Birds Aren't Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory (nytimes.com) 110
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."
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."
Remember Moab (Score:1, Funny)
#RememberMoab
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Egdod Remembers
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The 'Mother Of All Bombs? That thing was huge!
doop dee doop dee doop (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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twice as unreal now.
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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.
We are all (not real) bird-brains on this glorious day!
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Dupes aren't real.
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From "Supernatural" Bobby : " They're not like the Loch Ness monster, Dean. Dragons aren't real"
S06E12 I think
Dupes are real (Score:4, Informative)
Stop posting dupes!
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
You already posted this crap on the 11th. Enough already!
Re:Dupes are real (Score:5, Insightful)
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...and never have, but they really are at a new all-time low of competence these days. Not only are there nearly as many dupes as stories, but the summaries are worse than ever and there's more links to paywalls.
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Stop posting dupes!
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
You already posted this crap on the 11th. Enough already!
You seem to be confusing this website for a source of news and discussion when what it really is, is an elaborate game of snap!
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You already posted this crap on the 11th. Enough already!
Saturday posts don't count... Your supposed to read Slashdot on weekdays!
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You're
You're also missing a clause for it to mean what you think it means.
Ridiculous parody. (Score:5, Informative)
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)
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)
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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
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Wait. Are you calling me old?!?!
Yeah. Guilty as charged. lol
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Never trust anyone with a four-digit slashid. They probably bought it on ebay.
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I did not buy this on Ebay. I'm the same person who registered the account all those years ago.
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A++!! Quick shipping!! Would buy again!!!
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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
Re: Ridiculous parody. (Score:3)
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.
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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.
He's been bought or blackmailed (Score:2, Funny)
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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!!!
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Soylent Yellow is People!!!!
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QAnon (Score:2)
Qnostics (Score:2)
... is the real thing, they hoaxed QAnon to sucker out traitors.
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Satire is dead. You honestly can't tell anymore.
Re: QAnon (Score:5, Funny)
It's pretty easy to tell if someone is dead, you just try to have sex with them.
Re: QAnon (Score:5, Insightful)
You haven't been married long enough or otherwise you wouldn't have said that!
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The joke you were trying to make and the joke you actually made are not the same thing. **cringe**
The Pfizer COVID pill is 89% effective. (Score:2)
Good news to some, but there will be an awful lot of surprised GenZ-ers when they find out they are going to be parents?
Re: QAnon (Score:2)
Re:Adam Schiff (Score:1, Troll)
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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
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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.
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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^)
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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)
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... or are they???
Just a glitch in the matrix. Please ignore and go about your belief in reality.
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And the exact same replies. It's like we're in a giant MMO and it rebooted to roll back the database. Now to figure out who's an NPC or not...
Joe Biden (Score:2, Funny)
Declares birds are indeed real. Minority house leader Mitch McConnell has announced hearings to debunk this liberal conspiracy.
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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.
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And Cruz is such a godly family man that he let the insult slide.
To be fair, I think this is just modern politics - no one takes insults seriously since they're just words spoken to attract voters and aren't intended to be taken seriously. So a politician who decides that an insult has gone too far is in a quandary, he'd be a hypocrite if he stopped handing out his own insults.
Old news (Score:1)
Fallout 4 Watcher..... (Score:3)
Someone's been playing too much Fallout 4.
https://fallout.fandom.com/wik... [fandom.com]
What could possibly go wrong (Score:3)
Yeah, the purpose is the lulz. Just like QAnon at the beginning. Wait until idiots start believing that this story is true too.
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Of course! (Score:2)
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]
DINOs (Score:1)
DINOs are real
2 examples are Mansion and Cinema
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According to your post, we do know what they look like; birds.
And so it was: (Score:2)
(/s medical humor regarding the CDC)
People, PEOPLE! (Score:3)
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.
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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.
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Slashdot editors are poorly programmed *Perl* scripts. They could technically have been written in Python in 1997, but nobody would have done that.
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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. ;-)
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Sounds like Perl to me.
Its not a conspiracy theory (Score:3)
its a meme which is mocking actual conspiracy theories.
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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.
Mass hysteria (Score:2)
The aliens must be doing it for all the lulz.
Trust the Plan (Score:2)
JFK Jr has become a bird.
some people need adult supervision (Score:2)
to reinstate Trump... and enact some sort of conservative utopia?
Don't they remember the policies those two men promoted while they were alive?!!
Youthful Idiots Gaslight and Mock... (Score:2)
So it's FSM? (Score:1)
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.
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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)
Why are the anti-conspiracy people doing this? (Score:2)
grey breads (Score:2)
Grey beards aren't real. The basement does not exist.
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Power tools are thinking faster than my dining room chair.
Rabbit howls and chimney swims.
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I predict... (Score:1)
You're not real (Score:2)
This shit, but not Assange... (Score:2)
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?
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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... (Score:2)
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.
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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. (Score:2)
This was a "millennial" joke since I was in HS (Score:2)
Also in Europe (Score:1)
We have birds in Europe too. These are planted here for the US turists.
The upside is they can (Score:1)
reprogram the drones to stop crapping on my car.
I heard... (Score:1)
So? (Score:2)
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,
first it's "conspiracies", then ... (Score:2)
Just creates more noise and less signal.... (Score:2)
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
Herp Derp a Lerp Frerp (Score:1)
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...
Three kinds of conspiracy theories (Score:2)
This means I ate a drone for Thanksgiving (Score:2)
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Your observation is wise. Suggestions 13: Thou shalt be amused rather than angered by the words and deeds of idiots; for I am thy Noodly Lord and I have created idiots solely for entertainment purposes, Mine first and thine likewise.
Thus spake Our Noodly Lord in The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. R'Amen.
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