Birds Aren't Real

For those of you who may be unaware and have been "Living under a rock" like I have since COVID, you may be surprised to hear the uproar of a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory that has turned into a movement against Twitter.

Allow me to explain...

Peter McIndoe is a 23-year-old man, who has started a Conspiracy claiming that birds are not real. That they are in fact drones, designed to spy on Americans. The exact wording on the side of his minivan states;

"The United States Government Murdered over 12 billion birds over the course of 1959 threw 2001. As they killed off the real birds they replaced them with surveillance drone replicas. Indistinguishable from the biological bird. There are now no real birds left."

This was originally a satirical movement he made in 2017 on Facebook that gained him quite a bit of popularity through Instagram. As time went on, the theory has broadened and expanded. He has hundreds of thousands of young adults and teenagers agreeing and arguing on behalf of the Conspiracy, claiming that;

• You never see baby pigeons because they are not real, they are instead built by the government.
• The Birds Charge themselves on Telephone poles and electrical cables
• Bird Poo dropped on cars are liquid tracking devices
• Woodpeckers are fluent in Morse Code

They are even starting to call this movement "The Feathered Gospel." While followers have gathered in California to protest outside of Twitter Headquarters demanding they change their "disgusting" bird logo because it promotes "Bird social programming".

The march on Twitters Headquarters and downtown Dallas Texas was a result of BirdsArentReal's “Truth Tour”, which has the intent of enlightening US Citizens to the truth of our lost birds and the drones that take their place.

Mr. McIndoe claims that the United States Government used Birds to watch people and chose Birds as their propaganda because every state has a state bird and even the United States itself has the Bald Eagle as a mascot and has laws in place to protect it.

Despite these actions, posts, and movements- McIndoe does claim It’s a parody of conspiratorial movements like QAnon, (QAnon is the umbrella term for a set of internet conspiracy theories that allege, falsely, that the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles.) and while he admitted in New York times to be spreading false information and propaganda he also states that it's for a good reason. He said that it holds a mirror to America's Media and how much people are willing to believe.

That's where this becomes a major twist, see, according to Hannah Bertolino on DAZED news, she writes;

Besides prompting protests outside Twitter’s headquarters to demand removal of its bird logo, viral YouTube videos, and spreading its slogan on country-wide billboards, Gen Z’s Birds Aren’t Real movement has amassed over 600,000 followers on TikTok and 350,000 on Instagram since its creation. The conspiracy theory – which states that the US government has replaced all birds with secret government drone replicas sent to spy on humans – has a catch, though: none of its followers actually believe this.

This Conspiracy unlike others was not designed to raise fear or suspicion, it was raised to show other members of Gen Z that while their world is filled with falsehoods and propaganda, you can still open your eyes and see the difference. You can still tell the truth from lies, even if it's popular. McIndoe's claim that the movement only raises a mirror to America's Media proves just that. Studies have been run for years on the impact media has on people's minds and how much they are willing to believe.

For example, Orson Welles’ 1938 CBS radio drama based on H. G. Wells’ science fiction classic War of the Worlds lives large in public memory. So much, in fact, I distinctly remember it on my Social Studies Test in high school. As it goes to state, that in 1938 in the early of night, the radio drama spoke of Martian's, aliens coming down and stealing people from the streets. In panic from the news, many Americans rushed from their homes to gather and some even plunged themselves from windows or else ended their lives by other means because they'd rather do that than face the Martians! Terrifying, right? How much people believe in media? Wrong. See that was another test made up and put out in the 1980's as the newspaper's way of bashing on the radio so that people would direct their attention and believe the news rather than the radio. It was a marketing ploy to get more money and it worked. People believed it. I think its moments like that, that McIndoe is referring to when he states it's raising a mirror to American Media.

There is no real reason or meaning to movements anymore or propaganda. That's not to say it’s all false but it’s certainly not all to be believed.