Joseph Kony: An Update

I'm hearing that the specific charity the video I posted last night promotes is a dubious one. Can't say I'm surprised. As I pointed out before, the video lacks concrete facts and relies mainly on an emotional appeal. When I went to the website last night, I was like, damnnnn, that's a lot of money for "supplies" - I'm going to need to know where this money goes before I do anything like that. Reports say that they give only 31% of proceeds to the actual efforts, meaning that some people are profiting big-time off this cause. That's reprehensible. Maybe not Kony-level reprehensible, but come on.

We've got to beware wolves in charitable clothing. Have you seen those Bank of America ads that portray itself as a philanthropic organization? Never mind that their charitable giving is a piddly amount compared to what they take from us. Never mind that its reckless practices are largely responsible for this country's financial woes, that it regularly takes homes from people through illegal foreclosures, that it nickels and dimes the poor with bogus fees. Ultimately, people want to believe that BoA is good when it tells us it's good, so we don't bother to question it.

I, too, should have explored this Kony video more before sharing the video. I got caught up in my passion for mobilizing the masses via viral video rather than bothering to give a sniff test to this particular cause. Mea culpa. But that doesn't mean we need to give up on the Kony cause altogether. All of those methods the video outlines are still relevant, minus the giving money to a branded Kony 2012 campaign. Tell your friends, make your own posters, and tweet it out. I stand entirely behind my previous post, but it deserves a disclaimer to be wary of the Invisible Children "non-profit" itself.

I just hope a bitch glitch like this one doesn't in any way derail people from new media activism in the future.