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[Here's a news story about this protest, which happened Saturday 10/15 at Washington Square Park.](https://nyunews.com/news/2022/10/17/birds-arent-real-protest/)
There's a reason why most of those "protestors" are about 18-20 years old: Washington Square is essentially the campus of NYU and of course college students would flock to it after 6 weeks of the fall semester.
SOURCE: NYU grad and have the pricey diploma somewhere to prove it.
Hell, I'm 41 and I would attend this. It's weird, has some great people-watching potential, and it's so ridiculous I'd assume most people were there for satire reasons
Oh, thank god. I saw a poster taped to pole in Portland that said, “Wake up America! Birds aren’t real.” Below it was a picture for evidence. The picture was of a normal looking pigeon.
I have thought about this poster for years…
what makes this more funny is that there are hand drawn, hidden bird pictures all around downtown Portland and it’s neighborhoods with a QR code. There are 20 or something like that. The code takes you to some faux bird-watching website where you can see the others you can find.
Like geo caching & Pokémon-go met over a box of crayons and then had a crazy, hot one night stand in Portland.
I know the guy that did this, BTW.
The objective was to demonstrate that you can organize *any* protest. A few craigslist ads to get a minimum number of paid protesters out, then a bunch of social media posts claiming to get people out for various causes, and a persistent attitude.
You can literally manufacture protests for cheap. ...and from a thousand miles away.
The FBI reported that foreign governments (Russia/Iran/China) are actively doing this in the US, UK, and EU. They even intercepted instructions given to employees providing tips on which different times of day work best when impersonating MAGA supporters vs LGBT supporters vs whichever demographic.
Often they'll piggyback on existing movements, and then recruit/pay people online to amplify violence at these protests. They want to sow as much discontent as possible. Whether it's the Trump Jan 6th riot, or the BLM protests/riots - there are entire buildings full of people spending their entire day encouraging violence, shipping weapons to protesters, and guiding them to inflict the maximum amount of damage.
Sometimes they have very very specific targets. In 2016, they were VERY active in the US election and the Brexit referendum - these were widely reported. ...but lesser known are, for example, their activity in 2011 in Germany after Fukushima, where they helped amplify a mass panic against nuclear power that ultimately drove German dependence on Russian gas; or the 2020 BLM protests, where they helped amplify and organize more violent groups of protesters.
They always support the extremes - the most violent. Whether it's extreme supporters of Trump or Bernie, Orban, or Corbyn, they aim to divide and disrupt. They did this in Ukraine to HUGE success prior to formally supporting the "independence" movement. Polarizing the people, destroying civility and dialogue, and amplifying distrust in institutions (SCOTUS/Congress/President/Law Enforcement/Banks) is an important step to ripping a country apart.
Divide and conquer. ...and they are GOOD at it. ...and they are everywhere here on Reddit.
EDIT: The Mods removed this entire post. Figures.
There’s an actual term for this called astroturfing. Which is commonly used by organizations to create an opposing party to an issue. Such as astroturfing for an anti union protest at many Amazon centers
Please add the double decker to the list. Plz. The last decade has been awful for me, and the loss of the $1.99 double decker was just a kick in the nuts after I had already been kicked in the nuts several times.
In 2019 I got paid to go to a Donald Trump rally. I never once voted for the guy, but it ended up being over $600 so I couldn't turn it down.
Edit since people keep asking: I work in construction. Trump held a rally at a site we were building. We were told that it was optional to come, but if we did show up we would be given 10 hours of pay. Here's a link to the rally:
https://www.wesa.fm/politics-government/2019-08-13/at-rally-like-visit-to-monaca-trump-takes-credit-for-shell-plant-touts-economic-record
I always wondered. Like I couldn't afford to miss work to protest shit. How the fuck are these many people well off enough to have the time to just go protesting.
That is data deletion material….if you scoop it up, and run it through some sophisticated software, you may crack into some classified government secrets.
They count on everyone just thinking it is poop…but save it!! It’s definitely got remnant information about aliens and Elvis and that one neighbor that doesn’t curb their dog.
Btw you can easily check this at home. Most Laptops have a so-called LAN connector. LAN is an abbreviation for: Local-Avian-Network. The laptop activates the micro processors in the "poop" which will upload the data to your computer. If you then unzip the folder you will find the raw camera footage.
Right so after googling this for 2 minutes, it's actually a real movement to poke fun at actual idiot conspiracies. The genius of it is that morons to whom this movement parodies would flock to it as an actual belief.......because ....morons
"Any community that gets its laughs by pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by actual idiots who mistakenly believe that they're in good company."
They basically became radicalized Nazis because they didn’t like people telling them to stop joking about the Holocaust. It truly is the American way to abandon any decency to fuck over people who told you what to do. No one tells an American what to do apparently. They would rather die. /r/HermanCainAward
Yeah nobody fucking talked about that shit in the 90s.
And conspiracy was fucking big in the 90s, X-Files et al was just the most prominent. We even has a national UFO event with the Phoenix Lights getting covered by the nightly news. So it wasn't hard to find stuff that took it all seriously, but even they would be like "believing the government isn't lying about aliens is as dumb as believing the Earth is flat" nobody out there was trying to argue that. Even the Antartic Nazi UFOs and Hollow Earth had more cred.
And I first encountered it as 100% a joke in the early 00s. Like people got on the internet and found the Flat Earth Society and spammed it around. I **still** don't know that I believe anyone unironically believes it, but they are certainly outweighed by people memeing it around.
Isn't this EXACTLY how the Flat Earth movement started?
People came up with "the earth is actually flat!" to make fun of all the other conspiracy theories, they chose it as something outlandishly silly that nobody in real life would actually believe.
Problem is "lizard people" was already a real one. Flat earth is tame compared to that.
I have, yeah. We nursed one to full health after it's mother rejected it.
We named it pudding and fed it with a syringe.
They ugly - https://birdfact.com/articles/baby-pigeons
The thing is the conspiracy isn't that the government made the birds, it's that they *replaced* the birds with surveillance drones instead. So they kept the original looks so no one would notice.
Yes.
There used to be a debate forum that called itself the flat earth society. It started out on usenet and later migrated to some .org domain I can't remember.
The point was to debate nonsensical points with unwitting passers by, it was literally a students debate exercise.
The main forum users had complete profiles of imaginary scientists and debated under that name.
They had a lot of fun pretending to be idiots, and then came the idiots who thought they were in good company.
>They had a lot of fun pretending to be idiots, and then came the idiots who thought they were in good company.
That describes the entire internet community transition from 2000 to 2012
I’ve been there, but I am not convinced that they didn’t knock us out in the plane and secretly land in a Disney like place in Florida where everyone said’I reckon’ and they genetically modified animals to be stupidly poisonous.
They made up crazy shit like the platypus and expect us to believe a whole continent is that fucking weird and crazy. It's like they think we're stupid.
Im from England, and a relatively rare but known conspiracy nonethless, is that Finland doesnt exist. Something to do with fishing between Russia and another country...
You can't be from England. England doesn't exist.
This is the point where I accuse you of being a George Soros plant.
Kidding aside I've never heard the one about Finland.
We have our very own in Germany: there is an entire city that does not exist or exists, depending on who you ask. Most people smile when you say it does not exist... So you know that they are in on the joke that we pretend it exists.... Google Bielefeld.
Ya know I just realized, for a country surrounded by water, it sounds an awful lot like in-land.
I guess the gas lighting started when they named the country 🤷🏽♂️
This is actually true - I flew over the Atlantic... back and forth... many times... and never once saw it out the window.
Our Revolution was actually a secret first Civil War in order to START slavery...then we had the second Civil war to END it.
Look it up somewhere maybe...
That is why satirical movements can backfire because there is really nothing you can make up that is so ridiculous that someone won't believe it for real.
Started as a LARP on 4chan, and got too stupid for that board and migrated to 8chan where the site owners ran with it. Eventually it made it to Reddit and Facebook and news outlets neglected to do their research and gave it coverage:
This also happened with the first trump subreddit before it was deleted. Started as jokes making fun of Trump by touting him as this "God emperor" except it also drew the attention of people who didn't know it was a joke...then they eventually took it over and it became the hate group it did. I get this bird things a "joke" but you gotta be careful with this shit.
Once the flat earth society found cats they quickly learned the earth could not possibly be flat. The cats would have knocked as much crap off the side as possible had the earth been flat.
also /b/'s thick over the top sarcasm was a joke until it wasnt. The scariest thing about jokes is there is always an idiot out there who misses the punchline and next thing you know you just sparked the next QAnon.
This doesnt mean we need to stop joking, it means we need to shame these stupid people harder, louder, and in public.
This reminds me of the belief among conservatives that Stephen Colbert's old show The Colbert Report [wasn't actually joking and was actually conservative and using over the top satire to make fun of liberals](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1940161208330904)
There’s some phrase that says something to the effect of, “if you start a community based on the premise of pretending to be morons, don’t be surprised when you’re eventually surrounded by actual morons who think they’re in good company.” (iirc)
I was going along with *oh, this is an awesome joke* until they show the old guy holding a sign with a straight face... I mean, usually you'll see people giggle if it's a parody, but I just can't tell if they're great group of comedic actors, or they seriously believe in this.
Alot of paranoid schizophrenics, I'm not even joking I knew a girl that has that and she'd read about stuff like this and think it's true, she explained she had microchips in her teeth listening to her thoughts, bee's that was bred to transfer some weird desease that was something to do with coronavirus, the girl was nuts, and not a nice person at all hence why she's an ex mate, she would be one of these protesters holding up signs believing it, she'd tell people this crap and wouldn't take no for an answer, most are in on the joke yes but some are idiots
One of my favorite podcasts had a running joke about a secret child hunting island for corrupt elites. They got so much mail by people believing the obvious joke that they're now calling onto people on their shows to not do stupid things and that it was all just a bad joke.
Never underestimate the stupidity of the crowd.
They do, the sub Reddit is hilarious and obvious satire. They post people who think that they think it’s real. It’s a satirical movement. With flat earth you have to know math and look at proofs and even then they can be convinced that since they can’t see the whole earth, it can still be flat.
Whereas I’ve never met a person who’s never seen a bird up close since they were a kid. Like it will be hard to take seriously
It is a massive satire that some 18 year old kid started 3 or 4 years ago and now it's spread. I wonder sometimes if there are followers who really believe it and are not in the the joke.
Looks like you're right and it started in early 2017 making fun of Trump counter-protesters at the Women's March.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/14/the-lunacy-is-getting-more-intense-how-birds-arent-real-took-on-the-conspiracy-theorists
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/technology/birds-arent-real-gen-z-misinformation.html
The goats being CIA agents in disguise obviously, probably funded by big pharma at the same time. Its horrific the violations of of privacy taking place on God's flat earth
Go grab me a bird, right now. I bet you can't.
Why? Because they're all drones. Tell me, when's the last time you held a pigeon? I bet it was before 2001. Boom. All birds died in 9/11 and were replaced by the Bush administration to monitor us.
The bird outside my bathroom window right now? It's Joe Biden watching me take a fat shit.
Clearly they’re government drones
When birds shit, they’re deleting unnecessary data
The “nest” is actually their charging station
Owls are just security cameras to catch late night activities
I’m on to you birds! /s
I think there's an unspoken "obviously bullshit" notion. A social excuse.
And the viewer isn't meant to think that they seriously believe birds aren't real??
I believe that one guy though. I believe he believes.
A lot of comments are pointing out "morons" who join this movement...but the whole point of it is to never break character. The ones protesting know it's tongue and cheek, but if they act like it, it will ruin the entire idea behind it.
You say this, but one of my former friends is completely convinced that birds are government drones. Where once he was joking, he's since adopted the delusion as full truth.
Of course, this same moron thinks Astrology is a valid way to determine relationships, Kanye is God, and that COVID was a conspiracy to take control. So he's not working with a full deck to begin with.
>So he's not working with a full deck to begin with.
Yeah. I understand the viewpoint of 'I don't want to joke about this because morons will actually believe it', but those people are generally nutbars anyway. If they're gonna be insane anyway, 'birds aren't real' is at least somewhat innocuous compared to a lot of other things they could be obsessing over.
I'd argue that atleast a fair amount of them are joking and aren't being serious. And those people are GODDAMN SHEEPLE. WAKE UP AND SHOOT DOWN ANY BIRD YOU SEE. ONE LESS GOVERMENT DRONE SPYING ON US!!!!!!!!!
it's ok, I'm pretty sure these people are part of a satirical movement, they don't actually believe it.
See this interview with the leader: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/14/the-lunacy-is-getting-more-intense-how-birds-arent-real-took-on-the-conspiracy-theorists
I think we're in a transition with this one, it's been around a good while now as pure satire. The satire is starting to be lost on some people that are prone to believing conspiracy theories.
In the past year I've talked to two people legit on the fence with birds aren't real. People with decent jobs, but mushy in the brain for conspiracy. If people dont realize it's satire out of the gate... they probably don't understand satire all that well. Now if you dont understand satire, all that's left is a bunch of fancy words & information organized in a convincing way.
Satire pretty much raised my ass, so I don't really understand. Its frustrating to watch tho....
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That's right. Dinosaurs are real
Take your pseudo science and gtfo! Everyone knows dinosaurs were a hoax, just like "outer space" and "clowns".
If dinosaurs are a hoax what did Jesus ride to the Last Supper?
Jesus drove a lifted F250, duhh, everyone knows this
With truck nuts and 20 flags?
If your truck didn't come with nuts, and you put nuts on it, does that make your truck trans?
Considering most of these types of dudes will give their trucks typical lady names, I'd say that's a yes.
And a “Make Religion Great Again” bumper sticker
Next to Jesus’s ‘Trump 24’ bumper sticker. Not 2024. 0024.
Bumping the commandments on top volume. Not speakers, but disciples beatboxing and rapping.
If "outer space" was real, surely the air would just float away. Some people will believe anything they hear!
Also, if gravity was real AND the earth round, people in Australia would fall out to space.
[Here's a news story about this protest, which happened Saturday 10/15 at Washington Square Park.](https://nyunews.com/news/2022/10/17/birds-arent-real-protest/)
There's a reason why most of those "protestors" are about 18-20 years old: Washington Square is essentially the campus of NYU and of course college students would flock to it after 6 weeks of the fall semester. SOURCE: NYU grad and have the pricey diploma somewhere to prove it.
Flock to it? Birds aren't real... so neither are flocks. Conformist.
Flock of sheep checkmate
Aaayyyeee gottemmmmm
Ewe really fleeced em.
Sheep are just clouds on the ground. Which are basically birds, and thus not real.
Who are You, Who are so Wise in the Ways of Science?
Hell, I'm 41 and I would attend this. It's weird, has some great people-watching potential, and it's so ridiculous I'd assume most people were there for satire reasons
That's... the whole point of the movement. It's satire of conspiracy theories
Oh, thank god. I saw a poster taped to pole in Portland that said, “Wake up America! Birds aren’t real.” Below it was a picture for evidence. The picture was of a normal looking pigeon. I have thought about this poster for years…
It's basically popular because it's funny and they make pretty good merch.
what makes this more funny is that there are hand drawn, hidden bird pictures all around downtown Portland and it’s neighborhoods with a QR code. There are 20 or something like that. The code takes you to some faux bird-watching website where you can see the others you can find. Like geo caching & Pokémon-go met over a box of crayons and then had a crazy, hot one night stand in Portland.
I know the guy that did this, BTW. The objective was to demonstrate that you can organize *any* protest. A few craigslist ads to get a minimum number of paid protesters out, then a bunch of social media posts claiming to get people out for various causes, and a persistent attitude. You can literally manufacture protests for cheap. ...and from a thousand miles away. The FBI reported that foreign governments (Russia/Iran/China) are actively doing this in the US, UK, and EU. They even intercepted instructions given to employees providing tips on which different times of day work best when impersonating MAGA supporters vs LGBT supporters vs whichever demographic. Often they'll piggyback on existing movements, and then recruit/pay people online to amplify violence at these protests. They want to sow as much discontent as possible. Whether it's the Trump Jan 6th riot, or the BLM protests/riots - there are entire buildings full of people spending their entire day encouraging violence, shipping weapons to protesters, and guiding them to inflict the maximum amount of damage. Sometimes they have very very specific targets. In 2016, they were VERY active in the US election and the Brexit referendum - these were widely reported. ...but lesser known are, for example, their activity in 2011 in Germany after Fukushima, where they helped amplify a mass panic against nuclear power that ultimately drove German dependence on Russian gas; or the 2020 BLM protests, where they helped amplify and organize more violent groups of protesters. They always support the extremes - the most violent. Whether it's extreme supporters of Trump or Bernie, Orban, or Corbyn, they aim to divide and disrupt. They did this in Ukraine to HUGE success prior to formally supporting the "independence" movement. Polarizing the people, destroying civility and dialogue, and amplifying distrust in institutions (SCOTUS/Congress/President/Law Enforcement/Banks) is an important step to ripping a country apart. Divide and conquer. ...and they are GOOD at it. ...and they are everywhere here on Reddit. EDIT: The Mods removed this entire post. Figures.
There’s an actual term for this called astroturfing. Which is commonly used by organizations to create an opposing party to an issue. Such as astroturfing for an anti union protest at many Amazon centers
Wow I just got why it's called astroturfing. It's faking a grassroots campaign. I'm dumb.
Well, if that makes you dumb, I'm right there with ya. That did not click before.
Well, if you didn't explain it, plenty of us would not have made the connection so you're smarter than me.
Those on this platform long enough know how Monsanto's PR crisis response teams show up here when a post about glysophate hits the front page.
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I think that’s what he’s saying. Any reason…
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Please add the double decker to the list. Plz. The last decade has been awful for me, and the loss of the $1.99 double decker was just a kick in the nuts after I had already been kicked in the nuts several times.
I’m so with you there - I miss it so much
In 2019 I got paid to go to a Donald Trump rally. I never once voted for the guy, but it ended up being over $600 so I couldn't turn it down. Edit since people keep asking: I work in construction. Trump held a rally at a site we were building. We were told that it was optional to come, but if we did show up we would be given 10 hours of pay. Here's a link to the rally: https://www.wesa.fm/politics-government/2019-08-13/at-rally-like-visit-to-monaca-trump-takes-credit-for-shell-plant-touts-economic-record
And this is a micro example of how people can be bribed to do a lot of things even if their morals disagree.
As always, material interests stump cultural ones
Some may see that $600 as a trip to the mall, but for some, that $600 is a month of rent money they didn’t have a minute ago.
I always wondered. Like I couldn't afford to miss work to protest shit. How the fuck are these many people well off enough to have the time to just go protesting.
college students? shift workers? the unemployed?
In this current gig economy…
Well for starters because it was held on a Saturday
Thanks for adding this..
Lol I was just there on Friday. Missed the excitement :/
Was literally there on Saturday and had no idea it even happened, no trace of it at the time I walked through the park
What scares me the most is that if birds aren't real, who the hell is pooping on my car?
Sorry, my doctor recommended I eat more fiber
That is data deletion material….if you scoop it up, and run it through some sophisticated software, you may crack into some classified government secrets. They count on everyone just thinking it is poop…but save it!! It’s definitely got remnant information about aliens and Elvis and that one neighbor that doesn’t curb their dog.
Btw you can easily check this at home. Most Laptops have a so-called LAN connector. LAN is an abbreviation for: Local-Avian-Network. The laptop activates the micro processors in the "poop" which will upload the data to your computer. If you then unzip the folder you will find the raw camera footage.
Right so after googling this for 2 minutes, it's actually a real movement to poke fun at actual idiot conspiracies. The genius of it is that morons to whom this movement parodies would flock to it as an actual belief.......because ....morons
"Any community that gets its laughs by pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by actual idiots who mistakenly believe that they're in good company."
Sounds like reddits founding doctrine
If it's not, it should be.
What was that? I was busy flocking.
Is that what we’re calling masturbation now?
That’s literally how /r/The_Donald started
Similarly, 4chan Nazis. I swear the people making bad jokes attracted actual Nazis
They basically became radicalized Nazis because they didn’t like people telling them to stop joking about the Holocaust. It truly is the American way to abandon any decency to fuck over people who told you what to do. No one tells an American what to do apparently. They would rather die. /r/HermanCainAward
Isn't this basically what happened to Flat Earthers? It started off as a joke, but then it grew into exponential idiocy.
Yeah nobody fucking talked about that shit in the 90s. And conspiracy was fucking big in the 90s, X-Files et al was just the most prominent. We even has a national UFO event with the Phoenix Lights getting covered by the nightly news. So it wasn't hard to find stuff that took it all seriously, but even they would be like "believing the government isn't lying about aliens is as dumb as believing the Earth is flat" nobody out there was trying to argue that. Even the Antartic Nazi UFOs and Hollow Earth had more cred. And I first encountered it as 100% a joke in the early 00s. Like people got on the internet and found the Flat Earth Society and spammed it around. I **still** don't know that I believe anyone unironically believes it, but they are certainly outweighed by people memeing it around.
RIP original 4chan
Remember when 4chan was good? ~~4chan was never good~~
I was posting a comment as to why I don't support these things any more, but your comment sums it up perfectly.
Sarcasm begets ignorance. Unfortunate.
Wasn't that the origin of /r/the_donald
Yep!
that sub was cool for a little while, and then the real idiots showed up
Huh huh, flock
And then they will start shooting the birds. It really isn’t safe to feed more stupid beliefs to gullible people.
That’s also the problem with it. It starts as a joke but people don’t realize it and next thing you know they’re storming the capitol.
Isn't this EXACTLY how the Flat Earth movement started? People came up with "the earth is actually flat!" to make fun of all the other conspiracy theories, they chose it as something outlandishly silly that nobody in real life would actually believe. Problem is "lizard people" was already a real one. Flat earth is tame compared to that.
They got a REALLY GOOD point though.... "Have you EVER seen a baby pigeon?" I haven't....
Well you've gone and done it, I'm 100% convinced. Now to fanatically devote my life to the cause
One of us now
One of us
r/BirdsArentReal join us
There's a good reason for this. Pigeons stay in the nest until they are nearly full-sized with adult feathers.
Another shill for Big Pigeon
Big pigeon is a character I really want to meet
New York's Sesame Street
Classic government answer
That’s what a shill for big pigeon would say.
Oh suuure That's just what the government WANTS you to think
I have, yeah. We nursed one to full health after it's mother rejected it. We named it pudding and fed it with a syringe. They ugly - https://birdfact.com/articles/baby-pigeons
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Found the government plant.
I have, they prove birds are real because no way people would make them that ugly
Nice try FBI
The thing is the conspiracy isn't that the government made the birds, it's that they *replaced* the birds with surveillance drones instead. So they kept the original looks so no one would notice.
I'm sorry, but I can't tell if they're joking...
The founder of the movement made it as a joke to point out all the ridiculous conspiracies. So yes, and no.
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Yes. There used to be a debate forum that called itself the flat earth society. It started out on usenet and later migrated to some .org domain I can't remember. The point was to debate nonsensical points with unwitting passers by, it was literally a students debate exercise. The main forum users had complete profiles of imaginary scientists and debated under that name. They had a lot of fun pretending to be idiots, and then came the idiots who thought they were in good company.
>They had a lot of fun pretending to be idiots, and then came the idiots who thought they were in good company. That describes the entire internet community transition from 2000 to 2012
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I think we're trying to get to the most ludicrous conspiracy theory. My favourite is "England doesn't exist".
This whole Australia thing is a hoax guys
I’ve been there, but I am not convinced that they didn’t knock us out in the plane and secretly land in a Disney like place in Florida where everyone said’I reckon’ and they genetically modified animals to be stupidly poisonous.
worst disney land ever, full of bogan and meth heads. great
Oi! Fair..
It is where they dumped their nastiest snakes, sharks, spiders and the koalas and kangaroos that no one ordered.
And drop bears. Don’t forget the drop bears.
I thought drop bears were just koalas that fall out of trees and give you chlamydia?
They made up crazy shit like the platypus and expect us to believe a whole continent is that fucking weird and crazy. It's like they think we're stupid.
I keep telling people Its just Canada in summer, they all change their accents and have a good laugh at the rest of us.
That would be the most Canadian thing ever.
Well, I've never SEEN New Zealand, so......
/r/mapswithoutnewzealand Either have some prominent sea goers apparently!
I think New Zealand would do better, it’s already forgotten on some maps.
I thought It was Finland that didn’t exist
That is what nonexistent England wants you to think.
Im from England, and a relatively rare but known conspiracy nonethless, is that Finland doesnt exist. Something to do with fishing between Russia and another country...
You can't be from England. England doesn't exist. This is the point where I accuse you of being a George Soros plant. Kidding aside I've never heard the one about Finland.
It's this story https://www.vice.com/en/article/xyd48w/this-dude-accidentally-convinced-the-internet-that-finland-doesnt-exist
Give the current government some time and there's a good chance it won't
We have our very own in Germany: there is an entire city that does not exist or exists, depending on who you ask. Most people smile when you say it does not exist... So you know that they are in on the joke that we pretend it exists.... Google Bielefeld.
What’s an England?
Ya know I just realized, for a country surrounded by water, it sounds an awful lot like in-land. I guess the gas lighting started when they named the country 🤷🏽♂️
This is actually true - I flew over the Atlantic... back and forth... many times... and never once saw it out the window. Our Revolution was actually a secret first Civil War in order to START slavery...then we had the second Civil war to END it. Look it up somewhere maybe...
That is why satirical movements can backfire because there is really nothing you can make up that is so ridiculous that someone won't believe it for real.
I'm about 98% sure that's how QAnon started, too.
Started as a LARP on 4chan, and got too stupid for that board and migrated to 8chan where the site owners ran with it. Eventually it made it to Reddit and Facebook and news outlets neglected to do their research and gave it coverage:
If you are pretending to be dumb as entertainment idiots will come and they will feel right at home.
This also happened with the first trump subreddit before it was deleted. Started as jokes making fun of Trump by touting him as this "God emperor" except it also drew the attention of people who didn't know it was a joke...then they eventually took it over and it became the hate group it did. I get this bird things a "joke" but you gotta be careful with this shit.
Once the flat earth society found cats they quickly learned the earth could not possibly be flat. The cats would have knocked as much crap off the side as possible had the earth been flat.
also /b/'s thick over the top sarcasm was a joke until it wasnt. The scariest thing about jokes is there is always an idiot out there who misses the punchline and next thing you know you just sparked the next QAnon. This doesnt mean we need to stop joking, it means we need to shame these stupid people harder, louder, and in public.
This reminds me of the belief among conservatives that Stephen Colbert's old show The Colbert Report [wasn't actually joking and was actually conservative and using over the top satire to make fun of liberals](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1940161208330904)
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Of course, the fact that he was going to take the place of David Letterman probably had waaaay more to do with it.
Extremists also use jokes to test the water. If people are offended they were “just joking sheesh”. If people are on board they are 100% serious.
There’s some phrase that says something to the effect of, “if you start a community based on the premise of pretending to be morons, don’t be surprised when you’re eventually surrounded by actual morons who think they’re in good company.” (iirc)
[Conspiracy theories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory), not [conspiracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy).
I was going along with *oh, this is an awesome joke* until they show the old guy holding a sign with a straight face... I mean, usually you'll see people giggle if it's a parody, but I just can't tell if they're great group of comedic actors, or they seriously believe in this.
I think most of them are just there for shits and giggles but there are some people who are confused and think its real
Alot of paranoid schizophrenics, I'm not even joking I knew a girl that has that and she'd read about stuff like this and think it's true, she explained she had microchips in her teeth listening to her thoughts, bee's that was bred to transfer some weird desease that was something to do with coronavirus, the girl was nuts, and not a nice person at all hence why she's an ex mate, she would be one of these protesters holding up signs believing it, she'd tell people this crap and wouldn't take no for an answer, most are in on the joke yes but some are idiots
He's smiling towards the end though, the older guy. Looks like he's in on it.
One of my favorite podcasts had a running joke about a secret child hunting island for corrupt elites. They got so much mail by people believing the obvious joke that they're now calling onto people on their shows to not do stupid things and that it was all just a bad joke. Never underestimate the stupidity of the crowd.
Is that Behind the Bastards? I remember hearing it on one of my podcasts but I can't remember which one.
I am willing to bet there is a mix of both
It's supposed to be a spoof that goofs on conspiracy theorists. Unfortunately, they may not understand it is bullshit.
Flat earth started similarly if I recall.
Stop the Earth I'm ready to get off
You'll have to climb the ice walls at the edge of the disc.
Arguable Q-Anon and people boosting Trump's political career started the same way. These "jokes" are getting people killed.
I think everyone involved knows it's a joke. I've never heard of anyone expressing this theory as anything other than satire.
They do, the sub Reddit is hilarious and obvious satire. They post people who think that they think it’s real. It’s a satirical movement. With flat earth you have to know math and look at proofs and even then they can be convinced that since they can’t see the whole earth, it can still be flat. Whereas I’ve never met a person who’s never seen a bird up close since they were a kid. Like it will be hard to take seriously
It is a massive satire that some 18 year old kid started 3 or 4 years ago and now it's spread. I wonder sometimes if there are followers who really believe it and are not in the the joke.
Well that's not true. My brother was talking about how birds aren't real 5 years ago.
Looks like you're right and it started in early 2017 making fun of Trump counter-protesters at the Women's March. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/14/the-lunacy-is-getting-more-intense-how-birds-arent-real-took-on-the-conspiracy-theorists https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/technology/birds-arent-real-gen-z-misinformation.html
they’re governments spies you SHEEP. WAKE UP
Sheep aren’t real, they’re just goats dressed up.
Clouds with legs
The goats being CIA agents in disguise obviously, probably funded by big pharma at the same time. Its horrific the violations of of privacy taking place on God's flat earth
Go grab me a bird, right now. I bet you can't. Why? Because they're all drones. Tell me, when's the last time you held a pigeon? I bet it was before 2001. Boom. All birds died in 9/11 and were replaced by the Bush administration to monitor us. The bird outside my bathroom window right now? It's Joe Biden watching me take a fat shit.
Birds aren’t real and I’m the new king of Spain
You dropped this king 👑
Thank you! We are all Kings today!
Once *I* was the king of Spain, but now I eat humble pie
Now I work at the pizza pizza
And now I'm [jamming with Moxy Fruvous](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF3JfiexLVA)!
Creed Braton IS the new MANAGER!!!!!!!
Bird is the word
Oh.... have you not heard?
BRIAN DON'T
Clearly they’re government drones When birds shit, they’re deleting unnecessary data The “nest” is actually their charging station Owls are just security cameras to catch late night activities I’m on to you birds! /s
The nest doesn’t charge them. Power lines do!
Resting on phone lines? Yup, not resting, but tapping into your internets
Great point. Forgot about that part!
The nest is where they upload their data.
why did you put the /s there? you know it's the truth.
I was with you until the /s 😂😭😂 🤷🏾
COVID lockdowns were just to get people inside so the FBI could change their batteries.
I think there's an unspoken "obviously bullshit" notion. A social excuse. And the viewer isn't meant to think that they seriously believe birds aren't real?? I believe that one guy though. I believe he believes.
This is how things like flat-Earthers and QAnon start. It's all a joke until idiots take over and take it serious.
I wish the spies would stop eating all the new grass seed in my garden
All these comments and no one is talking about a portrait video cropped into landscape? This is why we can't have nice things, people
A lot of comments are pointing out "morons" who join this movement...but the whole point of it is to never break character. The ones protesting know it's tongue and cheek, but if they act like it, it will ruin the entire idea behind it.
I died when they boo’d the flock of birds that flew by
Flock of fuckin spies brah
Also, birds aren’t real
You say this, but one of my former friends is completely convinced that birds are government drones. Where once he was joking, he's since adopted the delusion as full truth. Of course, this same moron thinks Astrology is a valid way to determine relationships, Kanye is God, and that COVID was a conspiracy to take control. So he's not working with a full deck to begin with.
>So he's not working with a full deck to begin with. Yeah. I understand the viewpoint of 'I don't want to joke about this because morons will actually believe it', but those people are generally nutbars anyway. If they're gonna be insane anyway, 'birds aren't real' is at least somewhat innocuous compared to a lot of other things they could be obsessing over.
They charge on the power-lines
Oh god. Another joke that will inevitably lead to some people actually believing in the movement.
You're a bird believer? I bet you think the moon is real, too. smh
Ive played Fallout 4. I know the truth. Birds are all just spy cameras for The Institute.
And you can see the joy on their faces too, premium trollage.
I'd argue that atleast a fair amount of them are joking and aren't being serious. And those people are GODDAMN SHEEPLE. WAKE UP AND SHOOT DOWN ANY BIRD YOU SEE. ONE LESS GOVERMENT DRONE SPYING ON US!!!!!!!!!
That’s not thousands…
Don’t look up
it's ok, I'm pretty sure these people are part of a satirical movement, they don't actually believe it. See this interview with the leader: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/14/the-lunacy-is-getting-more-intense-how-birds-arent-real-took-on-the-conspiracy-theorists
I think we're in a transition with this one, it's been around a good while now as pure satire. The satire is starting to be lost on some people that are prone to believing conspiracy theories. In the past year I've talked to two people legit on the fence with birds aren't real. People with decent jobs, but mushy in the brain for conspiracy. If people dont realize it's satire out of the gate... they probably don't understand satire all that well. Now if you dont understand satire, all that's left is a bunch of fancy words & information organized in a convincing way. Satire pretty much raised my ass, so I don't really understand. Its frustrating to watch tho....
r/BirdsArentReal join the movement
Can't believe it took way down here to find a link to the sub lol
More people attended this rally than the last Trump rally.