Kony2012 is still worth it!
I am so goddamn tired of hearing people slam the Kony2012 movement.
So, I don't know if there's anyone left on the internet who hasn't heard of this, but if the words 'Kony' and '2012' in this configuration are unfamiliar to you, take thirty minutes out of your day to watch this video. You may cry, but I think it's worth it.
The very first thing I heard about Kony2012 was on twitter - Stephen Fry (treasure of a man) complaining about how many people were asking him to retweet this stuff. Before I even saw the video, it was someone I respect announcing he was signing off twitter until people stopped talking about it. (To his credit, though, he had already retweeted and was sick of the repeated requests.) Since then, coverage of this event/organisation/movement has just gotten more and more negative - It's too narrow in focus! There are warlords in every country, why ignore them for Joseph Kony? It's uninformed! The Lord's Resistance Army doesn't operate in Uganda any more, it's moved to Sudan! It's crooked! More of the money donated to the Invisible Children organisation is spent on travel/salaries/filmmaking than charitable work!
But the complaint I hear most often about it is this - It's slacktivism.
I hear it from some pretty awful places as well - places like Reddit, Facebook, 9gag. You know, where the internet trolls live? And it's always typed in a way that makes me hear the drawling sardonic voice of a hipster who's been told that it's cool to criticise people for trying too hard. Oh, my god, you absolute CHILD, you don't think that reblogging that link does anything to help children in war-torn AFRICA, do you?
Forgive me for asking, but you've decided to wade into this conversation with only negative commentary to offer - so, please! Tell me, in detail, about all the things you're doing that are so much more useful than raising public awareness of distant atrocities. What's that? You're doing nothing? Quelle surprise! The complaint that these people are raising as if it's valid is that this campaign asks nothing of its supporters but that they 'pass it on'. It contacts the uninformed thousands, millions, living oblivious in safety, informs them, and asks them to pass it on. And, sure, thousands of people click the link that says 'share' and then sit back in satisfaction of a job well done, but come on. Be realistic - what were those people going to do if they had never seen the video? What were they going to do if the video asked them for money, or suggested they catch a flight to Uganda? The 'share' button is something gained.
I don't know about you, but I'm not involved in government or peacekeeping, or foreign affairs. I also have obligations, and responsibilities, and I'm just plain not athletic enough to consider travelling into a war zone to do charity work - I'd be too terrified, and I'd bottle out. So I do the smallest thing available to me - I raise the awareness of people who can change things. And now, what? I'm naive, self satisfied and a worse person than someone who did nothing? Worse, in fact, than the person who tried to silence me, for no other reason than it makes them look cool and irreverent? Come on, people. Cynical apathy went out in the nineties.
But even if you can't get around your disdain of people who mean well but don't sacrifice their comfort - it's not actually about the people who are furiously reblogging this. These people aren't the target or the originators of the campaign. We're the medium. We are the means by which this issue is spread, and when someone smarter than me, stronger than me and more powerful than me gets hold of this issue, then the world is a better place than it would be if I hadn't clicked 'retweet'.
As for the more real concerns above, I'm not sure those should stop people from reblogging either. Too uninformed? I'll admit, it's bad. If we persuade people to travel to Uganda and search for monsters there when they're all hiding in the Sudan, that's really bad. But does anyone honestly think that's going to happen? Because, you know, the people who make those decisions, who deploy troops and advisers, who put pressure on foreign governments and respond to requests for foreign aid - do you think they have no fact checkers on staff? Or, in fact, vast intelligence networks that will look at the video and go, that's awful, but look, here are the factual inaccuracies. So, what are our orders?
Too crooked? That's sad. And the fact that this video was made by a group that won't effectively use the money sent to them is a real problem. But even so. Raising awareness? Does exactly that. I'm not obligated to make a donation to Invisible Children because I saw that video. And if I feel the moral urge to send something? There are always the monoliths - Save the Children operates in both Uganda and Southern Sudan; UNICEF has a big old focus on the rights of children. That's where my money goes.
Too narrow a focus? Oh, right, so we should ignore everybody, because starting with one person, one horrific injustice before moving on to the next, that's an outlandish plan. Better to let Joseph Kony continue kidnapping children and twisting their lives into horror.
Much better to do that than to reblog a stupid video and look dumb in front of all your friends.
So, I don't know if there's anyone left on the internet who hasn't heard of this, but if the words 'Kony' and '2012' in this configuration are unfamiliar to you, take thirty minutes out of your day to watch this video. You may cry, but I think it's worth it.
The very first thing I heard about Kony2012 was on twitter - Stephen Fry (treasure of a man) complaining about how many people were asking him to retweet this stuff. Before I even saw the video, it was someone I respect announcing he was signing off twitter until people stopped talking about it. (To his credit, though, he had already retweeted and was sick of the repeated requests.) Since then, coverage of this event/organisation/movement has just gotten more and more negative - It's too narrow in focus! There are warlords in every country, why ignore them for Joseph Kony? It's uninformed! The Lord's Resistance Army doesn't operate in Uganda any more, it's moved to Sudan! It's crooked! More of the money donated to the Invisible Children organisation is spent on travel/salaries/filmmaking than charitable work!
But the complaint I hear most often about it is this - It's slacktivism.
I hear it from some pretty awful places as well - places like Reddit, Facebook, 9gag. You know, where the internet trolls live? And it's always typed in a way that makes me hear the drawling sardonic voice of a hipster who's been told that it's cool to criticise people for trying too hard. Oh, my god, you absolute CHILD, you don't think that reblogging that link does anything to help children in war-torn AFRICA, do you?
Forgive me for asking, but you've decided to wade into this conversation with only negative commentary to offer - so, please! Tell me, in detail, about all the things you're doing that are so much more useful than raising public awareness of distant atrocities. What's that? You're doing nothing? Quelle surprise! The complaint that these people are raising as if it's valid is that this campaign asks nothing of its supporters but that they 'pass it on'. It contacts the uninformed thousands, millions, living oblivious in safety, informs them, and asks them to pass it on. And, sure, thousands of people click the link that says 'share' and then sit back in satisfaction of a job well done, but come on. Be realistic - what were those people going to do if they had never seen the video? What were they going to do if the video asked them for money, or suggested they catch a flight to Uganda? The 'share' button is something gained.
I don't know about you, but I'm not involved in government or peacekeeping, or foreign affairs. I also have obligations, and responsibilities, and I'm just plain not athletic enough to consider travelling into a war zone to do charity work - I'd be too terrified, and I'd bottle out. So I do the smallest thing available to me - I raise the awareness of people who can change things. And now, what? I'm naive, self satisfied and a worse person than someone who did nothing? Worse, in fact, than the person who tried to silence me, for no other reason than it makes them look cool and irreverent? Come on, people. Cynical apathy went out in the nineties.
But even if you can't get around your disdain of people who mean well but don't sacrifice their comfort - it's not actually about the people who are furiously reblogging this. These people aren't the target or the originators of the campaign. We're the medium. We are the means by which this issue is spread, and when someone smarter than me, stronger than me and more powerful than me gets hold of this issue, then the world is a better place than it would be if I hadn't clicked 'retweet'.
As for the more real concerns above, I'm not sure those should stop people from reblogging either. Too uninformed? I'll admit, it's bad. If we persuade people to travel to Uganda and search for monsters there when they're all hiding in the Sudan, that's really bad. But does anyone honestly think that's going to happen? Because, you know, the people who make those decisions, who deploy troops and advisers, who put pressure on foreign governments and respond to requests for foreign aid - do you think they have no fact checkers on staff? Or, in fact, vast intelligence networks that will look at the video and go, that's awful, but look, here are the factual inaccuracies. So, what are our orders?
Too crooked? That's sad. And the fact that this video was made by a group that won't effectively use the money sent to them is a real problem. But even so. Raising awareness? Does exactly that. I'm not obligated to make a donation to Invisible Children because I saw that video. And if I feel the moral urge to send something? There are always the monoliths - Save the Children operates in both Uganda and Southern Sudan; UNICEF has a big old focus on the rights of children. That's where my money goes.
Too narrow a focus? Oh, right, so we should ignore everybody, because starting with one person, one horrific injustice before moving on to the next, that's an outlandish plan. Better to let Joseph Kony continue kidnapping children and twisting their lives into horror.
Much better to do that than to reblog a stupid video and look dumb in front of all your friends.