KONY 2012, and why I don’t support it

There has been a video that has been put online, and went viral the minute it went out into the world.  This was a video showing the actions of a unbelievably terrible person by the name of Joseph Kony in Uganda.  The video about it has gotten over 40M views, and it has sparked a huge amount of outcries for justice and for us to go after this man.  While activism is great, and this guy is a complete piece of shit, there are a lot of things that this whole initiative brings up that a LOT of people are totally ignoring.

1. Since when are people activists?
I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but seriously – what the fuck?!  Where was this level of concern over issues like this that happen every day other places?  You think Uganda is the only part of the world where dictators are kidnapping and brainwashing child soldiers?  Do you really believe that genocide is limited to one place?

I’m going to sound like a broken record because I have talked about this before, to anyone who has read my work since the beginning.  This kind of sudden and faux activism happens every time some controversial movie comes out, or some singer or whatever endorses something.  Remember that form that was going around, getting millions of signatures all over America, trying to stop the law in an African country that would allow them to execute people just for being homosexual?  That was a beyond disgusting law, but people who were getting all up in arms about it didn’t stop to realize – what is a signature of a bunch of Americans going to do to change the minds of people?  Nothing, that’s what.  It wasn’t going to change anything.  And the reason why is obvious – because there is HUGE culture gap that nobody in America pays attention to.  Oh, and that brings me to my second point –

2. Say we get rid of Kony, what next?
For real, I want you to ask yourself this.  Never mind that according to people in Uganda, this video has done more harm than good, because international pressure could bring him out of the shadows and into kidnapping more children to muscle up his defenses.  But what the group who is behind this video, Invisible Children, has basically done is say that we need to have violent intervention.  Here’s a picture of their people, posing with the SPLA.

So, these guys want peace, right?

These aren’t some random people.  These are the founders of Invisible Children, posing with the SPLA, who, along with the Ugandan military, has been ravaging the people for years.

Which brings us back to the point above – say we actually get rid of this guy, who hasn’t been in Uganda for 2 years, says Michael Wilkerson, a man who has lived and reported from Ugana.  Well then, there would be an interesting situation.  He has an army of what has been estimated by Wilkerson to be in the hundreds child and not-so-much soldiers.  All of them are under his command.  If the mission is to step in to save the brainwashed children, do you think that if we kill him, they are just going to go back?  Do you think that’s how it works?  Kill the source of the brainwashing and it goes away?

Sorry, but psychology doesn’t help you there.  They are already brainwashed, and are going to go out and brainwash other children.  This is how it works.  One leader recruits, and they recruit others.  The damage is long since done.  So do we kill all of them?  Kill all these children that everybody wants us to save?  That’s what it would come down to, in the long run.

3. White People aren’t heroes
Broken record moment – it’s pure egotism on the part of Americans to think that we can change the rest of the world’s behaviors and ways of being.  The people who made this video seem to believe that if the white man goes into that country and kills this rebel leader, then everything will suddenly turn out okay.

NO!  Wrong!  One dictator will fall, and the Ugandan military, which has been ransacking the country, will step in.  This is the same level of stupidity that came from people during the invasion of Iraq.  Like Americans can just spread freedom-dust everywhere we go, and the rest of the world will get along.  That’s not how it works.  That’s never been how it works.  The social climate of a foreign country can’t just be fixed with the wave of the American wand.

4. Invisible Children CANNOT be trusted!
I remember hearing about them some time ago, when I was a lot younger, and I didn’t think much of them at the time.  They seemed to be just another group who profited from the suffering of other people to see T-Shirts, wristbands, and videos.  But the IC’s problems go a LOT farther than just exploitation.

Like for instance – how only 31% of their funds go to direct aid of the people.  They have plenty of money going to the military, which is oppressing the Ugandan people.  This group won’t let their finances be audited, so we can’t really know how much money they have that isn’t going to help these people they claim to be so in support of.

Plus, their video has been shown by people like the US Foreign Affairs, and other scholarly sources to be misleading, naive, and even dangerous.  IC has said that they have 30,000 soldiers, and if you saw my thing above, you’d realize what that would be a problem.  Hundreds or thousands, the problem is the same – it would be a force of child soldiers, who you just can’t un-brainwash.  That’s now how psychology works.

But the people have come out in HUGE numbers, supporting this faux-activism, not bothering to check the facks.  That’s a really serious mistake, for a people who actually say that they care.  But they didn’t care when it was happening yesterday, or the day before.  But they care now.  Bleeding hypocrites.

Conclusion:
Kony is a piece of shit.  No question about it.  This guy is a monster.  But you can’t just let a film that has been shown to be emotionally manipulative, misleading, and making the people who made it a shitload of money guide your feelings.  There has to be a lot of genuine attack, from people in Uganda and abroad, showing that this video is doing more harm than good, and that nothing good can come of it.

If you want to help people, that’s great.  But do your research, and don’t let a bunch of Fox News-class sensationalists get you riled up.  Take it the smart way, and you can do real good, which is what the people in this video are NOT doing.

Until next time, a quote,

“This brings me full circle to my frustration with people becoming so “passionate” over something they know nothing about while constantly turning a blind eye to the issues informed activists try to bring to light every damn day.”  -Laci Green, Why I Don’t Support “KONY 2012”

Peace out,

Maverick