Lest you think I’m simply being a contrarian…

…I and others aren’t just pulling the concern over Stop Kony 2012 out of our more cynical orifices.

My frustration with the group has largely reflected the concerns expressed so convincingly by those online critics who have been willing to bring the fury of Invisible Children’s true believers down upon themselves in order to point out what is wrong with this group’s approach: the warmongering, the narcissism, the commercialisation, the reductive and one-sided story they tell, their portrayal of Africans as helpless children in need of rescue by white Americans.

As a result of Invisible Children’s irresponsible advocacy, civilians in Uganda and central Africa may have to pay a steep price in their own lives so that a lot of young Americans can feel good about themselves, and a few can make good money. This, of course, is sickening, and I think that Kony 2012 is a case of Invisible Children having finally gone too far. They are now facing a backlash from people of conscience who refuse to abandon their capacity to think for themselves.

Read more from  senior research fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research, Uganda, assistant professor of political science at San Diego State University, and author of Displacing Human Rights: War and Intervention in Northern Uganda, Adam Branch.