook, just like the OWS-haters a few months ago. It's easy to say something won't work, not so easy to think up something that works. Ironic, considering my post was mostly about how a resource driven economy wouldn't work like you think it would.

[Quikblade]

Originally Posted by The Reverend

I hate to derail this thread, but let me just say that all other things being equal, humans will invent striations in class and just generally do stupid shit. In a resource-based economy, perhaps intelligence or physical ability or god-forbid attractiveness will become dividing factors, given enough time. There's no solution to the instincts that make us shitty. Capitalism and communism would work just fine if the problem was in the actual process or system.

I applaud you willing to actually think about a solution. I'm tired of seeing "Kony-haters" on Facebook, just like the OWS-haters a few months ago. It's easy to say something won't work, not so easy to think up something that works. Ironic, considering my post was mostly about how a resource driven economy wouldn't work like you think it would.

Fair Enough, you hava a good point with regards to my class theory actually . Still I was reading through this thread and got a little pissed with the attitude that doing anything was pointless.

Dont get me wrong Im objective about the whole thing. I dont get suckered into beliveing everything they say in there. But i think theres a few things worth considering.

I think tbh theres a lot more we need to consider before we could even think about trying to implement a resource based economy.

Overpopulation is one of the main problems in the world right now IMO. maybe capitalism would even work if there was more to go round.

So I guess the question is how can we get the world back in order?

[synrgy]

Too funny not to share here:

[pink freud]

It's really for another thread, but Class and Economy will exist as long as major inefficiencies in production exist.

You can't escape conservation of matter/energy, but you can manipulate it.

[Scar Symmetry]

Watch the whole thing, he talks specifically about Kony at 38:30.

[Xaios]

Seems like a good idea on the face of it, but as has already been mentioned, there are too many red flags.

One thing I thought was funny was that this group says they plan to plaster Kony's face all over everything on April 20th.

Seriously, 4-20? Really? Most of their target demographic is going to be baked out of their skulls. Who on earth thought that it would be a good idea to have a bunch of college kids who are stoned out of their gourds running around the city all night?

The other issue I have with the video is how blatantly manipulative it is. It's this constant barrage of "gotta hit home" tactics and "V-for-Vendetta," "We are the 99%" imagery.

[Genome]

This should be a pre-requisite.

[Xaios]

Heh, fair enough, although Africa is a pretty complicated place in terms of geopolitics. It's understandably a lot harder for someone from North America to pick out one of 54 countries than it is to show this map to someone from Africa...



...and say "click Canada."

[Genome]

Is it the bottom one?

[groph]

Originally Posted by pink freud

Another point on "what happens next?"

OK, let's say this is successful and the bastard gets arrested and all that. The video is all "yay! Let's reunited these kids with their parents and it will all be hunky dory!"

NO. ....ING. WAY.

Anybody who is paying attention knows that professional soldiers have a difficult time adjusting to civilian life. How do you think preteens who were abducted, forced to kill, mutilate and rape other children are going to function when this is all over?

Better be earmarking some of that unspent charity money for intensive counseling, because this doesn't end pretty.

Another superb point that I've read a bit about in the literature around child soldiers. There are limited programs designed to reintegrate children, but that's not to say it's always effective and always gets to the kids.

There just isn't going to be a happy ending for the kids involved in child soldiering and people need to get their heads out of their asses and stop feeling so bloody sorry for these kids - they're not even necessarily seen as children in that part of the world, they're not "innocent," childhood isn't understood over there like it is over here. That's not to explain away the situation as another instance of cultural relativism, it's to say that we're ill-equipped from the get go when it comes to understanding the problem and we're certainly in no place to make snap judgments.

[Xaios]

Originally Posted by genome

Is it the bottom one?

You, sir, are hereby no longer allowed to send us relief money and aid for the reintegration of all our child soldiers.

(Granted, in Canada, they're child soldiers more due to playing too much Call of Duty...)

[Riffer]

Originally Posted by synrgy

Too funny not to share here:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I posted this on my Facebook, it's too good not to. All I see on my Facebook are these post about "Watch this video, and spread the word" and it's posted by some duck lipped 23 year old girl with a Abercrombie hoodie on and statuses that say "ZOMG, people drive like assholes, my coffee is hot, my favorite Usher song just came on my Pandora station, all guys are dick heads, I can believe they voted that guy off American Idol, someone buy me a iPad PPWWWEEEASEEE!!!!1!11!!"