Birds Aren't Real, And Kids Are Not So Susceptible To Conspiracy Theories (Their Parents On The Other Hand...)
from the birds-aren't-real dept
Back in high school, I read Robert Anton Wilson/Robert Shea's Illuminatus! Trilogy back-to-back with Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, and ended up being amused and fascinated at the intersection of conspiracy theories and pranksters. If you're unaware, both books satirize the nature of conspiracy theories. Soon after I picked up a copy of Re/Search's Pranks! book, which, to this day, is on my book shelf between a copy of the Mondo 2000 book and The Book of the SubGenius (with a copy of the tiny Loompanics yellow version of Principia Discordia sitting next to them). Soon after reading those, I got to college, and thanks to the wonders of the internet (and Usenet in particular) discovered a group of somewhat merry internet pranksters who dubbed themselves "The Flat Earth Society" -- as a purely ironic group who enjoyed the mixture of absurdity, satire, pranking, with an appreciation for the occasional conspiracy theory worth mocking (I'm still in touch with some people from that group decades later, again, thanks to the internet).
That's all preamble to note that I not only recognize, but really appreciate what's going on with a group of Gen Z pranksters, who cooked up a rather brilliant satirical conspiracy theory, better known as "Birds Aren't Real," which has been making the rounds for a while now, and only was officially "exposed" as a prank in a thoroughly delightful NY Times article last week.
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.
It seems that every generation needs this kind of thing -- and it's often driven by young folks (correctly) mocking older folks for various moral panics about different conspiracy theories. We see it again, and again. The Stuff You Should Know podcast just recently had an episode all about SINA, the "Society for Indecency to Naked Animals" which was a very similar style prank in the late 1950s, early 1960s.
In each case, these tend to be efforts by younger folks mocking this or that moral panic by older folks -- who always cloak the moral panic in a desire to "protect the children," even as the moral panics themselves seem frequently to come out of conspiracy theories or nonsense that the older folks fall for, and many of the younger folks see through. It's hard not to identify with this kind of thinking:
Most Birds Aren’t Real members, many of whom are part of an on-the-ground activism network called the Bird Brigade, grew up in a world overrun with misinformation. Some have relatives who have fallen victim to conspiracy theories. So for members of Gen Z, the movement has become a way to collectively grapple with those experiences. By cosplaying conspiracy theorists, they have found community and kinship, Mr. McIndoe said.
“Birds Aren’t Real is not a shallow satire of conspiracies from the outside. It is from the deep inside,” he said. “A lot of people in our generation feel the lunacy in all this, and Birds Aren’t Real has been a way for people to process that.”
Or as someone notes later in the article:
Mr. Gaydos added, “If anyone believes birds aren’t real, we’re the last of their concerns, because then there’s probably no conspiracy they don’t believe.”
To me, though the clear take away from this is that, yet again, the kids are alright, and will continue to be alright. And for all of the "but think of the children" moral panics we will experience over and over again, the kids will figure out ways to process and deal with those moral panics in the best way possible for them, figuring out the best ways to deal with the impossibilities of the world, and making the best of what may seem like a bad situation.
Count me as all in as saying "birds aren't real."
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: birds aren't real, conspiracy theories, pranks, protect the children, satire, social media
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
The Kids Are Alright
Bingo. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I am very excited for your reaction to kids thinking NFT and cryptocurrency are stupid bullshit. Because large swaths of Gen Z on social media and elsewhere, especially in art communities, are calling it out for the stupid bullshit that it is.
Are you gonna change your tone if they en-masse reject the idea that “Protocols, Not Platforms” and the web3 coin and token scammery is the future?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
But what are birds? We just don't know.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
You can have protocols without web3 or cryptocurrency. HTTP is a protocol. As is TCP/IP. As is RSS.
Next time, argue for a more cogent argument.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
We have very similar bookshelves.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Damn kids gonna immanentize the eschaton. Get on my lawn, drinks are free!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Fifteen years ago, parents were telling their kids to be careful what they post and who they meet with online, fastforward to the present day and those parents now believe in bleach enemas, that children are being sold online in flatpacked furniture and are camping out in Texas waiting for the return of a 90+ year old JFK and his son...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Let's give a hand to Discordianism!
I have my Hand of Eris tattoo, do you, Mike?
:D
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Most of the time, a person's ability to see through conspiracy theories is directly proportional to their desire to see through them.
In other words, people believe what they want to believe.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
You and everyone else on this site knows what’s meant by “Protocols, Not Platforms.”
You can, but that ship has sailed. Cryptoshit has become inseparable from the decentralization and protocol strategies that are being pushed forward by the most well-positioned companies, individuals, and orgs.
I’d like to know if Mike would actually respect their choices, or if he thinks the children are wrong to oppose “decentralized” Ponzi schemes couched in liberatory individualistic disguises.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Someone needs to start a group nfts are not real ,they are just a link to a data point saying user x paid for the right to own an image.
which can be copied or downloaded by anyone ,
paying 1000s od dollars for a nft is pointless
or you can literally sell anything or create a ponzi scheme as long as it mentions crypto blockchain nft,s etc
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
True that.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
I read the paper. That's clearly not what he means. While Mike isn't opposed to web3 as much as you and I are, you're being more than extremely disingenuous if cryptocurrency is the end-all-be-all of the next generation of protocols.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Maybe he just wants to preserve the value of his NFTs...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Yeah, but they still take 9 months to assemble...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
The people with most financial and social capital to push forward with the idea of protocols in the public sphere are the ones who want cryptoshit to become the end-all-be-all of protocols. Their “vision” is constantly winning out because they have the most resources to hype it up.
Jack Dorsey was enamored with Mike’s paper and now he’s working on turning Kickstarter into some decentralized blockchain protocol or some other shit. Twitter BlueSky is being helmed by Shitcoin shill Jay Graber. Reddit and other sites and people with more money than human decency want to shove NFT and metaverse horseshit down our throats as the future of art and creativity and social media even though NFTs are a scam.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Reality is what you can get away with.
I remember seeing the farm animals clothed & the press conferences about how keeping them naked was horrific.
Along with birds aren't real, there are also the FB groups where younger people have been cosplaying Boomers. They try to outdo each other & be over the top... but somehow they fail to out Boomer the Boomers.
Its sort of sad the old school satirical groups have mostly dried up, but part of this might be driven by the absolute fear they will find themselves leading an army of insane people.
(See also: Q recently went to ground & the various factions are dividing to follow new leadership. How many people are still in TX waiting for JFK Jr. to return to the living & lead the charge against the devil worshiping child eaters?)
It used to be we could smile & nod at the clearly insane, now they get elected to office and infect more people.
I think the true pity is while Congress is focused on fake news and misinformation on all of these other platforms but they manage to ignore how much damage is coming from their own membership spreading outright lies & they refuse to do anything while demanding FB does a perfect job.
Doublethink at its finest.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Wow. You should, perhaps, chill out. Your assumptions are bad. Very bad. And not even close to reality.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
So, just how many of those NFT apes did you buy?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The Kids Are Alright
Leave it to a musician to quote 2 rock legends in a post.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Incredibly I discovered that I still have my :Save the Lemmings" t-shirt from back in college.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The kids are mostly fine. The adults though...
Thinking the battlecry/excuse might need a little tweaking, from 'Save the children!' to 'Save the children from us!'
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
"Teach every child you meet the importance of forgiveness. It's our only hope of surviving their wrath once they realize just how badly we've screwed things up for them." - Despair.com
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Kids generally don't believe anything older folks (aka "grownups") tell them once they hit double-digits... probably because of all the lies they've been told (as with, this time of year especially, Santa Claus).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Neither are giraffes
Birds, ok, but who could possibly believe in giraffes? https://www.reddit.com/r/Giraffesdontexist/
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ponies
And don't forget all of Ken "Popehat" White's exposes about the great pony meance.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Reminds of older 4chan. (Not so) funny how jokes about the "windmill of peace and tolerance" attracted moral panics (which attracted the wrong sort of crowd who took those panics seriously). Pool's closed, everyone. Time for another generation to take the mantle.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Mundus vult decipi - the world wishes to be deceived, Jurgen's motto iirc.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Birds, okay, but ...
Kids Aren't Real! They're just a figment of your imagination ....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Cryptocurrency isn't a protocol or a platform.
Scams have been a thing since way before buttcoin. Rememeber Amway? Yeah, one of the Amway Scammers became a Minister for Education...
And you're missing the point as to why crypto is popular, and it's entirly because people are sick amd tired of centralized currency bullshit like SWIFT being used to hurt countries.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Meanwhile, China's banned crypto bullshit, Singapore is close to banning that shit, and bankers everywhere want you to believe in centralized currency.
Get your head out of your ass unless you're shilling for what some conspiracy theorists call "The Great Reset".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
Herd mentality at work.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Neither are giraffes
The kind of people who don't care about the endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
People have been reselling, sorry, scalping tickets before NFTs...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Meanwhile, Murdoch gets to pay to get a fucking link tax into Australia, Singapore gets to sue people over "private" Facebook posts, and China manages to manipulate 1.3 billion people into hating over a hundred million people while simultanesously jailing any Uyghurs who don't conform and trading with the Taliban.
Not that I don't appreciate the joke and deeper implications, but I can't laugh at these things anymore. Especially when I have to live with the consequences of the r8se of China and the New Propaganda schemes.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
And it still won't save them.
The only forgiveness we'll allow them is through quick death via a lead vaccine to the brain. And that's only if we're feeling generous.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Let's give a hand to Discordianism!
Hail Eris!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sadly though it won't stop the supposed "adults" in the room to winge and moral panic and in the process mess things up for everyone including the people they supposedly wish to protect.
Mind you, this is only in the case people who genuinely believe in the moral panic and not those who like to use said moral panic to attack what they precieve as a personal grievance or pet issue coughtcoughSection 230cough
[ link to this | view in thread ]
That's just YOUR interpretation of a bird!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Are, or were
Are, or were? Birds were the lest vestiges from the age of dinosaurs. Until the US government wiped then out in the mid 1960's to install the drone army. Now, birds are a constant reminder of the ever seeing eye of the state.
But because birds used to be... well, birds; it makes it so hard for many to see the current truth. There's recorded history of birds just about as far back as humankind has recorded history; they couldn't have been drones then. So you just keep assuming that flying drone is an actual bird, even when it's behaviour is non-sensical as it hit an obvious programming bug.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Good. They have a lot more sense than most other countries in that regard.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
lies wirthin lies
Don' t believe any of it. The government has indoctrinated those kids into actually believing birds are real. That is what the school system is for! And the papers are well know for shilling for the government!! The only news from this is that the government has paid off that `one million to shut up' offer that Mike used to flaunt!!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Sadly it has nothing to do with common sense and everything to do with total control.
And this is coming from someone who can't find a good use case for NFTs, cryptocurrency and the related tech without stumbling onto either a use case that's already been done through current tech.
Or that fact that crypto's biggest problem is how it is still reliant on both the SWIFT Network and Internet infrastructure to work.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
To be fair, human sperm and human eggs are dense ropes of DNA...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: lies wirthin lies
Jesus, Badghad Bob.
He's already taken money from the Charles Koch Foundation.
What more do you want?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
So, large, flightless and ready to break our pelvises with one kick?
Damn, I'd be real scared of birds if that was the definition!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Until their ironic shitposting attracted Stormfront and the white power fucks.
Now 4chan's associated with Nazis, Qanon nonsense and all that stuff the FBI said was the biggest domestic threat to the US.
Fuck the Nazis, and fuck the white power movement.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The flat earth society is not satirical group.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
I think Mr. Masnick is talking about the original one. To wit, if the original Flat Earth Society is the Foucault Pendulum, the one as of late is the Da Vinci Code.
I think that's how it goes…
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I think you and the NYT article are looking too much into this
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: I think you and the NYT article are looking too much into th
It says more about our society when the older folk legitimately believe all the bullshit on TV and the younger generations have enough skepticism to pull this off.
[ link to this | view in thread ]