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The Internet

Birds Aren't Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory (nytimes.com) 110

Posted by BeauHD from the fighting-misinformation-with-misinformation dept.
Thelasko shares a report from The New York Times: In Pittsburgh, Memphis and Los Angeles, massive billboards recently popped up declaring, "Birds Aren't Real." On Instagram and TikTok, Birds Aren't Real accounts have racked up hundreds of thousands of followers, and YouTube videos about it have gone viral. Last month, Birds Aren't Real adherents even protested outside Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco to demand that the company change its bird logo. The events were all connected by a Gen Z-fueled conspiracy theory, which posits that birds don't exist and are really drone replicas installed by the U.S. government to spy on Americans. Hundreds of thousands of young people have joined the movement, wearing Birds Aren't Real T-shirts, swarming rallies and spreading the slogan.

It might smack of QAnon, the conspiracy theory that the world is controlled by an elite cabal of child-trafficking Democrats. Except that the creator of Birds Aren't Real and the movement's followers are in on a joke: They know that birds are, in fact, real and that their theory is made up. What Birds Aren't Real truly is, they say, is a parody social movement with a purpose. In a post-truth world dominated by online conspiracy theories, young people have coalesced around the effort to thumb their nose at, fight and poke fun at misinformation. It's Gen Z's attempt to upend the rabbit hole with absurdism. [...] At the center of the movement is Peter McIndoe, 23, a floppy-haired college dropout in Memphis who created Birds Aren't Real on a whim in 2017. For years, he stayed in character as the conspiracy theory's chief believer, commanding acolytes to rage against those who challenged his dogma. But now, Mr. McIndoe said in an interview, he is ready to reveal the parody lest people think birds really are drones. "Dealing in the world of misinformation for the past few years, we've been really conscious of the line we walk," he said. "The idea is meant to be so preposterous, but we make sure nothing we're saying is too realistic. That's a consideration with coming out of character." [...]

Mr. McIndoe now has big plans for 2022. Breaking character is necessary to help Birds Aren't Real leap to the next level and forswear actual conspiracy theorists, he said. He added that he hoped to collaborate with major content creators and independent media like Channel 5 News, which is aimed at helping people make sense of America's current state and the internet. "I have a lot of excitement for what the future of this could be as an actual force for good," he said. "Yes, we have been intentionally spreading misinformation for the past four years, but it's with a purpose. It's about holding up a mirror to America in the internet age."
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Birds Aren't Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory More

Birds Aren't Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory

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  • Remember Moab (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    #RememberMoab

  • doop dee doop dee doop (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dogsbreath ( 730413 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @08:06AM (#62078711)

    Well it's more than a day and with a short attention span or maybe dementia, it's like it's new all over again.

  • Dupes are real (Score:4, Informative)

    by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @08:07AM (#62078713)

    Stop posting dupes!

    https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]

    You already posted this crap on the 11th. Enough already!

  • Ridiculous parody. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Martin S. ( 98249 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @08:08AM (#62078715) Journal

    This is applying the strategy used by Pastafarianism [wikipedia.org] of applying humorous ridicule to conspiracy idiots. I do not think it made a jolt of difference but at least it was/is fun.

    The dihydrogen monoxide conspiracy [wikipedia.org] is similar.

    • Re:Ridiculous parody. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @09:00AM (#62078847)

      Unfortunately, recent history has taught us, that these parody to point out how idiotic a conspiracy is, unfortunately rarely gives the stupid people a clue. But they may often latch onto the idea and build off of it to extend their conspiracy.

      During the 1990's a big thing at the time was Kansas pushing schools to cover Creationism and Intelligent Design as part of their Science Curriculum. To try to point out why Kansas was so backwards, there were a lot of people who made parody of using scientific words to explain why the world is flat.
      Now that parody never helped people realize how stupid they were for having Creationism in their science books, but created a growing set of new idiots who are now Flat Earthers, who honestly believe that the earth is flat.

      • Re:Ridiculous parody. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by EvilSS ( 557649 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @09:55AM (#62079015)
        This. These things can mutate in the wild. They attract idiots and the mentally ill like flies to shit. When they hit a certain level of awareness in the public consciousness they can be tipped over the edge from joke to full on conspiracy theory. Next thing Mr McIndoe knows his joke will take on a life of its own, one he can't control. What was once said in jest and irony will become dogma to those susceptible to believing in this kind of thing.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by maynard ( 3337 )

        Notice how the focus of 'Birds Aren't Real' is that robot birds are engaged in mass surveillance. Which is ridiculous, but with a tinge of plausibility since actual prototype robot birds have been created. But that's not the point. Forget birds. The point here is to dismiss robot birds as replacing all real live birds and in the process diminish or demean the concept of mass surveillance. Which IS REAL. I mean, we're all carrying phones with GPS tracking our every move, audio recording (which has been subpo

        • Forgive me for presuming based on your impressive UID, O Ancient One, but I should want to warn you that an attitude of numbness toward surveillance and loss of privacy is ubiquitous among people born in the last twenty-five years or so. That's part of the irony of the idea: complaining about a red herring in the face of something that they see as a foregone conclusion. As far as they're concerned, the time before constant tracking by smartphones, social media, and advertisers is a mythical past, one they n

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by maynard ( 3337 )

            Wait. Are you calling me old?!?!

            Yeah. Guilty as charged. lol

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by doom ( 14564 )

            Forgive me for presuming based on your impressive UID, O Ancient One

            Never trust anyone with a four-digit slashid. They probably bought it on ebay.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by doom ( 14564 )

            As far as they're concerned, the time before constant tracking by smartphones, social media, and advertisers is a mythical past

            There's a korean drama I like quite a bit called "Search: WWW" about a couple of big search engine/portals dueling for market dominance which uses an interesting, I presume intentional, device of simply pretending that the world is a better place than it is: it takes place in an alternate reality where, for example, women are well represented in the upper management of IT compan

        • I just wanted to added on a link for what you said, actual robot birds, pretty cool:
          https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=... [youtube.com]
          I have witnesses fixed wing drones disguised as birds before, but the flapping wings I think is pretty impressive.

      • It might smack of QAnon, the conspiracy theory that the world is controlled by an elite cabal of child-trafficking Democrats. Except that the creator of Birds Aren't Real and the movement's followers are in on a joke: They know that birds are, in fact, real and that their theory is made up.

        This assumes that the creators of other conspiracy theories don't know that they're made up. They do. Perhaps not universally, but certainly the majority know it. They're creating their bullshit for their own personal gain.

  • Birds ARE NOT Real. They used to be real, until the government replaced them all with spy drones in the 1970s. Sure, he says it was all a joke - now. But for years he spoke the truth no one dared to. Seems he's been bought off or blackmailed into supporting the cover up. Sad. Just shows they can get to anyone.
    • And to shut up people asking what chicken nuggets are made of, the birds spy on people and report them to central command if it looks like they are going to shoot or kill one. The robotic model is swapped out with a vat grown clone whose control electronics rapidly decomposes to water and natural by-products if it gets killed and approached by a person. I’m not an idiot.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by EvilSS ( 557649 )

        And to shut up people asking what chicken nuggets are made of, the birds spy on people and report them to central command if it looks like they are going to shoot or kill one. The robotic model is swapped out with a vat grown clone whose control electronics rapidly decomposes to water and natural by-products if it gets killed and approached by a person. I’m not an idiot.

        Nah, we all know what chicken nuggets and chicken strips are made from. You think its a coincidence, COVID killing so many just when "chicken" consumption is at it's highest in generations? It's not coincidence. CHICKEN IS PEOPLE!!!

    • Well, there's this bird sitting on my window and he is telling me in no uncertain terms that he is a very real bird and it is infact you that is not real, inbetween asking me what websites I'm looking at. Now what do you have to say about that?
  • Time for the QAnon theorists to come out and openly admit they are just trolling too

    • ... is the real thing, they hoaxed QAnon to sucker out traitors.

    • Satire is dead. You honestly can't tell anymore.

    • Also time for Adam Schiff to produce his "hard evidence" that Trump colluded with Russia or admit that he perpetrated the hoax.

    • Time for the QAnon theorists to come out and openly admit they are just trolling too

      It would be a real shame if they believed the batshit insanity they pump out. It's a perverse form of entertainment to throw shit against the wall to see what sticks.

      One of the unintended consequences of making the internet more easily accessible is that there is a whole new realm of stupid people to con.

      Yeah, we had kooks, trolls and nasties back in the day, but it took a level of smarts to get that thing on the air. Old school AOL'ers would make fun of these new tools.Today, that guy who whacked his

      • If we look at say, Pizzagate, it was really absurd and stupid. But you attach she who won't be named to a faked conspiracy, it will trigger them to suspend disbelief.
        My favorite part of pizza gate was the Ars Technica writer who mocked everyone for believing in it, later getting caught by the FBI attempting to solicit sex with a minor.

        • If we look at say, Pizzagate, it was really absurd and stupid. But you attach she who won't be named to a faked conspiracy, it will trigger them to suspend disbelief. My favorite part of pizza gate was the Ars Technica writer who mocked everyone for believing in it, later getting caught by the FBI attempting to solicit sex with a minor.

          That's irony level 11. Sounds like he was pissed it wasn't real? 8^)

        • And therefore.... Pizzagate was real? Because someone who said truthfully that it was fake was a bad person? So the way we know truth from fiction is we look at the people who are speaking and decide if they're in the bucket of people that we like? The new scientific method is to attack the messenger? Not really sure what your point is, other than to put more fertilizer on the misinformation garden.

  • Dupes aren't real ... (Score:3)

    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @08:19AM (#62078747) Journal
    ... or are they???

  • Joe Biden (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Declares birds are indeed real. Minority house leader Mitch McConnell has announced hearings to debunk this liberal conspiracy.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Isn't he waiting to hear what his boss Trump has to say like the rest of the Republicans?

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        You gotta wonder what dirt Trump has on the rest of the party. The amount of people who continue to kiss his ass even after he left office is staggering. I mean Trump called Ted Cruz's wife ugly on twitter and Cruz is still on Trump's nuts.

  • This was posted already

  • Fallout 4 Watcher..... (Score:3)

    by bev_tech_rob ( 313485 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @08:39AM (#62078805)

    Someone's been playing too much Fallout 4.

    https://fallout.fandom.com/wik... [fandom.com]

  • What could possibly go wrong (Score:3)

    by peppepz ( 1311345 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @08:42AM (#62078807)

    Yes, we have been intentionally spreading misinformation for the past four years, but it's with a purpose.

    Yeah, the purpose is the lulz. Just like QAnon at the beginning. Wait until idiots start believing that this story is true too.

    • I think it was the church of Bob or SubGenius that was a joke and the creators couldn't talk the real believers down from it. This went on for over twenty years, even after the aliens didn't show up to take them away. Their still waiting.

  • There are no birds, only flying dinosaurs.

    I always dream about the possibility that aliens came long time ago and investigated Earth, so one day we will actually KNOW (when they make contact and provide us with this information) what did dinos really looked like

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    Also, there is no such thing as a "fish":
    https://www.sciencealert.com/a... [sciencealert.com]

  • I fart birds. In fact, I shit salmonella from chicken on a regular basis. My hemoglobin is about 2. I, for one, support our reptilian salmonella-carrying overlords. I feel like I missed out on the E. coli outbreak on lettuce.

    (/s medical humor regarding the CDC)

  • People, PEOPLE! (Score:3)

    by Kokuyo ( 549451 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @08:57AM (#62078841) Journal

    No need to be angry at the editors.

    They are just adhering to the Zeitgeist! Or when exactly have you seen the last well researched, unbiased article anywhere? Or actual quality control in any of the big manufacturers?

    These are the times we live in! Getting it out the door is just about the only thing anyone cares about anymore.

    • The stupid part is I have always joked that the editors are little more than poorly programmed python scripts, but honestly I think a python script may actually do a better job.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        Slashdot editors are poorly programmed *Perl* scripts. They could technically have been written in Python in 1997, but nobody would have done that.

        • Slashdot editors are poorly programmed *Perl* scripts. They could technically have been written in Python in 1997, but nobody would have done that.

          The way they edit defies all logic of what reasonable people *would* do. ;-)

  • Its not a conspiracy theory (Score:3)

    by thereddaikon ( 5795246 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @08:57AM (#62078843)

    its a meme which is mocking actual conspiracy theories.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by evanh ( 627108 )

      And it'd also be more correct to say they're holding the mirror up to the clicks-driven push-algorithm (Facebook) age, rather than the Internet age.

  • First they tell us its flat and now its for the birds.
    The aliens must be doing it for all the lulz.

  • JFK Jr has become a bird.

    • That's what really boggles my mind, these dumbshit dingdongs wait for weeks in Dallas for JFK (jr?) to return...
      to reinstate Trump... and enact some sort of conservative utopia?

      Don't they remember the policies those two men promoted while they were alive?!!
  • ...those they disagree with, news at 11.
  • FSM for the blindly religious

    Birds aren't Real for the conspiracy theorists

    Sounds like the same group.

    But did FSM ever actually enlighten anybody? If it did, would we still need this?

    Whatever, it's fun, nonetheless.

    • FSM for the blindly religious

      But did FSM ever actually enlighten anybody? If it did, would we still need this?

      Actually, my understanding is that a faction of theologically-minded people proceeded to run with it using the angle "well, why is FSM any more absurd than mainstream religions?" Which resulted in rigorous debate between FSM and mainstream theologists, with FSM holding its own surprisingly well.

      So, unclear whether anyone was enlightened exactly, but it did spur some rather novel discussion that might not have ordinarily occurred.

  • Discontented Drones (Score:3)

    by kackle ( 910159 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @09:24AM (#62078923)
    Birds aren't real, but they are angry.
  • Spending money and energy into something this big can only mean one thing: the actual conspiracy theory people were right (or pretty close to the mark) about some of the theories.

  • Grey beards aren't real. The basement does not exist.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Nuncio ( 179612 )

      Power tools are thinking faster than my dining room chair.
      Rabbit howls and chimney swims.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • As much mis/disinfo as there is, as evil as most of it is, I submit that this addition to it will amuse few, confuse many, and be conflated with other. I sincerely hope to be proven wrong, and that it's creator need never regret it, but given the state of people and things today, I'll wager it won't end well.
  • It's the whole point of the BladeMatrixRun movies

  • Submitted a story on the Assange appeal and the UN's response criticising it, and Slashdot didn't post it.

    Get stupid conspiracy theory stories, Slashdot posts it.

    News that matters?

    • Assange has appeal? Well, I guess so since he did get married, but still it can't be a large enough number to have a story about it... oh wait you mean *legal* appeal. Never mind.

  • The problem is that we literally have people who have unironically started following flat earth and moon hoax etc.. -

    It's like our whole society has this horrible unpatchable zero day vulnerability to crackpot conspiracy theories... where any random edgelord can make up some a new thing and it gains actual traction..

    Putin's strategy of "encourage the crazies and hope they break something" has been paying off hugely on this stuff.

    • As I said in the original of this dupe, flat earth is not new really, it arrived around the time that the theory of evolution did, and was a push back against the scientists of the day.

      Now clearlly the moon landing hoax theory has to be newer, could not have existed before 1969 anyway... Though perhaps earlier there could have been a theory that we already landed there and were covering it up because it was top secret... But the hoax theory started from a book, in an era that was chock full of crazy books

  • Do not try to be over-the-top on the internet. There is no top to be over.
  • I'm smackdab in the middle of what a "millennial" is...this was a joke back when I was in HS and only continued to grow as I got into college. lol did the Zoomers finally take the crown from the Millennials.

  • We have birds in Europe too. These are planted here for the US turists.

  • reprogram the drones to stop crapping on my car.

  • that the movement was secretly operated by the CIA to undermine Russian propaganda efforts and to create plausible deniability for when the alien secrets from Area 51 are finally leaked. That guy at the bar went on and on about it!

  • We live in a world where people can simply say "I'm a woman" and everyone is supposed to pretend that's reality.
    As reported in the Times: (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/absurdity-police-logging-rapists-women-s6576v825)
    "Police have been criticised for saying they will record rapes by offenders with male genitalia as being committed by a woman if the attacker âoeidentifies as a femaleâ.
    Police Scotland said that they would log rapes as being carried out by a woman if the accused person insists,

  • Kids these days just don't believe in anything. Next thing you know, they'll be making fun of the Church of the Sub-Genius.

  • Back in the days of the computer bulletin board system, sysops running them feared this exact problem from the growing popularity of the Internet. It's great that it gives you world-wide access to all sorts of resources, but it also exponentially multiplies the signal to noise ratio. So many actors have reasons to post fake news, spam, unsolicited advertising and just silly nonsense.

    I don't think this campaign really adds any value to educate people about fake news? There's plenty of this junk already, and

  • This is a testament to today's teaching standards where every fantasy that can be uttered suddenly becomes reality because nobody has the ability for critical thinking anymore.
    At least I've still got my unicorns...

  • There are three kinds of conspiracy theories. The most common are deliberate libel and slander meant to smear someone. A small subset are the machinations of lunatics' imaginations. The smallest subset are jokes that dimwits took seriously. It does not surprise me at all that the jokers behind this one had to admit that it was a joke before dullards started offing birds.

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