Noted public masturbator and stealer-of-charity-money Jason Russell of the questionable organization Invisible Children is back with a new campaign, his latest after the now infamous Kony 2012 fiasco and bizarre public meltdown last year. It has to do with warlord Joseph Kony, again. Apparently they want to drop leaflets and broadcast “come home” messages to the soldiers so that they’ll defect. Look, it’s all here in this Invisible Children created handy-dandy chart thing:
That is until you try googling the “come home” campaign and all that comes up are Invisible Children links. One recent interview in Time Magazine and another from the Washington Post in April are the only non-IC authored posts, and even the interviews are conducted in PR speak. While there is evidence of Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army still in the region, there’s no empirical evidence that Invisible Children are actually doing anything.
The furthest any article goes is a post from a Ugandan website that cites a statement Invisible Children made about the “imminent mass defection” – which means that no such deflection has actually happened yet.
Considering that Invisible Children made around $20 million from their “Kony 2012” campaign and ended up not catching Kony and not actually doing anything with the money, it looks like they’re trying the same tactic just another year later. And considering Invisible Children hadn’t released any financial statements for the “Kony 2012” campaign – they really aren’t to be trusted. Don’t fall for their swindle, internet denizens out there.
I applaud your use of creative tags for this post.
lol
I don’t know to be happy or sad he didn’t go with “Konyheads”
Good stuff, fellas.
Why are the kids white?
Because Invisible Children is a bunch of white man’s burden racists.
God, those tags.
As a dedicated Uproxx reader, and a full time freelance writer, I hope that people will start to follow the links between Jason Russell, conservative Christianity, and Uganda (check the excellent documentary God loves Uganda or watch Russell’s first documentary online and cringe for 90 minutes). Also, as writers of media, it would be fun to look at Russell’s obsession with making music videos (a hugely disproportionate piece of the IC financial pie goes to video production).
Two pieces are at play here:
1) Russell’s ego, and his desire to achieve Hollywood fame through charity funding rather than going to Hollywood, waiting tables, and working hard to catch a break.
2) Russell’s vendetta against Kony, not so much because of the atrocities, but because Kony believes himself to be a messiah figure.
Who is the real loser in all this? Uganda (and South Sudan, CAR, DRC). Here is an article I wrote for HuffPo that was picked up by USA Today discussing how the Kony 2012 campaign affected tourism in Uganda. [www.huffingtonpost.com]
Thanks for keeping tabs on this one Ned!
Reading Steve Brams’s Huffpo piece made me think of Jason Russell as the prototype dad from any of those exploit my cute kids on YouTube videos.
Slacktivism! Sharing this video is quite literally the *very least* you can do to change the world.
You should edit “deflection” to “defection.”
That diagram is so simplistic it is insulting. Apparently these kids will just run away from the LRA and no one will torture and murder them for trying to defect.
That’s what I came here to say. I laughed at how stupid it is:
1. Learn the truth.
2.???
3. Get help (if still alive)
4. Return home (assuming the LRA didn’t destroy your village or force you to murder your family, which is probably how you got taken by them in the first place).
I’m sad there’s no “My Little Kony” tag on this.
But that’s so 2012!
Oh god, the theme song popped in my head with Kony’s name.
This article is entirely biased and completely inaccurate. Here are the financial statements that you claim Invisible Children never released. All I had to do to find it was look on their website under financials… [files.invisiblechildren.com]
[www.southparkstudios.com]