Epimemeology, Week #17: Kony 2012

by Pat

This is the darkest subject I've ever written about for Epimemeology. I'm not even talking about what happened in Uganda.

[Warning: this column discusses sexual assault.]

The Meme:

The 2012 short documentary Kony 2012, which was produced by the nonprofit Invisible Children, Inc., and was written, directed, and starred IC co-founder Jason Russell. The video advocated for the arrest of Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Rao Kony, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2006 for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Kony and his group, the Lord's Resistance Army, had been active in Northern Uganda since the late 1980s and were responsible for the kidnapping of approximately 20,000 children, the deaths of approximately 100,000 civilians, and the displacement of as many as 1.5 million. 

Where You Might Have Seen It:

If you were online in March 2012, you heard about Kony 2012. The video was released online on March 5th. On the morning of March 6th, Oprah tweeted about the video, which raised its view count on YouTube from 66,000 to nine million in a matter of hours. 

Following more endorsements from celebrities (as well as built-in instructions to share the video), Kony 2012 reached 100 million views in its first six days online. An estimated 58% of adults age 18 to 29 heard about the documentary in its first week. The marketing was everywhere. 

Bonus points for a pre-frogs InfoWars ad.

I remember this extremely well due to one specific incident. I was taking a sociology class at the time. A few days into March, a well-meaning young woman in that class decided to end her group project about race relations in America by playing a trailer for Kony 2012. Based on every other members' faces, this was not a group decision. 

This was all to culminate on April 20, 2012, with the Cover the Night outreach. The plan was for IC supporters to spend that night putting up posters and other propaganda (their words, not mine) to spread awareness of Joseph Kony and to force U.S. government to take action against him.

However, things took an unexpected and baffling turn on March 15. 

As you can imagine, getting nude at a busy intersection, screaming at passersby, and getting detained by police does not lend a ton of credibility to your cause. Jason Russell eventually recovered from this "brief reactive psychosis, an acute state brought on by extreme exhaustion, stress, and dehydration," but Kony 2012's momentum never did. Cover the Night came and went with disappointing results.

As you can see, the public nudity coincides with a drop in viewership.

The Message:

At its best: "I want to help vulnerable children in Uganda." 

At its worst: "I am maximizing my appearance as a thoughtful and caring individual with the minimal amount of effort." 

The Source:

Like all other Millenials, I watched Kony 2012 shortly after it came out. I can't remember when or why, but it was my junior year of college, so I was probably eating Hamburger Helper as I did it. I decided to revisit the documentary again, to see if twelve years could give me any perspective. 

I'll start my analysis with the ol' Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." When Kony 2012 was released, Jason Russell caught a lot of criticism for oversimplifying complex issues, presenting himself as a white savior, leveraging his cause to sell merchandise, having a punchable face, etc. Perhaps upon rewatch, I would find these criticisms are warranted. But if I did, I would try hard to rule out "Jason Russell is an idiot" before concluding that "Jason Russell is a con artist." After all, what kind of perfect crime ends with you whipping your dick out at the intersection of Ingraham Street and Riviera Drive in San Diego? 

I pulled up the video, which has 103,460,089 views as of 5:00 PM on April 21, 2024. Instantly, we're off to a bad start. Kony 2012 opens with an uncredited quote: 

Pause. I need to know who said this. After 45 minutes of research, I found that that quote is popularly attributed to Les Misérables author Victor Hugo. According to this fascinating write-up on Quote Investigator, that exact wording was a result of a translation from French to English and a decades long game of telephone. The original quote from Hugo appears in his 1877 essay Histoire d'un crime ("The History of a Crime"), during a multiple-paragraph explanation for why France and its ideas are the greatest on Earth: 

"An invasion of armies can be resisted; an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted. The glory of barbarians is to be conquered by humanity; the glory of savages is to be conquered by civilization; the glory of darkness is to be conquered by the torch."

Oh wow. We went from "inspirational poster quote" to "White Man's Burden" really fast (the racist Kipling poem, not the insane movie with John Travolta and Harry Belafonte). Yikes. Certainly not pushing back against the white savior criticism. But alright, let's assume Jason Russell is dumb and just thought it was a nice quote without paying any mind to where it came from. Questionable, but not unbelievable. Moving on. 

For the next ninety seconds, we hear Jason Russell's narration about "connections" and see clips of Earth from orbit, news clips, and different people's home videos. I hope he asked permission to use those last ones. The introduction ends with this appeal: "The next twenty-seven minutes are an experiment. But in order for it to work, you have to pay attention." 

Fade into... footage of a C-section? Oh man, I REALLY hope he got Mrs. Russell's permission to use this. We're introduced to Jason Russell's extremely photogenic five-year old son, Gavin. I have no issues with Gavin, but I do feel uneasy about Jason Russell broadcasting his minor son in a video he intends for the whole world to see. 

I don't find this offensive, but I do think it's courting disaster. I've written probably 100,000 words for this blog in the last year and have never once posted my kids' names, let alone their pictures. Don't put your kids on the Internet. Shit can go sideways really fast. 

Jesus Christ, did Kony 2012 create more child kidnappers than it stopped? We're getting sidetracked. Let's Hanlonize the situation. Let's assume that Jason Russell isn't featuring his cute kid's face front-and-center as a cynical ploy for attention. Let's assume Jason really doesn't understand the risks involved and thought it was a good idea. I mean, 2012 was a different time. We were too caught up doing silly horse dances to think about our children.

The vibe changes considerably as Jason starts to discuss his friend from Uganda, Jacob Acaye. Jason and Jacob met in 2003, when Jason was shooting what would become his first documentary: Invisible Children. As we find out, Jacob was twelve at the time, and had seen his brother murdered by LRA combatants. It's legitimately heartbreaking stuff. It culminates with young Jacob saying that he'd rather be dead than alive and breaking down, while Jason (2003) promises to stop the LRA. 

Jason (narrator) closes the moment with one of the most abrupt transitions in the English language: "I made that promise to Jacob not knowing what it would mean, but now I do." As luck would have it, this filmmaker discovered that the most helpful thing he could do was make a film! 

"I can't wait to tell my brother-in-law, Dick Casablancas!"

It took nine years of backbreaking effort, but Jason Russell fulfilled his promise to Jacob by making a thirty minute YouTube video that got less than a quarter of the views of this one. "But," Jason reminds us, "It's not just about Jacob. It's about you." Yes, us. The viewers. The real heroes. Jason promises us our efforts will be worth it: "If we succeed, we change the course of human history." 

Kony 2012 pitches a hard deadline. Joseph Kony and the LRA must be stopped by December 31, 2012. But how, Jason Russell? I was supposed to get drunk and watch The Room for the first time that weekend. I don't know if I can fit in a flight to Uganda!

"I'm going to tell you exactly how we're going to do it." Oh thank God. Please free me from thought and responsibility.

Jason explains Joseph Kony, the LRA, and the Ugandan insurgency to the audience by explaining it to Gavin. Obviously, this is an extremely stripped down explanation that ignores the long-standing ethnic, religious, and economic conflicts in Uganda, the legacy of colonialism that left Uganda with a government many saw as illegitimate, and the esoteric religious figures that inspired Joseph Kony to create his own cult of personality. Instead, Jason boils the whole issue down to two points:

• "Kony abducts kids just like Gavin."
• "The problem is 99% of people don't know who he is."

He's evil for the fun of it, but thrives off anonymity! Joseph Kony is reverse Freddy Krueger! No, but seriously folks, Joseph Kony is a monster. I'm just starting to think Jason Russell is not the right person to tell us about it. 

We then enjoy(?) a brief recap of Jason Russell's efforts to spread awareness. He asked the U.S. government to stop Kony, but was told (I'm quoting directly) "there is no way the United States will ever get involved in a conflict where our national security or financial interests are not at stake." That's... good? Not according to Jason. 

At least Invisible Children, Inc. was able to collect donations to build schools, infrastructure, and an early warning system in Uganda. That's good, right? Yeah, it's fine, I guess. But Jason Russell wants more. He needs more. Cut to unmoving columns of young people in Invisible Children, Inc. shirts, chanting "We will not stop! We will not fear! We will fight war!" 

uh-oh

Smash cut to a montage with the funniest possible music: "Roll Away Your Stone" by Mumford and Sons. This was calibrated perfectly to appeal to young adults in 2012. I was howling laughing at this part. I wonder if Jason Russell told them that the LRA was Antifa. 

Invisible Children's militant approach paid off. After hundreds of them, uh, storm the Capitol to demand change, Jason Russell and his supporters are ecstatic to learn that President Obama authorized the deployment of 100 military advisors to Uganda on October 14, 2011. This troop presence is treated as an unqualified victory. 

I mean, what's the worst that could happen with a hundred military advisors?

I think it's fair to pause and examine what Jason Russell is actually advocating here. He lays out his intentions for Kony 2012 in a step-by-step plan:

Step 1: Spread awareness of the LRA. 

Step 2: The American people pressure the government to intervene. 

Step 3: The U.S. sends more military advisors.

Step 4: The Ugandan army gets advanced technology and training.

Step 5: Kony arrested!

OK, I see a couple things wrong with this plan. First off, even if it all went perfectly, I don't think any of this would actually guarantee Kony's capture. The dude might just be really good at hiding. "Awareness" didn't help find Osama bin Laden. Everyone knew what that motherfucker looked like, and it still took a decade to find him. And not for nothing, but by 2012, Joseph Kony was no longer in Uganda. The video even shows this! 

Pictured: Not Uganda.

More importantly, Jason Russell is asking for the U.S. to use its military power in Uganda. You know who wasn't at all about that? Ugandans. The video portrays the country as a jungle hellhole, but it's not. They have newspapers. They saw what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan and gave us a firm but polite "No thank you." 

Again, let's assume stupidity here, not malice. Let's ignore the possibility that Kony 2012 was a cynical campaign to get a military foothold in a region where the U.S. would soon be competing with China for precious minerals. Let's just imagine that Jason Russell's entire understanding of geopolitics comes from Predator, and he truly thinks any problem can be solved by sending a bunch of guys with guns into the jungle.

But wait! Jason explains that Joseph Kony is now aware of U.S. involvement in his manhunt (I guess he has YouTube), and is now changing his tactics. Therefore, we must put even more effort into Jason Russell's cause. These goalposts shifted so fast that it altered the rotation of the Earth.

I'm just gonna breeze through the last few minutes of this video because I know how it turns out and also I'm sick of Jason Russell. Here are the highlights:

• Kony 2012 deems Tim Tebow to be one of the world's top culture makers, which made me laugh. 
• The video asks that you purchase Cover the Night Action Kit, but doesn't include a price. It was $30 (or $40.85 today). 
• There's a cameo by artist / asshole / Epimemeology alumni Shepard Fairey, who discusses the importance of propaganda. You're not wrong, ShepFair. 
• The final montage uses "I Can't Stop" by Flux Pavilion. My brain is boiling. 

The video ends with the lines, "The better world we want is coming. It's just waiting for us to stop at nothing." I searched for that quote and it looks like it's a Jason Russell original. Thank God. It sounds like the kind of thing Paul Atreides would say. 

I guess if there's any lesson to be learned from Kony 2012 and its aftermath, it's that attention does not equal adherence. Millions of people shared and expressed support for Invisible Children Inc., but that did not translate to long-term advocacy. Building support that will last takes time, energy and commitment. It also helps if you don't have a naked breakdown, but you probably already knew that. 

Joseph Kony was never arrested. He remains a fugitive as of 2024, and is believed to be hiding in South Sudan. The Lord's Resistance Army has not been considered an active threat in the region for several years. 

I couldn't find any current information on Jacob Acaye. He apparently started law school in 2013. Good(?) for him. 

Invisible Children, Inc. continues to provide aid to communities in Central Africa. These services range from community and individual mental health programs (good!) to an early warning systems that double as an intelligence-gathering system for the U.S. military (terrifying!) 

As for the man of the hour, Jason Russell has kept a low profile in the years since his meteoric rise and tragically nude fall. I was surprised at how little I could find on him since 2013. He and his wife wrote a children's book about activism that I'm sure the estate of Saul Alinsky was pissed about. But there's really nothing else of note on his IMDB page. He's no longer listed on Invisible Children's board of directors. "Weird," I thought, "fame hounds like this usually don't disappear unless something happened." So I dug deeper. And holy shit, did something happen. 

You see, Jason's parents are Paul and Sheryl Russell, who founded the Christian Youth Theater in San Diego in 1981. Jason was heavily involved in the program growing up. The CYT eventually grew into one of the largest youth theater organizations in the world, with more than twenty branches across the U.S. and Canada. 

In 2020, it came to light that dozens of children who attended CYT between 1990 and 2010 had been sexually abused by staff members. Even worse, a lawsuit in 2022 accused Paul and Sheryl Russell of not only knowing about the abuse, but actively covering it up since 1992. As a result, Paul and Sheryl stepped down from their leadership roles. Their daughter and CYT's president, Janie Cox, dropped her maiden name from her professional life because "Russell" was now absolutely radioactive in the San Diego area. I can see why that IMDB page looks a little lite. 

This next part is a difficult needle to thread. Around the time that #CYTKnew started trending on Twitter in July 2020, Jason Russell posted a long missive on Instagram about his own assault by a CYT staff member when he was a teenager (you can read a reposted version here). He went on to suggest steps CYT could take to repair itself and "the gaping systemic wounds that led us here," in the form of a letter that "we [emphasis mine] wish you posted." 

Alright, let's assume that Jason Russell isn't just bringing up his own trauma as a smokescreen for his (allegedly) criminal parents. Let's assume Jason Russell truly thinks CYT can be reformed and that he can speak for all the survivors. And... I can't. This is a bridge I can't cross. I'm sorry, Jason Russell, but your own trauma cannot qualify you to speak on behalf of all the people who were harmed by CYT staff, directly or indirectly. Your solutions are not their solutions. Some people want nothing less than for CYT to burn to the ground and no one on Earth can tell them they're wrong. 

Hanlon's razor says to never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. Well, stupidity eventually reaches a point where it's so damaging that it's functionally identical to malice. The guy who fucked up the alarm wiring at Volk Air Field in 1962. People who use joke fire extinguishers at gender reveal parties. Jason Russell when he tries to solve big problems. 

I don't think Jason Russell is a bad person, but he does strike me as a man who is profoundly disinterested in listening to other people. He speaks for Ugandans and sexual assault survivors without really engaging with them. His viewpoint is the only one that matters. People who hurt kids like Joseph Kony are bad. People who (allegedly) hurt kids like his parents just made terrible, decades-long mistakes. He believes any problem can be solved if there's enough awareness and the vibes are good enough.

But that's stupid. Governance based on vibes is fucking stupid. That's how you get laws to fight problems that don't exist. That's a pain in the ass, and draws resources away from actual problems. 

Kony 2012 the meme stands as a monument to humanity's boundless capacity for not thinking things through. It is the definition of reach exceeding grasp. In the beginning, Jason Russell said that nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. I guess the exception is when the idea is really, really, really stupid.

Next Week: Pat celebrates Cinco de Mayo (and gravity) with the Fall of Edgar.