Joseph Kony

I'd better word myself carefully, since I'm certainly pissing off a lot of people right now.

I'm not a "fan" of mr. Kony. Obviously, if even half of what gets said about the guy is true, he should be stopped.
However, just because he's a brute, that doesn't mean everything else that's said about him is true. Invisible Children's propaganda campaign misrepresents the facts of situation: in order to imply that killing Kony would somehow "solve" things, they choose to ignore other parties that are also committing atrocities (like the sudanese and ugandan army for example). IMO, you can't kill your way to peace, and military intervention would have to do a lot more than "just" kill kony to fix anything.

I find the kony 2012 campaign to be one of the most despicable things created. It takes something which is a legitimate concern, child soldiers in war-ravaged africa, and turns it into a media hype.
With their shady business ethics, Invisible Children ruins the credibility of other (legitimate) charities.
If they really cared, they wouldn't resort to misinformation and appeals to emotion to get their message across. If they really cared, they'd focus on action instead of "raising awareness" (I.E. publicity and fame). Their motto is " Do More Than Just Watch", which I find disgustingly ironic, since that's exactly what they're doing and expecting you to do.

TL;DR, why Kony 2012 is bad:

1. The goal is nonsensical. Killing Kony won't end violence in Africa. It's a witchhunt, a scapegoat.
2. The information presented by IC is one-sided and factually in error.
3. The business model/ethics of IC cast doubt on other charities.


EDIT: [link]
A short video about how Ugandan people percieve the Kony 2012 campaign. Highly relevant.