The Problem With Kony 2012...

...is that this is the war in the Middle East all over again.

It's demands fueled by ignorance to occupy an unstable region to catch a terrorist. Except this time, the goal isn't even as noble.

Backtrack to 2004-05. The Lord's Resistance Army were pretty much lame ducks at this point, Joseph Kony was hiding in the jungle being anything but a significant threat to the stability of the region, and Uganda was finally all but done with the omnipresent issue of the LRA raping kids and machete-ing arms off. The formal regime of Uganda has lots of room for improvement, but at least at that point, there was one less terrorist organization to be scared of. The US and pretty much every country AND several international criminal courts had already declared the LRA a terrorist organization and classified Kony as a terrorist to be captured.

And then, a year later, Invisible Children makes a documentary about how important it is to stop Kony.

A year late.

Since then, Kony has all but disappeared from any political radars. The last time the LRA as a whole did anything warranting a real threat to the stability of the region was in 2010, the same year Obama sent armed US soldiers into the area to dismantle the LRA as a terrorist organization.

Two years later, also known as 6 years after Invisible Children was late to the party the first time around, ALSO known as two years since the LRA did anything truly horrifying, IC publishes another fucking documentary about how much of a threat Kony is to the region surrounding Uganda. Also, at some point they interview a three-year white boy who had nothing to do with Uganda for some reason. And now there's an explosive Kony 2012 movement all over the Internet about it.

Don't get me wrong, the fact that the LRA is still an extant organization and the fact that Kony is still out there being a destructive force in Uganda and surrounding countries is horrible, and the world should be making an effort to catch him and they should be condemning him as an evil, evil man.

Which they are, and which it is. Countries around the world have classified him as a terrorist, and there are several international organizations, INCLUDING the US and INCLUDING the Ugandan* government are making conscious efforts to arrest Kony and force him to stand trials for his crimes against humanity.

*whom, I want to stress, had historically been more devil than saint, a fact which gets hidden in all this fiery "protest" over Kony- another downside to this movement rooted in emotions without logic

Which brings this rant to a full circle: Kony 2012 is a useless movement, and it is 6 years late. It has again shown the effects viral media can have on protest and awareness, and it has also shown us the immense danger of being caught up in sensationalism without fact. To organize my complaints coherently:

-Kony 2012 is the exact same movement that was started by Invisible Children 6 years ago. The new documentary they've released seems more like a publicity ploy with the war crimes of the LRA as a pretense rather than a main point. There's pathos everywhere but no logos anywhere. Their ethos is a three-year-old white boy who lives in America.

-There is nothing to protest; Kony and the LRA haven't been anywhere near being in power since 2004. Kony is currently sitting in the jungle waiting to die (or not even in the region at all, whichever)

-The movement is very shallow in its roots; I scrolled through my friendly neighborhood Anti-Kony Facebook group admin'd by 7th graders and run by AHS seniors, and what I saw was, chronologically,

1) Everyone in outrage, spouting facts taken facsimile from Invisible Children's documentary, 2) People getting their comments deleted by 7th grade admins, 3) Rabid support for Invisible Children, 4) Everyone in the group unable to defend against people challenging the premise of the group, especially those challenges that were backed by facts, 5) Sudden outrage against Invisible Children when they realized that IC released this exact movie six years ago.

Also, this got posted, which I found hilarious.

-Awareness has absolutely no bearing on whether or not Kony will be arrested. There is already a gigantic effort to stop him (there is, as of 2010, an armed contingent of US military specialists trying to dismantle the LRA and arrest Kony), and plastering a school with pictures of Joseph Kony's monstrous face will in no way facilitate his arrest. People are already trying to arrest Kony, he's just evading capture.

-The protest has no goals, or if so, a very, very dangerous one. The only way the US could get any more involved in the arrest of Kony is if it sent even more US troops into the area and declared war on the LRA. And the last time the US military occupied an unstable region to capture a terrorist ended so damn well. The success in the Middle East is all over the news, George W. Bush is the most popular president in history, oil prices are the lowest they've ever been, and democracy is absolutely flourishing over there. Iran is and will always be our best friends forever. [citation needed]


Awareness is a great thing to have, and I wouldn't begrudge this newfound knowledge of the sorry state of affairs in Africa to anyone swept up by this Kony craze, but at the same time, our passions and protests- and this sudden interest in world affairs- might be put to better use on an issue that isn't moot, and an issue that isn't 7 years out of being an issue.

Maybe click on another country that has just as pressing of a need for awareness, or maybe click on something that hasn't been learned of through 30 minutes of sensationalist documentary. Protip: pretty much anywhere you click on that map would be acceptable.