I'm amazed at how many of my hipster friends on Facebook have used the #bringbackourgirls hashtag after they ragged so hard on Kony 2012 2 years ago. I point it out them and they get all pissy and say it's not the same but can't explain how. Hipsters in America only care about this because the media isn't covering it. If the media was covering it, they would probably say it was the media trying to drum up support for another foreign war against brown people, or something like that.
This seems a bit rantish, but I can't really disagree. But remember how Hollywood types grabbed on the idea of a US intervention in Darfur c. 2006 or so. Even at, what, 12, I was startled by the contradiction of people who I figured opposed intervention in Iraq supporting intervention in another Arab country. It still doesn't make sense.
As for the hipster-ish aspect it is the main story on the BBC webpage. But the Nigerian response, as always, is beyond botched- they've arrested some protesting mothers of the kidnapped girls because they "embarrassed" the President's wife. They've all been too busy celebrating "becoming Africa's largest economy" due to their "GDP rebasing", sometimes people from Nigeria can be really full about things. The Boko Haram insurgency shows no sign of abiding. Not that the APC offers anything better, of course.
Yeah, definitely rantish and personalish. I hope it was at least a semi-interesting rant though.
I can see the the difference between Iraq and humanitarian intervention. I can't see the difference between this and Kony 2012 though.
It just seems in 2012, all the hip people were like "this is so pointless, posting a Facebook video isn't helping people in Africa" but now they're doing the exact same thing themselves. The only difference I see is that the Kony story was originally pushed by Christians and various other unhip people while the bringourgirlsback thing was spread by Daily Show watcher type people. It really is just using these conflicts as a fashion statement.
