"KONY 2012"

[Seanny]

Pardon me if I take offense at people making a fad out of a serious problem, especially one that some of my fellow servicemembers are actively involved in correcting. Slogans and posters don't do anything but irritate people - you're more likely to make a problem be taken LESS seriously by trying to make a campaign/protest out of it (re: Occupy Wallstreet).

See: growing backlash from people sick of seeing this all over social networks/forum sites.

I can understand being offended given what you do. I didn't mean to make light of that. At the same time, knowing my sympathy/emotions might be taken advantage of by these people is also offensive. I think that's among one of the worst things anyone could do to people.

Just doesn't feel good to have that as well as being hated on for bandwagoning on top of that slap in the face. I'd certainly love to know more about the other side of the issue so its less following the crowd and more about knowledge . that blog post was a good start. I might post it on another forum i frequent.

[FrozNlite]

See: growing backlash from people sick of seeing this all over social networks/forum sites.

Just doesn't feel good to have that as well as being hated on for bandwagoning on top of that slap in the face. I'd certainly love to know more about the other side of the issue so its less following the crowd and more about knowledge . that blog post was a good start. I might post it on another forum i frequent.

Seanny, you're the kind of person just finding out about this issue that I respect and appreciate, the kind who, like you said, wants to educate themselves on the issue and make competent, conscientious decisions about their part in spreading the word and taking action.

Honestly what bothers me the most about this whole issue isn't actually that it's becoming a fad (though, again, it's disappointing to know society only operates in cohesive, joint movements such as these when the subject has become a fad), because, like @Flonne said "And yeah, people have known about this for years, but without something like this, apathy will overcome any motivation. At the end of the day, who cares what some spoiled kids hopping on a bandwagon think, as long as it gets the job done."

Obama became a fad in 2008, which is why he so overwhelmingly won the election. I believe he still would have won without being a fad, but not to the degree he did, and ultimately I'm not complaining because I wanted him to win for educated, competent reasons. Similarly, "being green" has become a fad in the last half-decade, something I again won't complain about because it's the right thing to care about (even if not for the right reasons, ex. I want to save the planet v. I want to look cool in this recycling-sign shirt where half the proceeds went to Al Gore [though like I said before, even with "being green" a current trend, it overall does jack pomegranate to actually solve the issue of climate change, but that's a subject for another thread, and the relevance of this point is that at least people are aware and thinking about the issue]).

No, what bothers me the most are the self-righteous people who use this horror to improve their self-image. This harkens back to what MasPan said about it blowing up on social media: you can clearly tell who actually cares and is posting the video with 100% intentions of spreading the word (usually based on the person's background in social work, such as one of my friends who first posted the video and has worked to end human rights violations in Africa), versus people resharing it because it's "getting big" (such as people who post it with the comments "This is blowing up right now. Take 30 min and watch this video, it will change your life. TOGETHER, we can CHANGE THE WORLD."). You're clearly not trying to change the world because you now all of a sudden give a pomegranate about something because your 10 besties do, and you want to seem cultured and caring.

[Seanny]

No, what bothers me the most are the self-righteous people who use this horror to improve their self-image. This harkens back to what MasPan said about it blowing up on social media: you can clearly tell who actually cares and is posting the video with 100% intentions of spreading the word (usually based on the person's background in social work, such as one of my friends who first posted the video and has worked to end human rights violations in Africa), versus people resharing it because it's "getting big" (such as people who post it with the comments "This is blowing up right now. Take 30 min and watch this video, it will change your life. TOGETHER, we can CHANGE THE WORLD."). You're clearly not trying to change the world because you now all of a sudden give a pomegranate about something because your 10 besties do, and you want to seem cultured and caring.

This is the kind of person I had completely forgotten about when I made that post. I understand where your and Maspan's frustrations come from much better now.

[KhainiWest]

Dan you could have summed up that entire post in "henesys hoe/Jersey shore" and everyone and their mother would be like "OOHHHHH I GET IT" LOL

[Rick]

Why does knowing something like this bestow upon you an obligation to do anything about it. The rest of the world has things to deal with, too.

[MasPan]

snip

This, and that 6 months from now, if you mention Koby, a good chunk of them will probably give you blank stares and have no idea what you're talking about. Echoing Froz, it's not people like you, Seanny, that bother me - you seem to genuinely care enough to want to learn more. It's the people simply reposting it with "watch this!" but don't follow up or worse, those that ignore comments that require them to actually read something, that are irritating me. Sorry for being inflammatory.

It's also rather insulting that there are servicemembers there, and other than a brief period where some news articles circulated when Obama signed the agreement to send them there, this seems to have been forgotten. People posting that something needs to be done about this when something IS being done about it (it's extraordinarily difficult to displace someone like Kony from the kind of power he has set up for himself, btw - a good example being the extradition of Christopher "Dudus" Coke from Jamaica recently). It takes a lot of planning, research/intelligence gathering, and usually some form of coordinated police/military operation. It's not something you can just throw money at. The money for the documentary might've better been spent lobbying for more military aid or direct intervention from the UN.

[CommanderJinn]

The thing about viral activism is that, while it does get major publicity for a couple of weeks, it just tapers off just as quickly as it came. Activism and Social Justice isn't about just knowing about something and leaving it at that, but about continuously doing something to remedy it. 90% of people reblogging, sharing, tweeting, and what have you, have no intention of doing anything beyond posting that video. Sure the knowledge is out there, but no one actually cares enough to act on it.

For something as difficult to tackle as human rights abuse in Africa, one can argue that it's nearly impossible for individuals in foreign countries to even make a difference there. Any money donated has no guarantee in going to what you want it to go to, and petitioning politicians to send more armed servicemen to those countries will just spark the imperialism debate again.

[MasPan]

The thing about viral activism is that, while it does get major publicity for a couple of weeks, it just tapers off just as quickly as it came. Activism and Social Justice isn't about just knowing about something and leaving it at that, but about continuously doing something to remedy it. 90% of people reblogging, sharing, tweeting, and what have you, have no intention of doing anything beyond posting that video. Sure the knowledge is out there, but no one actually cares enough to act on it.

For something as difficult to tackle as human rights abuse in Africa, one can argue that it's nearly impossible for individuals in foreign countries to even make a difference there. Any money donated has no guarantee in going to what you want it to go to, and petitioning politicians to send more armed servicemen to those countries will just spark the imperialism debate again.

And removing the corruption to enable financial support in the first place is equally difficult - it takes years of involvement to even get a foothold in solving that particular problem, especially if it's completely entrenched and accepted as the way things are. You face several problems: finding out who ISN'T corrupt in the first place (which may or may not be useless if those people either don't know anything useful/concrete or are too afraid to help), then slowly building up cases on the corrupt officials while trying not to jeopardize your witnesses. And, of course, constantly having to triple-check everything you're told to be sure you're not involved in some xanatos gambit or being led to remove the actual competent/honest officials.

After you've removed enough of the corruption to actually have a capable military and police force with minimal risk of intelligence leaks/counter-intelligence/direct sabotage, you can start trying to finance an operation with a decent chance of success, no sooner.

[Green4Ever]

Didn't care before it became popular, still don't care.

[Panacea]

I'm going to reiterate what Rick said, as well as add onto it.

There are horrible things happening all over the world, but people choose to ignore them until it suddenly blows up on Twitter and Facebook or whatever Internet source, then out of the "goodness of their hearts" promote it without even knowing what it is besides what's been shoved down their throats.

Moreover, I also don't understand why we expect to be able to help others when we can't even help ourselves. We have so many problems in our own country that people choose to ignore, yet are quick to jump on the bandwagon for some other country that they just recently learned has some issue.

People do not make sense.

[MasPan]

I'm going to reiterate what Rick said, as well as add onto it.

There are horrible things happening all over the world, but people choose to ignore them until it suddenly blows up on Twitter and Facebook or whatever Internet source, then out of the "goodness of their hearts" promote it without even knowing what it is besides what's been shoved down their throats.

Moreover, I also don't understand why we expect to be able to help others when we can't even help ourselves. We have so many problems in our own country that people choose to ignore, yet are quick to jump on the bandwagon for some other country that they just recently learned has some issue.

People do not make sense.

Because we're a society of wealthy, southern, white women who have a shallow need to feel like we're making the world a better place to subconsciously justify the comfort that we live in. We deserve these nice things because we're feeding starving children, not because we were lucky to be born into the life we have. If we deserve this kind of life, we don't have to worry about our own problems, because our way of life is earned, and god wouldn't ever take that away. So, by shallowly focusing on problems far enough away that they'll never directly affect our own lives, we can ignore the problems that do affect us on a daily basis and continue to live in blind, ignorant comfort without ever actually doing anything about either set of problems.

[CommanderJinn]

I'm going to reiterate what Rick said, as well as add onto it.

There are horrible things happening all over the world, but people choose to ignore them until it suddenly blows up on Twitter and Facebook or whatever Internet source, then out of the "goodness of their hearts" promote it without even knowing what it is besides what's been shoved down their throats.

Moreover, I also don't understand why we expect to be able to help others when we can't even help ourselves. We have so many problems in our own country that people choose to ignore, yet are quick to jump on the bandwagon for some other country that they just recently learned has some issue.

People do not make sense.

People like the feeling of white knighting for something. It's all just self gratification. They don't really understand that making a significant social change requires a lot of sacrifice.

[whybanme]

On a more serious note, I'm not sure whether to support or blow off this issue. I certainly don't mind bandwagons and think it's great that many people want to help now that they know about it, but how can we be sure that the man who posted this video isn't completely lying to us?

[PervyLion]

Oh boy.. this pomegranate is everywhere now. To me this honestly no different then when a celebrity croaks. Never knew the person? Suddenly like everything and worship about them cause its being posted everywhere on your facebook or twitter. And this is the same situation. Hear about it? suddenly feel cool about yourself because your friends are posting about among millions of others that feel the same way. Even though thats the farthest you'll go about the event. Care no less and care no more.


This world is funny

[MasPan]

On a more serious note, I'm not sure whether to support or blow off this issue. I certainly don't mind bandwagons and think it's great that many people want to help now that they know about it, but how can we be sure that the man who posted this video isn't completely lying to us?

Greatest internet prank ever?

[Takebacker]

[Razmos]

I'm not gonna jump on the bandwagon. Realistically, me watching a video or sharing it with some friends is not gonna make any difference at all.

And reading about those criticisms of it is now making me see everyone who's sharing it as idiots for mindlessly following the herd without understanding their actions. This kind of passive activism makes people feel really great about themselves, but i bet they won't go and protest with signs, or give money to a homeless person, or fill in a survey etc etc

I had no idea about this thing and i don't want to know about it, unless i'm ever in a position where i can do something about it, it's not my problem. I'll settle for helping save the world in my own small ways, bit by bit, person by person.

[byakugan]

Oh what I see here,a lot of people complaining because their social networks are getting spammed with Kony videos. Invicible children might not me a reliable charity organization, but some of you have already admitted that Kony is a real problem. So what should we do about it? It is fine if you don't wanna donate to them (which isn't even the main purpose of the campaign) but stop acting like every other person is a hypocrite because they share it. Sure there are those that watch it and share it just to feel good with themselves, but you're acting more like freaking hipsters hating on the campaign because "it's too mainstream". If these people weren't doing this, would anyone else do it? If they weren't, would that be any good to anyone? Honestly, even if this wont do any good for the Ugandan children, it doesn't do any bad either.

[Panacea]

It doesn't do any bad?

Personally, if I were Kony, the thought of having millions of people looking for me would make me want to hide better, and longer.

But that's just my opinion of how it negatively affects the situation. I could be wrong- I'm not some strategist.

[Seanny]

At this point i feel its safe to compare to the power of the people's attention to a fire.

When done right it can result in success that keeps the world warm and burn away the bad. (Hi SOPA where you at? Matter of fact, just stay on indefinite hold while we deal with your evil sister.)

Other times, if not utilized properly you just get a uncontrolled forest fire. Like Occupy Wall Street, i haven't heard of any new laws created from it. at this point I'm putting KONY 2012 in the latter now that i know more.