corianderstem
Blue Crack Distributor
Oh, gotcha. No, I'm working under the assumption that Jason Russell is also just in it for publicity and/or money. Or that it's not just about drawing attention to Kony.
It just keeps getting better for these idiots
Truth Wins Out - TWO EXCLUSIVE: Invisible Children Promoted By Jason Russell As God’s “Trojan Horse”
There's a second video out now as well.
If what Jason Russell said is true, he seemed very naive and very clueless on how to handle publicity. Of course, there was no way to predict just how quickly Kony2012 would go viral and at such a rapid pace, but Russell and Invisible Children probably should've been more prepared. Perhaps they should've prepared for the possibility of their video and organization getting some attention, which would've helped to some degree.
According to the article, they'd stress-tested the website for an Oprah interview, but the attention they got totally blew them out of the water. I don't think anyone can prepare for going in 48 hours from a complete nobody to having hundreds of millions of people knowing about you and your cause. They clearly did not have the infrastructure to handle that kind of overload. Prior to that, their growth had been incremental -- I saw the "Invisible Children" doc back in 2003 or 2004. This was like nothing they'd experienced.
But I find it hard to believe that Russell's meltdown was due to massive stress and nothing else. His behavior was too off the wall and bizarre to be related to stress and not dealing with harsh criticism. Something else is wrong with him, unless he is truly naive and clueless.
Celebrity is a very strange thing, and to suddenly have it foisted upon you -- complete with negative attacks coming in from every which direction, accusations of being a fraud -- at head-snapping speed, is not something I'm sure any of us are qualified to judge.
Or, to put it another way, how do you think you would have responded?
maybe he always had underlying issues, and the stress of the event was just the trigger...
or maybe it was "reactive schizophrenia" (acute, short-term episode triggered by an event)
That's what I wonder - that he always had issues. He said in the article that he never did, so that was why I said "if what he is saying is true, then he's naive".
Maybe naive is not the right word, but then again, maybe he was naive in a sense that people can be mean and ruthless. Even the article mentioned that he seemed like a sheltered boy who upon going to Uganda, had his eyes opened wide to how cruel the world can be. I got the sense that Russell probably wasn't so aware of how nasty and cynical people can be even over an NGO.
Then again, I shot my mouth off and overanalyzed the whole interview, so I'm no different from his critics. I'll shut up now.
i don't think you shot your mouth off and overanalysed it at all... i also think he comes across as very naive - i remember at the time, when my teenage daughter told me about the video, i felt very uncomfortable seeing how he put so much incredibly personal content out there, and the exposure his child got... it didn't sit right with me, and i think that when people put so much of themselves out there they can make themselves really really vulnerable - which he clearly did as it turned out... the content was not intelligent or objective - it was naive and incredibly simplistic... he focused the content on himself, hence the ensuing shit-storm focused on HIM lol (sorry... poor guy really...)
i think saying he was "naive" is a very kind criticism of the whole thing tbh
nathan1977 said:I think anyone who assumes that they can make a difference in the world has to be at least somewhat naive. But it tends to be the naive ones who go out and make something happen. If it's a choice between being naive and bringing national and international attention to a mass murderer and an ongoing crisis, versus being "aware" and sitting back and doing nothing...
Well.
I don't sit around and do nothing over issues I care about. I give money to Doctors Without Borders whenever I can. That's more than what many others do.
I think anyone who assumes that they can make a difference in the world has to be at least somewhat naive. But it tends to be the naive ones who go out and make something happen. If it's a choice between being naive and bringing national and international attention to a mass murderer and an ongoing crisis, versus being "aware" and sitting back and doing nothing...
Well.