Kony 2012 is a propaganda film with ulterior motives

The 30 minute video "Kony 2012" has gained quite the hype within the past week. On Monday night the video accrued 15,056,327 views on YouTube. As of this morning it has racked up 52,591,704 views after being shared around the world on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. In case you haven't seen it, it is a campaign against one Joseph Kony, the leader of The Lord's Resistance Army. The video was released on Monday by the charity Invisible Children Inc. and was directed and presented by Jason Russell. The video portrays Kony and the LRA as a ruthless militant group that has been ravaging Uganda and the surrounding regions of east Africa for the past two decades. The LRA has been said to abduct young boys and turn them into soldiers, turn the girls into sex slaves and murder their families. Now there is no doubt that these are horrific crimes and that the LRA and Kony should be dealt with accordingly. However this film is clearly a propaganda film, complete with all the hallmarks of brainwashing, emotional manipulation, sensationalism, and an eerie hyper-realistic quality.

2011 financial report for Invisible Children Inc

Invisible Children

Invisible Children Inc. is a charity organization that wants Joseph Kony to be apprehended for his war crimes in Uganda. It sounds like a righteous enough cause doesn't it? But where do the donations actually go? According to Invisible Children's official financial reports from last year over 68% of the money donated went towards film-making, merchandising, and salaries for organizers while the remaining 32% actually went to Uganda. They claim they support the direct action of the Ugandan Government, The Ugandan army, and Sudan People’s Liberation Army in the capture of Kony. Meanwhile the Ugandan army and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army are guilty of many of the same crimes Kony himself is being charged with. However Invisible Children defends their support of them, claiming the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, despite the fact that Kony left Uganda in 2006. So what exactly is Invisible Children Incs motive here? It certainly isn't about saving the children.

The real agenda

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 9, 2012 at 7:03pm

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 9, 2012 at 7:10pm

Joseph Kony is not in Uganda (and other complicated things)

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 9, 2012 at 11:35pm

Justin, this shameful and blatant propaganda just makes me sick.

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 10, 2012 at 1:20pm

And yet I turn on the radio and that's all they were talking about...eating it up like candy.

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 10, 2012 at 10:05pm

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 11, 2012 at 1:28pm

A More Accurate KONY 2012 Campaign Poster...

Featured here is Cecil Rhodes who helped the British Empire literally conquer a massive swath of Africa from the north all the way to the south, the portion over which Rhodes is spanning in the illustration. In memory of his megalomania, the British would name what is now modern day Zimbabwe after him, calling it "Rhodesia."

Today, US Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, is spreading across Africa in the footsteps of Cecil Rhodes. As reported by allAfrica.com, Vice Admiral Moeller at an AFRICOM meeting held at Fort McNair on February 18, 2008 would declare that protecting "the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market" was one of AFRICOM's guiding principles. Of course by "global market," the admiral means the Fortune 500 corporations of Wall Street and London.