# Kony 2012 was US propaganda



## notimp (Nov 27, 2019)

Or at least effectively used as such to further US military interests in the region.

Kony was manufactured (as a local warlord) by the ugandan regime at the time. US backed ugandan dictator for 33 years, still ongoing. Search for Kony was used to attain flyover rights and build structural US military infrastructure in the region - allegedly to be able to build a base of operation within the region - to coordinate military operations all over africa.

Kony 2012 campaign of invisible children (NGO) lobbied for more 'military involvement in the region' ("to catch the bad guy") and actively influenced (lobbied) a (first move) vote in congress to send more military advisers into the region.

The entire mission was ended four years after, without catching Kony, or making any significant alteration - or even dent in the powerstructures on location. Apparently they even 'PR searched' for Kony in the wrong region. (Again allegedly.)

The NGO invisible children, according to a member of an evangelical christian network, had unbridled access to northern uganda at a time, where northern uganda, was heavily controlled, and access for media crews was barred.
There is archive footage of ugandan military living it up with members of the NGO film crew / protecting them.

Interviewees of the Kony 2012 video were also interviewed by a french film crew last year, and they now have statements on tape like "my boss called me, and told me that there are those very naive young filmmakers, that I should show around and give a little bit of a PR treatment to" - so those were part of the acting stars in the 2012 half hour "documentary" we all saw.

Invisible children is now an active NGO in Washington DC - doing some activism once in a while. Around the time they produced Kony - Warren Buffets son apparently also sponsored part of their activities - as he also was active in the region creating agricultural initiatives.

So what rightwing extremist outlet does this information/documentation come from?

Left, liberal, french ARTE.

Documentary available in french and german, sadly not in english, here:

https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/081588-000-A/us-beutezug-in-afrika/


Background information: France currently is urging the EU to seriously rethink NATO cooperation - and get their own foreign policy voice/initiative going. Germany currently is still blocking that move. Might be political theatre - who knows, but its currently acted out via interviews in the Economist - so... Yeah.


----------



## IncredulousP (Nov 27, 2019)

Huh, didn't even know this was more than a meme, let alone that there was government action behind it.


----------



## notimp (Nov 27, 2019)

Meme (and public support) was used to get US military intervention in the region going. (Was used to convince congress.) This is what NGOs do, btw. . You can read that part up on wikipedia as well.. 

Also, there are interviews with US military personal on the ground - that give "oh yes, we are hunting that damn Kony - hes so illusive" statements into camera. Those, in retrospect, are funny.

General learning opportinity is probably - that internet activism, if you see them bad people in an internet video - may not be all that is made out to be.

Kony 2012 was significant, because it still is the biggest 'human rights activism' meme/the biggest such campaign (viral) on the internets to date.

Also, the documentary is a piece of investigative journalism tracing the production route of the video. (Independantly, or not. Thats what the french reporters team did here.) Investigative journalism is how you get deeper context of things after they seized to be popular on facebook. (Because it takes time).

Also its interesting that a partly state sponsored french media network comes forward with this currently.

Thank you for trusting in human group intelligence and facebook. Signed - a PR department.


----------



## notimp (Nov 28, 2019)

Ah, missed a few vital parts of the story, like the initiator of "invisible children" turning up at Oprah at one point.  (The campaign was so overblown, that it caused public backlash.)

Or having a mental breakdown.

So "effectively this was used by the US military as propaganda" (as pretext for military action) now becomes the story here.

Not so much that this was insidious action.

See f.e.: (Media reactions at the time.)


----------

