You know who's a Bad Man? Joseph Kony.

[rossmum]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

Remember the Invisible Children thread from 2008? No, you probably don't. I didn't either. Well, we probably should have, because it gave this fucker another four years to be a gigantic piece of shit.

I strongly suggest you do not leave this thread without watching, and asking yourself if you can leave in good conscience without first sharing the hell out of this everywhere you can. While you're at it, try and spread the word about any of the thousands of other disasters nobody knows about, either.

[samnwck]

I just got done watching this. While I agree a person such as this should be stopped. All I can think is, what happens when you have 30,000 children who's minds have been warped by mindless killing at such a young age? I'm rather curious as to how bad they have been warped, will they still fight if they're leader is gone? Has he changed them into thinking that he is their only way to live? Just a few questions that came to mind.

[Kornman00]

I think the memory of this guy making them kill their parents will out live any stockholm syndrome

Also, that guy's kid's responses/reactions were just priceless.

[rossmum]

I just got done watching this. While I agree a person such as this should be stopped. All I can think is, what happens when you have 30,000 children who's minds have been warped by mindless killing at such a young age? I'm rather curious as to how bad they have been warped, will they still fight if they're leader is gone? Has he changed them into thinking that he is their only way to live? Just a few questions that came to mind.
I guess we'll cross that when we come to it; apparently a fair number of them do make escapes before any potential indoctrination, so there's that. In any case, getting rid of him will hopefully slow or stop the rate at which the movement grows, allowing the rest of the issues left behind to be solved without trying to dam up the ocean, so to speak.

[samnwck]

Fair enough Kornman. I agree it's something that will come in the future but I just hope they will still have the support they are receiving right now when that time comes. Otherwise they may be facing a new problem that could end up just as bad a problem as they are currently facing. And also what happens when we take him out of power? The thing about power is that everyone wants it, his "generals" (for lack of a better name) could just take up parts of the army as I doubt they are centralized to a specific area. I'm just saying that without a massive coordinated effort (in a country with little technology at their disposal, and probably not the best army) a mission this size would be likely to fail. Though I will say I do hope for the best.

[Bodzilla]

saw this on sxephil's youtube channel.

shits pretty fucked up.

[Cortexian]

Not to mention that even if the USA or even Canada decided to authorize some kind of extreme operation to go and "arrest" Kony, the soldiers doing the arresting would be actively forced to engage child soldiers.

From what I know of military laws and such, firing on children in self-defense is OK... The government sending in the troops would knowingly be sending soldiers into a combat area populated by child soldiers. The political shit-storm behind this kind of thing would be immense. Honestly the only thing we CAN do is provide training and assistance to the existing African law enforcement and military personnel.

I fully support stopping this... Insect... But expecting any kind of direct military action is almost unthinkable. I realize that's not what this is promoting, I'm just saying.

[samnwck]

Cortexian, the US is only going to do exactly that, provide some assistance and training, and probably for that exact reason. Which is why they only sent 100 advisors, I honestly think the US could give two fucks, they don't need a whole other military operation botched, and this is a fucking shit storm waiting to happen.

As far as the not for profit groups (Invisible Children) here's some good reads about the group itself
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12429
(http://www.visiblechildren.tumblr.com)
http://www.visiblechildren.tumblr.com

http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/the-visible-problem-with-invisible-children/
(http://www.visiblechildren.tumblr.com)
If you look at the second link you can find a link in that page to their financial report... They only spent about 2.8 mil for the actual cause and they made about 9 mil... Thats like 30%... Don't get me wrong, I'm not the saying organization is full of evil doers or something but 30% is a little despicable. Granted they are rebuilding schools and everything, but it seems like most of the money is being used to go to college campuses and make movies. That money could be going to far better uses. I decided to put the three links up there to show the other side of the argument against the group (as I'm sure if you watched the video, you know the arguments for the group.)

[DarkHalo003]

This atrocity is deranged on too many levels for words. I don't know what makes me feel sicker: the fact that this guy ruined the lives and souls of 30,000+ kids or the fact that people are now starting to acknowledge it in 2012 (it began in 2003). What also makes me sick is how our government refuses to be involved since it does not fit the interests of the country. It's not just the U.S. either; Australia, U.K., the rest of Europe could have intervened and yet didn't. Has the world gotten to the point where all we care for is protecting our interests?

How do we save Africa? How do we rescue these people?

[Rainbow Dash]

9,017 dislikes

s:

[rossmum]

These dudes are being attacked pretty heavily over the information being out of date and the way they spend their money, which isn't really surprising and nor is it unwarranted. Kony has basically done a Saddam and gone into hiding, and is certainly doing a lot less damage now than before. The important point, though, is that he is still out there and he does still have charges to answer for. Cue copy/pasted comment I made on my cousin's FB.


Charities are something you should always look into first, because a damn lot of them aren't what they appear to be. While the facts may have been skewed, remember how it was presented as an 'experiment'? Look at the reaction. I think regardless of anything else, this campaign has done an enormous amount of good in that people have sat up and taken notice of something on a massive scale that they were previously oblivious to. With a little luck, it'll open the floodgates and people will spend less time reading about Fadeaway McShitactor's latest drug habit and more trying to figure out what is going wrong somewhere and how they can fix it.

The downside is, of course, that their credibility is getting pretty viciously attacked and so it may leave people bitter and suspicious. I hope it doesn't, because this kind of focus on such issues is exactly what we need.

For what it's worth, a ton of charities people seldom think twice about throwing money at often give less than 20% of their takings to the group or thing they are supposed to be all about, so this is nothing new. Is it a 'scam'? Make up your own mind. Was it important? Absolutely. It proved exactly what it set out to explore, as set out in the video's introduction. It also means this shitbrick isn't flying under the radar anymore.

[DarkHalo003]

Now would be the chance for the world's powers to come together and swarm these bastards that are controlling Africa. The fact that it's "The Right Thing To Do" is enough for such a united action. Yes, the world's powers tried a similar case in Vietnam and with the War on Terror. But this is different. This situation isn't in the financial interest of any nation, which means that it would be a voluntary effort. The world can come together this way, the way of righteousness that proves we are all human just as much as folly does.

[Rainbow Dash]

oh also it's capitalism's fault that nothing was done

just saying :]

[Donut]

dont know why you changed your name to rainbow dash when something reflecting your anti-capitalist ideals would have been far more descriptive.

on the topic of kony though, im really surprised how many times i saw this in my facebook feed. i have two friends that share serious political issues in the united states every so often when they come up, and the closest ive seen to people actually giving a shit is one of my friends posting "fuck pipa". i realize this is a whole different world of an issue from US political issues, but it really says something about a bunch of US citizens that recently hit voting age that they care so much about this and dont give a shit about whats happening in their own country.

[Rainbow Dash]

dont know why you changed your name to rainbow dash when something reflecting your anti-capitalist ideals would have been far more descriptive.


are you implying that

a) I changed my name

b) My little pony : friendship is socialism isn't anti capitalist?

[=sw=warlord]

This atrocity is deranged on too many levels for words. I don't know what makes me feel sicker: the fact that this guy ruined the lives and souls of 30,000+ kids or the fact that people are now starting to acknowledge it in 2012 (it began in 2003). What also makes me sick is how our government refuses to be involved since it does not fit the interests of the country. It's not just the U.S. either; Australia, U.K., the rest of Europe could have intervened and yet didn't. Has the world gotten to the point where all we care for is protecting our interests?

How do we save Africa? How do we rescue these people?

Do you realize if we send troops in our troops would be shooting children?
Because that is what the enemy combatants would be, children soldiers.

[Donut]

are you implying that

a) I changed my name

b) My little pony : friendship is socialism isn't anti capitalist?
are you implying that

a) you were not, at some point, Sel

b) that i should automatically know a show ive never watched promotes socialism and denounces capitalism? because it isnt inherently obvious at face value

[Rainbow Dash]

a) you were not, at some point, Sel

no, I'm implying that I didn't change my name



b) that i should automatically know a show ive never watched promotes socialism and denounces capitalism? because it isnt inherently obvious at face value

yes

[rossmum]

dont know why you changed your name to rainbow dash when something reflecting your anti-capitalist ideals would have been far more descriptive.

on the topic of kony though, im really surprised how many times i saw this in my facebook feed. i have two friends that share serious political issues in the united states every so often when they come up, and the closest ive seen to people actually giving a shit is one of my friends posting "fuck pipa". i realize this is a whole different world of an issue from US political issues, but it really says something about a bunch of US citizens that recently hit voting age that they care so much about this and dont give a shit about whats happening in their own country.
This is because what is happening in their own country is either not being efferctively communicated to them, or does not rate as highly on their moral outrage scale. I, for one, have been constantly griping about censorship and anti-piracy measures ever since I found out about Stephen Conroy's proposed clean feed for Australia years ago, and about things like the blaming of violent videogames for blatant fuckups of Western society and mindset for even longer. Show someone something that makes them mad enough, and they will spread the word. It's exponential growth from there, and that is precisely why I had a go at TVTyrant in another thread for being apathetic.

[PopeAK49]

oh also it's capitalism's fault that nothing was done

just saying :]

I think we understand that you hate capitalism, but you could have posted why it was capitalism's fault while you were at it. In a time that requires bringing people together, you want to shatter that with politics?

[Rainbow Dash]

I think we understand that you hate capitalism, but you could have posted why it was capitalism's fault while you were at it. In a time that requires bringing people together, you want to shatter that with politics?

The only driver of action in a Capitalist system is profit.

There's no profit in solving Africa's many problems, therefore nothing gets done?

I would have figured that much should be obvious to everyone, and that it's not just me hating on capitalism loll

[PopeAK49]

What I should have said is for you to keep it to yourself.

[samnwck]

The only driver of action in a Capitalist system is profit.

This is true, had they been smart they would have made a video faking the largest oil reserve in the world buried right under Kony's feet. The US would be on that shit like white on rice. Problem solved.

[samnwck]

The only driver of action in a Capitalist system is profit.<br><br>This is true, had they been smart they would have made a video faking the largest oil reserve in the world buried right under Kony's feet. The US would be on that shit like white on rice. Problem solved.

[Rainbow Dash]

This is true, had they been smart they would have made a video faking the largest oil reserve in the world buried right under Kony's feet. The US would be on that shit like white on rice. Problem solved.

haha

yeah

[DarkHalo003]

Do you realize if we send troops in our troops would be shooting children?
Because that is what the enemy combatants would be, children soldiers.
Do you realize it's an inevitable circumstance? To arrest him, our troops would be fighting children. To fight him, our troops will be fighting children. If we do not stop him, troops will be fighting children. If we do not stop him, more children will become murderers.

@Sel: If what you said was true, then by your logic all socialist countries would have gone to these peoples' aid and stopped this madness. Or am I missing something? I'll agree that our government is truly scum about a lot of things, but considering countries that you seem to be favoring have not accomplished what we haven't there, your point is minut.

[=sw=warlord]

Do you realize it's an inevitable circumstance? To arrest him, our troops would be fighting children. To fight him, our troops will be fighting children. If we do not stop him, troops will be fighting children. If we do not stop him, more children will become murderers.


You can fight someone without having to get your hands dirty.
Training the local military who actually track people like these is alot more cost effective than sending a battalion to the region.

[Rainbow Dash]

@Sel: If what you said was true, then by your logic all socialist countries would have gone to these peoples' aid and stopped this madness. Or am I missing something?

Yeah, you are missing something, specificly the logic part of that.

The few socialist countries we have ever had did not go in and fix africa, therefore I'm lying and Capitalism's driver of action is not profit after all?

:confused2:

[TVTyrant]

This is because what is happening in their own country is either not being efferctively communicated to them, or does not rate as highly on their moral outrage scale. I, for one, have been constantly griping about censorship and anti-piracy measures ever since I found out about Stephen Conroy's proposed clean feed for Australia years ago, and about things like the blaming of violent videogames for blatant fuckups of Western society and mindset for even longer. Show someone something that makes them mad enough, and they will spread the word. It's exponential growth from there, and that is precisely why I had a go at TVTyrant in another thread for being apathetic.
Mostly I'm apathetic about issues like drone flying and people's freak outs over police, and thats mostly because it takes a lot to really appall me. First World Problems, and such.

On this issue, I am taking the stance I took about Greece. This makes me mad as hell. No, I don't care about the charity that made the video. I have read all about them not spending the money on true humanitarian issues blah blah blah. They won't get my money. But my government does. I pay taxes (when I work). I work hard for my money. And seeing things like this fucking pisses me off.

I am a huge believer in getting rid of people like Kony. Why? Because when you start getting rid of the fuckers, it starts to hang in the back of the minds of all the people involved. Its not easy to be evil when your afraid that, at any moment, a squad of soldiers is going to rip through your little hiding hole and kill you. IDC if it seems childish or black and white. If you put the fear of God into your enemies, it will make them hesitate.

WarLord, I doubt we would send a large military group. SEAL Team 6 is very effective, as are the members of the British Special Forces or the Spetsnaz. Eliminating people like this is something we should all be able to stand behind.

TL; DR: This

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_qgVn-Op7Q

[TVTyrant]

Yeah, you are missing something, specificly the logic part of that.

The few socialist countries we have ever had did not go in and fix africa, therefore I'm lying and Capitalism's driver of action is not profit after all?

:confused2:
Your arguing about financial systems in a thread thats about raising awareness about a fucking monster.

Straighten out your priorities.

[PopeAK49]

Your arguing about financial systems in a thread thats about raising awareness about a fucking monster.

Straighten out your priorities.

This

And thank you Tyrant.

[DarkHalo003]

You can fight someone without having to get your hands dirty.
Training the local military who actually track people like these is alot more cost effective than sending a battalion to the region.
And wouldn't they be killing children? Either way, these child soldiers will die to protect this monster. If a "battalion" went as far as capturing or defeating the bastard, then how many lives of future children are saved? Either way, it's horrible. Bloodshed is unavoidable.

[Rainbow Dash]

Your arguing about financial systems in a thread thats about raising awareness about a fucking monster.

Straighten out your priorities.

Except it's stated in the fucking video the reason they didn't do anything the first time the dudes asked is because he didn't pose any financial risk to the USa???

[TVTyrant]

Except it's stated in the fucking video the reason they didn't do anything the first time the dudes asked is because he didn't pose any financial risk to the USa???
Yeah... Remember the Soviet Union in Afghanistan? Socialism totally saved them :iamafag:

[Rainbow Dash]

the fuck does that have to do with anything


:confused2:

[TVTyrant]

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/554/facepalm.jpg

In the 80's the Soviet Union was involved in a war in Afghanistan. The course of the war flooded all of their monetary assets from helping their people to their military. It was a direct cause of their collapse in the early 90's.

[Rainbow Dash]

that's nice

what does that have to do with anything being posted here though :]

[PopeAK49]

that's nice

what does that have to do with anything being posted here though :]

To prove that even Captain Kirk can facepalm you.

:mech2:

[TVTyrant]

So much fucking rage I can barely contain it goes here

[rossmum]

This really isn't the place and I wanted to avoid this but


Yeah... Remember the Soviet Union in Afghanistan? Socialism totally saved them :iamafag:
Good goddamn I am going to smack you if you ever say anything that stupid again.


http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/554/facepalm.jpg

In the 80's the Soviet Union was involved in a war in Afghanistan. The course of the war flooded all of their monetary assets from helping their people to their military. It was a direct cause of their collapse in the early 90's.
Yes. MILITARY spending. This was a problem right through the Cold War and if that hadn't been a thing, then the people would have been a hell of a lot better off. Using that fact to argue against socialism is incredibly ignorant though, you should be using it to argue against conflict and arms races. I needn't remind you how absolutely fucked the US is financially; at least one of those countries still had systems in place to try and help its population.

[TVTyrant]

Yes. MILITARY spending. This was a problem right through the Cold War and if that hadn't been a thing, then the people would have been a hell of a lot better off. Using that fact to argue against socialism is incredibly ignorant though, you should be using it to argue against conflict and arms races. I needn't remind you how absolutely fucked the US is financially; at least one of those countries still had systems in place to try and help its population.
I'm not arguing against Socialism, Ross. I am arguing that the economic system in place wouldn't matter worth a shit when we are talking about atrocities happening the world over, and I was making the point that its irrelevant in this conversation.

[Donut]

so, to slightly change gears here, it has taken all of 3 days for the internet to pick this up and turn it into a joke. at least, i think it is. i honestly cannot tell this time. every video i go on already has twice as many "KONY 2012" posts as arrow to the knee jokes. people responding to random posts with "KONY 2012".

the worst part about this is i cant tell if its a bunch of idiots seriously trying to advertize this by spamming youtube, or if the joke is now to spam that everywhere.

[TVTyrant]

so, to slightly change gears here, it has taken all of 3 days for the internet to pick this up and turn it into a joke. at least, i think it is. i honestly cannot tell this time. every video i go on already has twice as many "KONY 2012" posts as arrow to the knee jokes. people responding to random posts with "KONY 2012".

the worst part about this is i cant tell if its a bunch of idiots seriously trying to advertize this by spamming youtube, or if the joke is now to spam that everywhere.
IDK, I have taken notice of a meme that shows Kony's face with the line "putting the infant in infantry"

There are also a bunch of idiots on my facebook who are just hating on it to hate on it.

[rossmum]

I'm not arguing against Socialism, Ross. I am arguing that the economic system in place wouldn't matter worth a shit when we are talking about atrocities happening the world over, and I was making the point that its irrelevant in this conversation.
Well you're going about it the wrong way, I can't even tell exactly how you are trying to make that point. I think that Sel's point is that the main reason Africa is so goddamn fucked up is because a) imperialism, b) fixing it not being profitable, and c) our society utterly discouraging giving a shit about your fellow humans and making it all about me, me, me. There is really no argument against any of that.

This is not the thread, though. This thread is about a bad dude in Africa, the implications of the global online community's capability for instant communication with regards to various causes, and the important lesson that you should research before you immediately throw your full weight behind something, a lesson I clearly have not yet fucking learned despite CONSTANTLY getting burned for doing it.

[Donut]

putting the infant in infantry
oh dear god that shouldnt make me laugh as much as it does.

[Rainbow Dash]

I'm not arguing against Socialism, Ross. I am arguing that the economic system in place wouldn't matter worth a shit when we are talking about atrocities happening the world over, and I was making the point that its irrelevant in this conversation.

All I said was that Capitalism's only driver of action was profit, and there was no profit in solving Africa's problems, therefore nothing gets done about it. You and darkhalo are the only ones going off on these irrelevant alternate economic system tangents you're accusing me of lol.

[TVTyrant]

All I said was that Capitalism's only driver of action was profit, and there was no profit in solving Africa's problems, therefore nothing gets done about it. You and darkhalo are the only ones going off on these irrelevant alternate economic system tangents you're accusing me of lol.\
I tried not to, but you baited me pretty hard lol. Nicely done sir. Nicely done.

[Rainbow Dash]

68GbzIkYdc8

[Limited]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/12/article-2113956-1222791B000005DC-476_634x422.jpg

[Cortexian]

68GbzIkYdc8
Yup, pretty much.

[=sw=warlord]

http://i.imgur.com/1ICVs.jpg

[TVTyrant]

^Really? I mean is that factual? Holy cow!

[thehoodedsmack]

It wasn't precisely six months ago that Uganda's oil boom began.

But yes. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/world/africa/uganda-welcomes-oil-but-fears-graft-it-attracts.html)

Kony allegedly hasn't been seen in Uganda in over 5 years, and the LRA hasn't been operating there for years as well.

On top of that, the actual victims of the LRA's campaign think the Kony 2012 Campaign is misleading.

rU_1jnrj5VI#!

[TVTyrant]

Me and Warlord discussed this via Steam today. The very area where they claim Kony now controls in Uganda is where all the oil is...

How convenient

[Rainbow Dash]

http://wonkette.com/467333/san-diego-guy-who-made-africa-youtube-jacks-off-around-cars-but-doesnt-pee-in-cup

[TVTyrant]

http://wonkette.com/467333/san-diego-guy-who-made-africa-youtube-jacks-off-around-cars-but-doesnt-pee-in-cup
Literally the funniest thing I have ever read

[Limited]

http://wonkette.com/467333/san-diego-guy-who-made-africa-youtube-jacks-off-around-cars-but-doesnt-pee-in-cup
Oh this just keeps getting better.

Poor man though, with all this media attention it must have been tough. That said doing what he did is on another level. Hope he gets his life back on track soon.