Recently, Johnny Bagels asked me "Snoot, can you explain for me really quickly, who the hell is Kony, why white people care about him and which side is on his side, the republicans or democrats?" After giving Bagels the 5 minute run-down, PTU as a group came to the realization that the Kony video is just the perfect example of a disturbing new trend; social media driven humanitarian causes that many people get really excited about and then completely forget about.
Don't get me wrong, there ARE people out there (admittedly more ethical and generous then myself) who really do care about these causes or who are involved in making things better. If you are in the Peace Core digging ditches for irrigation or part of the U.S. Armed Services covertly tracking down some bastards somewhere, I commend you. However, people need to realize that reposting a video on Facebook with comments like "OMG, this is so wrong" accomplishes nothing except making you feel better about your lack of real action. With that in mind, here are what we at PTU like to call "The Kony Top 5". These causes represent the quintessential "flavor of the minute" movements relegated to the social networking dustbin once people forget about them.
5. Haiti Earthquake:
Remember when Wyclef was on TV and twitter and there were TV specials about how everyone had to help Haiti? Two years later, the country remains in ruins and there is no time in-between Santorum praying and Obama pretending he gets along with the Prime Minister of Isreal to bring up the devastation that remains. According to the U.N., the U.S. has only dispersed about 1/3 of the promised relief funds. Oh well, the other side of the island is still nice for a vacation.
4.Making Homeless People into Wi-Fi HotSpots
Okay, I'm reaching here since the outrage isn't that great and there really isn't a movement against this in any major way. I needed to fill this spot in since you can't have a top 4 list...
3. Ethical iPhone
For a short time the techno-hipsters decided that they wanted to protest the unethical conditions in the Apple supply chain (as long as they didn't have to give up their iPhones). Then they announced the iPad 3 and everyone got so caught up blogging about that they temporarily got side-tracked. Don't worry, they will be back soon making 1080p videos of the guys jumping off the Foxconn dormitory balconies with their new iPads and posting it on Facebook.
2. Anti-Kony
See above.
1. Anti Anti-Kony
For our number one, things get really interesting. The only way to top your intellectual yuppie friends passing around an anti-Kony video is to PROTEST the anti-Kony movement. Wesleyan, one of many universities where people with money come to pretend they care about the world (and birthplace of the band MGMT), posted this article on Wesleying, the independent student blog. Essentially they say while the situation is complicated and they don't want to bash positive efforts, the group who produced the anti-Kony video is not using all the money the right way. They exploit the locals down there and there are much more efficient charities that you can donate to.
This is the pinnacle of supporting the cause of the moment, and runs away with our top spot.
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