I agree. If you can't even finish the video, or research the topic a bit on your own, there's no grounds for you to even begin to attempt to formulate your opinion when you're obviously ignorant of the situation and don't care to learn more.
I don't have time to debate about this, I just wanted to leave my input and personal insight. "All of a sudden everybody's an expert on Uganda". Dunno if it was sarcastical (I hope so) but that's the comment that reflects the most the situation in my opinion. If you don't agree with my thinking is your affair, we are talking of something that should be within our instincts and that's my point of view. Children are easier to manipulate? Okay, is true, but then don't show me your son that says "We got to stop him", 'cause that means children knows what is right and what is wrong, as well as if you would put a baby in a room splattered of blood, he will feel angst even if he doesn't know what it is. The child kills the parents... and then? What happens months or years later? They still have a weapon in their hands and could fight for their rights. It's pure survival instinct, and fact is that every continent has a different mentality, a diverse vision of how to walk onward life. Africa is receiving help from the whole world since years but their situation doesn't change. Why? What rages me is that finally all Europe and specially my nation is sinking in crysis and tomorrow we could be in a worse situation than many of the people in Africa. Imagine, we cannot even help our own, and there are not thousands, MILLIONS of families risking to lose everything. If you belong to the happy ones, I'm happy for you, too. But respect different point of views without criticizing EVERY single post of this forum. Oh let me do another question, which is out of topic but has the same moral importance: when will you choose to drop your i-phone to save the children working on it for you? Is YOU who makes Apple (and the others) big. And very last thing, don't dare to say I'm against catching Kony. To me people like him deserves only to die. And if you had a doubt on that all along about me, that I am supporting Kony or something, than that only proves how you are blatant ignorant about what I'm saying. EDIT: As far as I know The New York Times claimed that about Apple some weeks ago, why isn't that getting attention? Is it because we do need the 12MP cameras to record videos and scapt excellent photos instead of just calling? I guess so. Kony doesn't interfer with your business, so you criticize my realistic point of view. You're just hypocrite. Of course, without offense.
u r just getting off track. u r just thinkin about what might happen to ur ppl rather than about those already suffering this torture for decades. u r not totally wrong but aren't u being unjust?
Unjust? I don't know. I just don't like this contraddictual behaviour into human's nature. This saying "without offense", when there is an offense, this message "Save the Children" but "just as long as it doesn't affect my comfort". To save some of them won't make your soul more valueful. There are forces inside your own government oppressing worldwide's children and you don't care just because it is useful to your final product. You are bound to criminals and you should work on it at your own home first, before going into other's.
That's what I agree with, here, but it should be the people of the world, not governments of nations, acting on this.
We value everyone's opinons here. But with that said, if you make a post with a claim such as the crying scene being forced without having one bit of evidence to back it up, you're naturally going to get called out on it. Also, as already stated in this thread, pointing out that there are countless other problems in the world shouldn't be a reason to be against a campaign that's trying to combat one of them. In the future, please make a better effort to spell out full words instead of using shorthand or "texting" language (i.e. "you" instead of "u"). Thanks. Is it me, or did the video clearly point out that Kony is in fact NOT in Uganda? This criticism makes no sense.
I think my words relating the crying scene were misinterpretated. With forced I meant with a lack of respect from the side of the interviewer for the sake of the drama climax he wanted to reach -and failed with me. Is like an imbecil asking "Hey dude, did you hear that? Did you? Did you?? YOU DID, RIGHT, DID YOU????" If you tell me once that you don't want to be on Earth and rather die, do you want me to press you 6 times in repeating what you just told me or rather help you? But he got what he wanted. Stars publicing his video, 10 millions views a day and many people saying STOP KONY without knowing still what it all is about, as most are teenies on YouTube anyway whose urges to follow the trend without actually understand it. As far as I know in America there was this law that almost passed some weeks ago, called SOPA, right? If it would have passed this video would have never been seen because it starts with a Trent Reznor track, so a copyright infringement. This was only for remarking an example to first focus on the problems in your house. When you are happy and seren is much easier to choose to help others too. I can agree and like the intention of the video, to erase a plague from Earth, one of the many, but I just don't like the video itself nor the way it is spread. It just feels wrong to me, maybe because of the time it came out.
Oh, you mean that thing that 95% of the people protesting it had only the vaguest idea of what was actually in it, and then proceeded to get involved in the movement against it because of... viral videos? Yeah, I recall something about that.
You seem to have a very loose grasp of how the world works. Not much of what you just said was realistic. Again, much of this is rambling nonsense where you seemingly don't understand the video/cause OR what I said to you. You have no idea what child soldiers go through -- many are forced at gunpoint to do the things they do. Many of them suffer mental trauma. Many are hooked on drugs. It's so Hollywood-esque of you to proclaim what you would do in their situation, but the thing is you could never put yourself in their shoes. If someone pointed a gun at your head at the age of 13 and said "do this", you really don't know what you would actually do unless you were in the moment. You said: What you're saying about them seems to insinuate they willingly kill their parents, which reeks of blaming the victim. And then you use a Dexter reference to explain how one's childhood experiences can lead to mental trauma and changes in behaviour... yet these manipulated children should know better? What is it you're trying to say, exactly? I'm finding hard to debate with you now since you seem to be contradicting yourself. And lastly, at no point did I insinuate you were pro-Kony, all I said was how reckless it was for you to draw conclusions when you didn't even finish the video or do any research to improve your knowledge.
Believe me, my life was already plenty of more crap than you might ever experience. And I live with a person who passed an other 100% of shitty things. And you know from what I understand that you never passed through any real issues in your life? Because you talk of them only (children soldiers, drugs addicted), not comparing anything to your own experience but only trusting what others say. And with this I'm not saying that my issues are worse than theirs, NO ('cause I'm sure if I wouldn't have pointed that out you would have accused me of that, lol). I'm saying that you call "Hollywood-esque" my words when they are simply a reflection and immedesimation of myself into a situation, is it because I passed through something or simply because I'm good at that. Is it because I like to study the psychology of people. I don't know. My answer is still the same: they live in another world with another reality. It can't be understood by you through a 30 minutes video (while you apparently think I'm ignorant just because I didn't see that fucking video, you can't claim to know all fucking Uganda's history with that video either). And besides, it is about "donations" all over again. It can be they are honest, but without being sure nowadays, who wants to give 20 euro knowing 18 goes to the organization and 2 to the real matter. With all those views and the millions they must have earned already, I hope they will eliminate 20 people like Kony in Africa and not make the world believe they need worldwide funds of entire nations to stop one man. In one site a person says it right: As to the other criticisms that I'm trying to stop an important movement, or even one that I'm part of a big conspiracy to destroy IC (heh), my point is to be wary of and look into the finances of a business that posts a 29 minute video to appeal to your emotions rather than your brain. He simply suggests to do some more researches before donating. And he is right. One video is one video, is not EVERYTHING you need to know. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/07/1072266/-Do-NOT-Donate-to-Kony-2012- However, this was my last post about this topic. Sorry for having wasted your time. Our opinion divergences about the quality and timing of the video (not of the message) should not have really led us to a verbal fight or reciprocal judgings.
It doesn't matter how "crap" your life is, honestly. The people who can have internet access and be able to express free speech (aka everyone on LPA) are better off than 90% of the world, and that's being liberal. I won't deny it, I had a bad past too, but I don't see it as crap and I have a good attitude about the past, present and future. But I don't want to talk about this because this is a KONY thread, not "my-life-sucks" thread. If you're at gunpoint and you're forced to shoot your own family, you WILL do it. Under that much pressure, and knowing that your life could end, it's not realistic to just say "no i won't motherf***er" and shoot the guy back. You'd be guarded and watched by bunch of armymen, not just Joseph Kony. Not only that, but children are so much more inferior than adults. Do you expect kids to talk back? No. And you said kids know what's right and wrong. That's true, but to a very limited extent. Remember the story "Little red riding hood"? How the girl meets the wolf and tells him where she's going? And then the wolf eats and disguises as her grandmother and later attacks little red riding hood? Kids don't know what's right and wrong. They're not cautious and they're easily manipulated. If you study psycology you should KNOW these basic facts about kids. We are not much different from them. Our minds when we're little are almost the same as them. Sorry to say, but what you've said was ignorant. These child soldiers are forced to do these things. They have no voice and there's a reason why they don't have a rebellion or something like that. They're too afraid of Joseph Kony, and that's the fact. EDIT: You simply CAN'T compare your experiences to the experiences of child soldiers. The amount of trauma and stress is not even COMPARABLE. Unless you've had to kill your own family and fight in an army when you were 8 years old, it's rediculous to compare yourself to a child soldier in Uganda.
I think I POINTED OUT I WASN'T COMPARING WHY CAN'T PEOPLE READ WHAT I WRITE? I wrote that because I'm pissed when people DARE to say I don't know how the world is, how hard it can be. It was a pure confront to Mark, not with Uganda's children! And what about the Dexter reference by the way (to Mark)? I had to read 3 times my post to find what it was related to until I realized Maybe it is the room of blood? Well that is a scientific proof, I didn't certainly think on a serie scene for saying that. People takes out the sentences they want from all I say, the convenient ones or the tricky ones and NEVER answer to my other question that might be what? uncomfortable to answer? Remember one thing: I think different from most of other people and I don't have a second feeling for children. For me a child is a human like a 40 years old, which means a death of one doesn't move more than the other. Personally I don't even like children, if you want me fully honest, even if I could never hurt one. I have my own vision of how a person can react to a situation which doesn't have necessarily to match yours, as I live my life in one way and you in another. Maybe I'm just colder than you, maybe I never was afraid of death since I was little and that changes my way of thinking from yours. In fact, everybody always told me I never lived a childhood, and I still think a 15 years old warrior can start a riot there and bring with him hundreds of others, against Kony. 15 is not a child anymore. Plus, if you want to count the full 30 minutes you have to take everything they say, so also "rape of women", and I doubt they make a difference if one of those is in a relation with a man or not, and I think the men should do something to protect them. Is not only about children, but children were chosen as main subject because is what moves most of the people.
I mean no offense when I say that you're really shooting yourself in the foot here, man. :" You can't simply expect them to understand the situation from your perspective, nor can anyone expect you to understand what they're gone through.
It's really a pity that Storm isn't a child soldier, he could have stopped this thing years ago from the inside!
Abimael Guzmán. Anyone heared of him? A man in Perù who in 1980 had people following him as terrorists and wanted to throw down the democratic government. Guzmán had recorded that, in 1990, the Shining Path had 23,430 members armed with approximately 235 revolvers, 500 rifles and 300 other items of military hardware such as grenades. Without asking donations, Peruvian people resolved the problem by their own, asking for support but not an economical one. They took years and had to send a whole fucking army to stop him, ask military support (not economical) but it was done by their own. He lived 2 streets beyond my partner's house. And yeah, well, I came to know in Uganda there is oil, so good luck with the next war. Right now Iran doesn't want to give fuel to lots of nations in Europe (already suspended to France and UK in February) since June. Iran fuel is considered as one of the cleanest (dirty fuel almost broke my car once). What would be the difference from precendent wars? This time presidents can say "The whole world wanted us to send an army there", who can come up with a better alibi than this? And as an addicted YouTube user, I can tell to let go a video viral there is hard, and somehow this video was planned to go viral and it did. Even if it gains 2 million views in the first day it would be difficult to let it grow faster everyday. YouTube helps governments by banning certain videos where people use "freedom of speech", so why not to think YouTube helps certain videos to grow? You talk so much of saving the children, why don't you complain of American soldiers killing 2 years old taliban children. Because they are in Afghanistan they don't deserve attention? Uganda is an old problem, and the operation Lightning Thunder in 2008 might even have let Kony runaway from Uganda, while there are more direct problems relating to NOW. Uganda people said since 2008 the situation relieved quite a lot more. And if "Kony 2012" wouldn't have been at 30 million views nor designed as a Hollywood film, with professional music and special effects, would you have cared the same way? (let's say with an amateur video of 15000 views for example explaining the same problem). The man who did the video showed his son. Now, we are in a music site, and some people might know Maynard James Keenan doesn't appear in concerts so clearly in order to protect his child and not be victimized by his career. Why does the creator of the video show and manipolate his own son, and the WORST is that if for all the misfortune on earth your neighbour is an african who might support Kony, the face of your son will be known and might be killed by him the day after. You are showing your son's face to terrorists in a video against terrorists, NICE JOB. And all for what? Let some mothers think "Oh my God, he's so cute! We got to help them right now!" Well, if you think your son's security is worth that...
What does this have to do with Kony? Yes, surprise surprise, there are conflicts in other parts of the world... just a bulletproof statement, there. You still haven't watched the full video or done any external research, have you? The organizers of Kony 2012 aren't asking for the U.S. to go to war in Uganda. All they asked for was the continued support of military consultants to aid in the intelligence gathering and tracking of Kony. There's a lot of injustice in this world, but you can't point to one incidence of inaction as a counterpoint to positive action. Kony is currently being sought for crimes against humanity, has abducted close to 30,000 children and sanctioned the killing of thousands of people. Don't you think that might be a good place to start? As for that last point about his son, that's a laughable and hyperbolic hypothetical, but it doesn't really apply to this topic. I'm sorry, but your argument has more holes than a truckload of donuts.