The "Kony2012" Trend.

A warning to all that read this,
This is a rant, and an accumulation of information that i have done(with my rant mindset) about the absolute nonsense that this trend is spewing into people's brains about this very recent trend titled "Kony 2012". By nonsense, i mean, how people are kept ignorant, but feeling informed. I ask you to keep an open mind whilst reading this.

Fellow Atsr's and Guests,
You have long been an escape of ignorance that riddle the streets of the world. A back ally way to hope for information. To see the truth in the world. I see post so full of thought, presentation, information, and just real real real words. Because you simply want to share.

This trend "Kony 2012" was introduced to me last night. I was on the phone, talking to somebody who mentioned a video they saw. They said that i've always been a wise person to talk to about these things. She told me this much:A man named Kony is evil, who takes children to kill their parents. He does it for no gain. And nobody knows about him. She started the whole thing by asking me about Invisible Children. I knew about them. I knew about the organization. Sure, i didn't know the name "Kony" but i knew he was there. She got very upset with me. Very upset. My responses to her about this so called video that she saw, were from my logic about the situation. A situation that has been in effect for a quarter century or more. I told her, there is no reason for the United States to intervene. I continued to ask her about other recent war's we've been in. She has no idea why we invaded Iraq, what the significance of Lybia was in the last year. All she knew was that Children were being taken from homes in central Africa, and that needed to be stopped by making the United States send Soldiers in, to kill this man named "Kony"

What is an Ad campaign? It's Advertising a product, a belief, an idea, to a populace, to change their opinions, or even just get a specific opinion in their mind. "Kony 2012" is no different. I want to share with you a few dates of this Campaign that i feel are important.

The year 2003.
This is the year Invisible Children inc had become an idea to the filmmakers that later started the foundation.

In the spring of 2003, three young filmmakers traveled to Africa in search of a story. What started out as a filmmaking adventure became much more when Jason, Laren, and Bobby stumbled upon Africa’s longest-running war--a conflict where children were both the weapons and the victims.#1

2006
Invisible Children inc. Is offically a non profit organization.

In 2006, Invisible Children, Inc., became an official 501(c)3 non-profit.#1

Dec 11, 2006
The date the trailer for Invisible Children: The Rough Cut was released
The reason this is special is because during the almost 2,000 days since this Movie trailer has been aired, on the same channel as the "Kony" Video, there has been 42,120 views. This will be important later.#2

2009
5 million people have seen the documentary Invisible Children: The Rough Cut.

More than 5 million people now have seen the original film at scores of concerts, 550 churches, 1,250 colleges and, among other venues, 1,100 high schools.#3

March 5th, 2012.
The Youtube Video Titled "KONY 2012" is released.#4

Today.
March 7th, 2012.
Today is two days after this video was released. One day after i heard about it.
This morning when i woke up a few hours ago this video had approx 4 million views. During the time i started writing this (actually when i linked the video) it had reached 7.3 million views. (Let's see how far it gets when i finish this post)

The Invisible children Movie was passed around 550 churches, 1,250 colleges and, among other venues, 1,100 high schools.#3 Let's say that for every church around 20 people saw the video (11,000 people) then every college around 750 students saw the movie (937,000) and for every highschool around 750 as well saw the movie(825,000)
I hope you can agree that i kept the estimates low per the location. That would mean that with just this information alone, 1,773,000 people have seen this video. For 5 million viewers in a 3 year period, would mean that (rough rough rough estimates) the tree of information passes was around 1-2 people were told by the initial people that have seen it. 2006-2009, we had facebook, we had youtube. What's the excuse? Oh, well there was no bandwagon then. There was no "Everyone's doing this" Nobody was compelled enough to actually do something. There was no ad campaign to change the minds of others.

The reason i shared these dates with you is so you understand this trend. You can follow it. I did a simple, and to my best research, how these events came out to be. It may be a little late to really tell you what my purpose on this Rant/Information post is, but really it's to have you people not hop onto a bandwagon simply because you watched a video. It's an ad campaign. The reason it is so successful is because of the emotions it brings. However the ignorance behind it is frustrating. Nobody really knows what is going on over there, the only information is brought to you by a film crew. I applaud their efforts as it's a great great thing what they are doing. It takes a lot of courage for them to do it. However you as an individual have the obligation to understand what is going on. Stop demanding me, everyone, to jump on a bandwagon. It's too early in the morning, for me to do something without understanding it. Stop letting your emotions force you to decide.

One of the most upsetting things about this bandwagon, is that it seems that people are doing it because they want to make themselves feel as thought they are better people. What is it that you care about? Do you care that their country is war torn or do you just care about those few people's stories you saw and wish they themselves had a way of life better than they currently have. One that you probably have.

I want you to shut me down where you believe i am wrong, and i want you to tell me if you agree with what i've said. I want to know where you stand. I just don't want to hear more "Kony 2012" (that being all you have to say)
I want to hear your thoughts on the matter, I want to know that now that you're informed,

What does it mean to you?

#1www.invisiblechildren.com...
#2
#3www.success.com...
#4

I had a lot more to say, but not many letters left.
I had much more emotions to throw out, however i want to save them.
I'll save them for the responses. As i don't want to get off topic, or make it seem more of a rant.
So please, respond, tell me your thoughts. I really want to know.

Thank you, i hope i don't offend anyone
(For the record, i admire these people, i just hate how the rest of the world are doing this just to be in a trend (don't lie, you know it's true))
Antty.

It's sad to say but a lot of what you said is true. There are countless number of problems in the world, some that are impossible to ignore, some of which are easy to act upon. Yet people ONLY act when it is convenient to them. In this case its convenient for them to message people with this video and watch it and be all "IM ENLIGHTENED INDIVIDUAL I MUST HELP STOP KONY." Sir, what about that iProduct you own, do you realize that product was created by Chinese workers working in extremely dangerous conditions, for extremely long periods of time, for extremely low wages?

By no means am I a true activitist who has given up a large part of my life to protesting what is right, but I do make a remarkable effort to act consciously in every part of my life.

There is also a lot more to the Kony issue than just a group of rebels ravaging the continent. What about the developed countries imposing restrictions on their resources and forcing to use "environmentally friendly" sources of energy which has greatly hindered their advancement. What about the corporations that exploit their resources for the interest of pure profit in developed countries? Can I go on?

Guys...
I'm so glad i have ATS.
I was hastey when i wrote this, but now reading everyones posts on all the Kony threads..

I miss you all

The whole thing is shady.
It was a forced viral video that utilized facebook to make it appear to go viral naturally (by people actually finding and liking it). The whole video is like a giant facebook feature ad.

Then you find out that they are going to help find another militia (also guilty of war crimes) to arrest this guy that hasn't been active in 6 years.

So what rich person did this guy piss off recently?

The whole thing is about making money and it's sketchy as hell.

Here is where the money donated is going:


Looks promising huh?