i mean, i'm all for awareness, but the whole 'hey guys, lets throw on a STOP KONY shirt and go get em!' shit is misleading, silly, and won't solve anything.

Vanilla Ice tweets “America needs to send in the hero’s that killed Bin Laden and take this killer out.”

Retweeted hundreds of times.

I'm not sure why at your age you consistently have to resort to belligerent, insulting, and shallow argumentative tactics when you've been engaged civilly.

You essentially missed my point with that question just as you missed Flying Rabbit's larger points while accusing him of "missing the point" just because he was expressing an alternative take to yours.

Your question was silly. You should know better.

No, you should know better!!!

Dale it seems to me that this is the kind of thing that you've latched on to with regards to this whole thing. You seem to be more annoyed at the type of people that are embracing this than the actual message itself. That is not the fault of the filmmaker or the actual message correct?

I watched the video and failed to see where they are asking for blind support of anything. To me, they are just asking to spread the word and make the powers that be aware of this issue and to, hopefully, put something into action. In fact, it actually spells out a step by step action plan. As a viral campaign, it's incredibly succesful.

Will it result in anything concrete? That remains to be seen. Are issues in Africa vastly complex? Of course.

I guess I fail to see why this has caused so much backlash or why people are actually backlashing at all. As far as wearing a bracelet or something, so what? Remember the Livestrong bracelets? Another brilliant campaign but it also raised a lot of money for their cause.

I guess I'm baffled by the ire or where it's coming from when we're hit with so many things daily to get involved in. Is it just because everyone is talking about it right now, which is precisely what the video was supposed to do?

Some pretty thoughtful takes on it, I guess:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/busin ... icity.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blo ... _blog.html

Which will then lead you on to other sources. And like people said, it is, of course, complex, more complex than (presumably) the video portrays and more complex than what its very loud critics are saying.

started to watch the video then saw that it's really long. i'll have to wait til i get home to go full angelina.

that said, i've been familiar with invisible children for several yrs and they've always seemed like a standup org

You're assuming that this is the first time I've heard of Kony, the LRA, the region in general, etc. Far from it. I've been donating money, supporting trips, etc for probably 10 years now. That region has been laid on my heart. That's why I'm passionate about it.

Where have you been the last 10 years when IC were going from campus to campus showing their first film? Where have you been when they've been going from city to city showing the film in theaters and asking for donations? Why is it only now you're jumping on this? This isn't the first time they've sold bracelets or tee shirts, or whatever.

There are plenty of other things at play here, but one of them is certainly this:

Some people really, really hate it when other people admit that they care about shit. Because, by inference, if you agree with the basic points then you should probably care about that thing too, whatever it is. And they don't want to, either because it's hard, or they hate feeling like they're bandwagoning, or it means some change in their life that's not easy, etc. So let's all stop talking about what we care about, because it makes some other people uncomfortable. Also for the record a bunch of lazy fucks on Facebook clicking "like" and then forgetting about it IS a bunch of bullshit, but I don't think that's exactly what's going on in this case.

Or something like that.

Flying Rabbit, it's interesting that you wouldn't have mentioned that in the first place, especially since you say you're passionate about it. Good on ya.

I've been actively donating with a company that matches donations for close to a decade. Silently. I don't feel the need to rally "hey all, check out what my church is doing!'. My involvement is personal.

Why mention IC now? Why not, they just released a film.

Man, isn't Dalen great, you guys? He donates to charity, silently, and he's been doing it for decades! Never calling attention to himself or getting all self-righteous about it... whatta guy!

Drinky, I know you have an issue with me because I constantly clown on you, which is fine, but obviously you have an issue with reading now as well. Might wanna re-read my post just above yours.

here he comes now, sayin' kony kony...

I understand the inherent skepticism of something like this, but if the video make Americans, and by extension, our congress aware of the tragedy of the lord's resistance army, and if something could be done to stop it, isn't suffering through the 30 minute video (and the kind of dumb commentary around it) actually something good in a world full of awful?

I don't come at it believing that the NGO who produced the video gave us all the info, and clearly, there is a lot more complexity around Uganda and Africa generally, but a focus on ending what cannot be considered anything other than horror (the kidnapping of children, the maiming, the murder) is good in my opinion.

Nothing like a little public masturbation to shit all over your cause:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/ma ... r-detained

#FAPTIVISM

So, who's the Jean Girard to Bennett's Ricky Bobby?

Just working himself up a batch of "invisible children".

This whole thing reeks of a "sociology experiment".

The thought the review takedown of this BS piece of carny trash on the Slate Culture Gabfest was pretty entertaining.

$$$$$$$$$$$FULL SUPPORT!!!!!$$$$$$$$$$$