The Daily - A Movement to Fight Misinformation... With Misinformation

Episode Date: February 9, 2022

Birds Aren’t Real, a conspiracy theory with an apparently absurd premise, has become surprisingly popular in the past few years.But its followers were in on the joke: The movement’s aim was to poke fun at misinformation … by creating misinformation.Has it been successful?Guest: Taylor Lorenz, a former technology reporter for The New York Times.Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is working on a special episode memorializing those we have lost to the coronavirus. If you would like to share their name on the episode, please RECORD A VOICE MEMO and send it to us at [e-mail]. You can find more information and specific instructions here.Background reading: Among the outlandish claims of the Birds Aren’t Real movement: Our feathered friends are really U.S. government drones used to spy on Americans.Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

From The New York Times, I'm Annie Correale. This is The Daily. A new movement is underway to confront the growing threat of misinformation by creating misinformation. Today, the improbable story of the group behind that movement, Birds Aren't Real. I spoke with my colleague, Taylor Lorenz. It's Wednesday, February 9th. Hi Taylor, how are you?

Hi, I'm good. So when you published this article back in December on Birds Aren't Real, it was probably the first time that a lot of people had ever heard of this quote-unquote conspiracy. It certainly was the first time I had heard of it. So at a very basic level, what is Birds Aren't Real? Birds Aren't Real is a fake conspiracy movement, mostly supported by young people online that purports that birds are not real, but were actually replaced by government drones back in the 1970s. In the conspiracy lore, every bird is actually a surveillance tool by the

state. That's pretty funny. Yeah. It's a parody conspiracy. It's almost a satire social movement. People know that this is not real. Got it. So then why did you get interested in covering this? I mean, things do come and go a lot on the internet and it sounds like no one really believes in this. So why in your mind was this fake conspiracy worth reporting on?

So as an internet culture writer, I'm constantly keeping an eye on new trends and they do come and go. But this one really had staying power and it seemed to speak to something deep within the psyche of Gen Z. I just noticed that the followers were very young and very dedicated

and their movement was manifesting increasingly in the real world. Birds are real! Birds are real! Birds aren't real! Birds aren't real! What stuck out to me was this huge protest that they organized outside Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco last November. Why is the Twitter logo a bird? Why? Because they're trying to brainwash you.

To protest the bird logo. This is about government spying on all of us, taking away our freedoms, our privacy, and, like, telling us what we can do. I was like, oh, my God, there's so many of them, and they were screaming with megaphones. We're about to march around Twitter headquarters three times like it's Jericho.

Birds aren't real! Birds aren't real! Times like it's Jericho. Words aren't real. Words aren't real. There's also been dozens of rallies on college campuses across the country in the past year. It just sort of started to enter into mainstream youth culture in a way that it hadn't in years prior. So I started to think, I've got to get to the bottom of how this started and why it seems to resonate so deeply with Gen Z. The problem is that the leader of Birds Aren't Real is a bit of a troll. I consider myself to be an average American. I wake up in the morning,

wash my car, and I have an avid disbelief in avian beings. He would give these interviews where he's in character and fully embodying this conspiracy with a totally straight face. So how did you become aware of it? What is the message of the movement? that from 1959 through 2001, the government mercilessly genocided over 12 billion birds and simultaneously replaced them with surveillance drones in disguise that film us every day. So I thought, okay,

how am I going to get to the bottom of Birds Aren't Real if the founder is playing this character all the time? But after years of covering internet and youth culture and having so many sources in this world, I finally got in touch with him. I talked to him off the record, and then finally he agreed to go on the record out of character as himself.

Is this still recording? Oh yeah, it is. And yes, we are still running. Okay, awesome. So can I ask, how do you feel recorded as yourself? It feels really vulnerable, honestly. His name is Peter McIndoo, and he's a 23-year-old college dropout. And in talking to him, it turns out that his background actually has a lot to do with how Birds Aren't Real got started. I just remember basically growing up feeling like we were these like outsiders in the world. He grew up in a pretty conservative and religious community with seven siblings outside Cincinnati. And then he moved to rural Arkansas. Because my dad was going to go work in ministry.

He was homeschooled. I remember being told that a big reason we were being homeschooled was to protect us from these kind of massive brainwashing schemes that were in place by the government. So like evolution, for instance, or homosexuality, these concepts are part of this grander government scheme to like corrupt the soul of the nation. So there's like... But he said that from a young age, he started to realize he was a little bit different from the rest of his community. So for instance, he told me a story about one time when he said that he didn't believe in God. I was 10 years old and I told my pastor at church, the youth group pastor, that I was the kind of Christian who went to church but didn't believe in God. Because I was so young,

I didn't even realize that that like wasn't even a Christian. And I was told I was possessed with a demon, which is like crazy. And was told the devil had gotten a hold of him, essentially. Oh, wow. Yeah. He's a black sheep. And so starting at 10 years old, it's kind of like exiled in some different ways from these homeschool communities. It was very much like the problem.

Like in homeschool homecoming, for instance, they like voted people certain things for the year. Like, you know, you're going to be the most successful. I was voted most likely to go to jail, which led to just like an entire childhood of like, I guess you could call it like ideological loneliness. That must have been so hard. I mean, where did you turn when you felt that loneliness?

Yeah, I'll tell people that I was, like, raised by the internet. So he increasingly went and turned to the internet. And ended up just, like, getting on YouTube and, like, Reddit and these other things. And then, like, just searching things on my own. Reddit and these other things. And then like just searching things on my own and realizing that like the world did not think like this community that I was in thinks. It was kind of those places that let him see the outside world and helped him gain more perspective on the situation that he was in. Which is interesting because I think we often think about conspiratorial thinking thriving on the internet. And it does. But for Peter, it's actually his real life that feels dominated by conspiracy

and the internet that feels like real life. Yeah, exactly. So from Peter's point of view, he couldn't get away from homeschool fast enough to leave for college, which he finally did in 2016 when he ended up at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. And that's where I was really able to like break away and start kind of my own life. And so tell me about that day, that first day when Birds Aren't Real started. So I was just visiting Memphis for like 24 hours and was in a really weird state of mind. I had just gotten cheated on by my girlfriend and was really upset. So I went to Memphis and there was a rally happening. There were all these people with signs. At one point, he goes to visit a friend in Memphis in 2017. It's January,

right after Trump was elected, and there's a huge women's march downtown. Yeah, I was just looking down and noticed there were like counter protesters there too. Along with that women's march, there's also counter protesters. So pro-Trump protesters shouting at the women's march. There were just like arguments forming. There were clearly, it's like body language type stuff. Like you could tell there were problems. So he's watching all of this chaos unfold in front of him

and just the tension in the air. I thought about how funny a skit would be if someone had a sign at a rally that had nothing to do with the rally. Thinking of an archetype of a character that would be just as energetically representing his beliefs, but they just meant nothing. It just meant pointing to something absurd.

And so I ended up finding a poster on a wall for like an event that had already passed. And the back of the poster was all just like white. And so, took the poster off the wall. He decides to rip a poster off the street and write. And just writing the three most random words I could think of, which were, birds aren't real.

Birds aren't real. And they didn't mean anything at the time. It was just three random words I could think of, which were, birds aren't real. Birds aren't real. And they didn't mean anything at the time. It was just three random words. Then I picked up the sign and just started marching around with the people. And then he joined the counter protest to the women's march and started chanting birds aren't real and holding up his sign. So as I marched around, people would ask me like, what does that mean? And I had to just kind of come up with something on the spot. And so I didn't even really think about it too hard. I just started talking about how I was a part of a movement that had been around for 50 years.

And that, you know, we were telling people that every bird in the skies is a government surveillance drone. I think I just watched like an Edward Snowden documentary or something. So it was like, I had assumed this alternate identity that day and kind of unintentionally ended up being this person very similar to the people I grew up around.

And it wasn't really intended to be anything, but a woman had actually been filming him that day, unbeknownst to him, and she put that video on Facebook. There is a birdemic happening! Birds are a myth! They're an illusion! They're a lie! Wake up, America! That clip ended up going a lot of places. Pigeons! Not real! Eagle! And from there, it just kind of blew up in Memphis.

It went wild and started to get lots of attention in the Memphis area. And it became this kind of like homegrown joke. Like people started writing it on chalkboards. They started like graffitiing it on walls downtown. People started like chanting at like high school football games. It's like this idea just took a life of its own through this video. And as this is happening, Peter is back at school in Arkansas. So I was sitting in Fayetteville going to college, kind of watching this happen,

and was just kind of fascinated by it. There was so much work. He thinks it's hilarious, so he decides to lean into it. So ended up making an Instagram account for it to basically be the official hub. He sets up social media accounts for Birds Aren't Real. Put in the bio that we'd been around for 50 years and then just started embodying that same character that was made that day. And he begins posting just the most ridiculous things. So for example, he posted a picture of a seagull and wrote, in all caps, WARNING! STAY AWAY FROM SEAGULLS!

THEY HAVE JUST BEEN GIVEN A FIRMWARE UPDATE BY THE GOVERNMENT THAT GIVES THEM THE ABILITY TO STEAL YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION AND SOCIAL SECURITY INFORMATION BY JUST LOOKING AT YOU. LEAVE THE BEACHES NOW! And so, as time went on, it started spreading beyond Memphis when we started. And these posts start gaining traction all over the country. Peter gets together with some friends. They start posting videos where he's in character and building out the lore of Birds Aren't Real even more. Welcome to bird history. I remember seeing these on my feed. It all began in 1946 when government

accountability was at its lowest after a rampant rise in nationalism. Harry Truman implemented the bird drone initiative in an effort to prevent another world war from happening. He reveals how the government has made it appear that birds are real. Government pipes are installed under every chicken nest in the country. They work like sucktooth. Turkey meat, along with all other bird meat, is 100% synthetically developed in labs. But Bill, how do we keep their batteries charged? Easy. They gotta be a pie.

We'll just put poles up in every city all across the country. We'll string wires between them. All they gotta do is land on them. So Peter and his friends are really leaning in. Oh yeah. As always, stay woke, patriots. Birds aren't real. And then they start producing

more and more elaborate videos. I know we talked off camera some, but just for our viewers who don't know much about you, can you give us some on your background? I was doing security for the CIA. I was in DC. At one point he hired an actor to portray a former CIA agent. And it's while I was there that, well, I saw some things that I really wish I hadn't seen.

Are you referring to bird drone surveillance? Yeah. Who confessed to working on bird drone surveillance. Oh, my God. Yeah. They used to poison gas throughout the airplanes. And if Peter starts amassing a real following and fan base, thousands of people are watching and sharing

all of his videos and posts. It becomes this viral phenomenon. But beyond engaging on social media, people actually want to join in. People started wanting to represent it, asking for shirts, asking for stickers. And so we made posters and flyers to get the word out further. And it kind of became this... Peter and his friends sell Birds Aren't Real merchandise. So t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, stickers.

They have pictures of birds and words that say things like, bird watching goes both ways, or the slogan, if it flies, it lies. And in 2018, he dropped out of college to do this full time. Whoa. His fans became more like followers of the movement, and that movement became known as the Bird Brigade. The movement goes from hundreds of people

to thousands of people to tens of thousands of people to hundreds of thousands of people. They even form chapters on college campuses across the country, and they host meetups. They wear their birds-aren't-real merchandise to football games, and they just kind of hang out. their birds aren't real merchandise to football games, and they just kind of hang out. It's almost like a social club. And over the last year or so, the Bird Brigade has really begun to mobilize for street protests.

Things like that silly Twitter rally that I mentioned, but also getting involved with more serious issues. What kind of serious issues? Well, Peter told me that the Bird Brigade has started to actively show up at protests that have nothing to do with birds at all. He described a scene last year at the University of Cincinnati where an anti-abortion protest was taking place. There was a group of anti-abortion activists that came out in full force shortly after the Texas abortion ban and were walking around with images of like mutilated babies. And like, it was just very violent. The Bird Brigade chapter at the university was watching this happen and decided to get involved. They went and stood next to the anti-abortion people and basically held a mirror up to the absurdity and started, yeah,

chanting birds aren't real, which ultimately shortly turned the whole situation into a birds aren't real rally. And we just got sent videos. They ended up kind of taking over the anti-abortion protest. There was just sort of this like cacophony of comedy and absurdism that seemed to diffuse the anti-abortion people. And ultimately they had to just walk away because they couldn't even be heard. So they went into the situation that was intense, confrontational, and non-aggressively diffused the harm that was being done through comedy, which is really interesting. I don't know, I think Birds Aren't Real kind of like accidentally invented a new form of counter-protesting.

We'll be right back. So Taylor, it's clear that Birds Aren't Real has become something much bigger than just a funny internet joke. It's actually mobilizing its followers to go out onto the street. But I guess I'm wondering why. Why does Peter think that so many young people have found it so compelling? Well, first off, I do think that some people just find it funny and entertaining. But in talking with Peter, I also think that there's something more going on here that has a lot to do with the world that Gen Z has come up in. Why do you think people are drawn to it? Tell me what you think, you know, what about Birds Aren't Real appeals to people?

Yeah, it's been so fascinating figuring that out because like people will come to these rallies in the hundreds. And I think that in some ways it almost operates as like a safe space for people. I don't know. I feel like every day I like wake up and open my phone, I'm just seeing chaos. You know, I think just kind of growing up alongside the internet, just like, you know, Gen Z or anyone my age has just kind of like grown up alongside it the whole time. And with that, there's no real rules as a society of how to like deal with something like the internet. So I think with that just comes like all the madness is in our face at once. And I think a lot of people feel the madness

and don't really have a way to express it. And so Birds Aren't Real, this satirical art project, provides a way for them to understand what feels like a world gone mad. Okay, this might not be a good metaphor, but I feel like Birds Aren't Real is almost like an igloo in a snowstorm, if that makes sense. Like it's kind of like a place where people can kind of like

make shelter out of the same type of material that's causing the chaos, given that like people can take misinformation and use it as a place to safely process misinformation. I think comedy is a very disarming form of communication and it allows people to come together and laugh at these things that in everyday life are terrifying. And there's something about laughing at these things that kind of like breaks the illusion of the monster. And so I think young people have kind of coalesced around it because it's a way to kind of fight and poke fun at the conspiracy takeover of the world at the same time.

It feels like a mirror, even just from the first day that it started. It was just kind of a mirror to what everybody was feeling then. I think it still operates in a similar way. And yeah, I think that that reflection can be used like, you know, for coping and therapeutic purposes, just through the satire and through kind of these like rallies that we hold, you know, cause it's not really about birds, you know, really nothing that we like, I really don't think about birds in like my life. Like, uh, think about this stuff, you know? And it's a way for them to feel less alone. A lot of young supporters who I interviewed as well talked about just feeling alone in their communities. A lot of these kids have been in remote school for over a year. They're feeling completely isolated. movements. But Birds Aren't Real has kind of allowed teenagers to kind of find meaning and connect in this way through this fake conspiracy. I think that there's just kind of, I think conspiracy, I don't know, I guess in recent years I've come to look at it as like just like a real like symptom of a greater sickness that is society that is void of meaning for a lot of people

and is in a lot of ways just people reaching just desperately for any community. Because even through role-playing this character myself, I feel like I've come to understand the communities that I grew up in better, like really trying to get into the mind of this character. I feel like it's even helped me start to figure out what's actually going on there. And it's even helped me start to figure out like what's actually going

on there, you know? And it's also led Peter to think differently about his own upbringing and about how easily conspiratorial thinking can take hold because it serves this real function for people. Just like people join Birds on Reel for community, I think people will fall victim to, you know, conspiracy mindsets because it kind of shifts who they are in their minds as the systems are kind of failing. And a lot of people feel like they're the victims in this tragic story of themselves as the main character. I don't feel purpose.

I don't have identity. I don't have people that love me. Why? It's because of the deep state. Or it's because of these massive plots and plans know, or it's because of, you know, these massive plots and plans. And I think that by becoming this conspiracy theorist or, you know, getting into that world, you reposition yourself in the mind from the victim to the hero. I think a lot of it just comes down to purpose and identity. He realizes that the real conspiracies that are

flourishing on the internet, like QAnon and others, allow people who believe in them to feel like they have this agency over their lives. So, I mean, it took me a while, but now I just feel a lot of empathy, honestly, for some parts of it. You know, there's some parts that just can't be rationalized or that I don't even think are healthy to feel over empathy for. Stuff like racism or like actual homophobia. Like I have friends that were sent to conversion camps, you know, when they were like in eighth grade. But I think that like with generally people that, you know, are on the forums with Q all day, like, yes, I feel empathy, hardcore for those people. Hmm. I'm reminded that he said he felt a lot of ideological loneliness growing up.

And as you said, that can drive people to actual conspiracies. So it strikes me that that loneliness could have led Peter down a very different path when he went to the internet looking for a sense of belonging. Right. I do think it could have led him to a very dark place. And the larger concern here is that this kind of loneliness and the sheer amount of misinformation on these online platforms is actually driving unprecedented numbers of people towards conspiratorial thinking. And it's not just Peter that could have gone down this darker path.

What do you mean? A lot of people who I talk to who joined the Birds Aren't Real movement have similar backgrounds to Peter's. They grew up feeling disconnected from their own family members or communities who fell victim to this type of conspiratorial thinking. So, I mean, who knows where they could have found themselves on the internet? But what we do know is that they ended up here in a place that's not dark. They've collectively used the internet to kind of take this conspiratorial thinking or desire for community and build something completely different and new.

The point of this movement is to kind of critique this culture that we've all found ourselves in, to skewer it, and also just to kind of laugh at all of it. But Taylor, our colleagues have reported quite a bit on how some things that start off as memes or jokes on the internet have on occasion morphed into something quite a bit darker and even led to violence. Does Peter worry at all that his idea to mock misinformation with

misinformation could backfire if people don't get the joke and actually start to think that birds aren't real? Well, I think that's part of the reason he decided to break character and talk to me on the record. I think that the movement was reaching this critical mass where he started to kind of realize that it was getting bigger than him. And he started to worry. Like, kind of realized that it was getting bigger than him. And he started to worry. Like, Peter's biggest fear is that anybody takes him too seriously.

And he didn't want to attract any actual conspiracy theorists. And he wanted something that he could point to that was on the record to show people so that they understood. And so I know this is something that he thinks about deeply. and so I know this is something that he thinks about deeply. But he is also not breaking character online. Even after we published our article, he went on Instagram and Twitter saying that the New York Times is in cahoots with the government and this is all a pro-bird propaganda campaign

and his followers were eating it up. They were like, yes, Peter, birds aren't real. I can't believe this happened to you. They absolutely loved it. You know, Gen Z is full of some amazing men, women, and children. And Peter has continued to troll local news. But it's more than just Gen Z's falling for conspiracy theories. Why? Oh my God.

I'm so nervous. I'm so sorry. He even pretended to choke on his coffee in one interview recently. You would think he was choking on his coffee. I don't know. It's not easy to be on TV, Paul. Some people, you know, gets them nervous. So the satire is very much alive and well.

them nervous. So the satire is very much alive and well. Well, it sounds like he's going to have a lot to work with when this episode airs. Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you, Taylor, so much. Thank you so much for having me. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. On Tuesday, in its latest act of aggression, the Russian government dispatched six large landing ships capable of carrying

thousands of troops to the waters off Ukraine. The move is raising the possibility that Russia, which has already surrounded Ukraine on three sides with more than 100,000 soldiers, could now invade it from the sea as well as from land. it from the sea as well as from land. And three more states, Connecticut, Oregon, and Virginia, are moving to end mask mandates inside schools, joining New Jersey and Delaware, which announced plans to end their mask requirement on Monday. The changes are in defiance of CDC guidance, which still recommends universal masking inside schools. A message White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki reaffirmed on Tuesday during a news conference. So when are we going to hear from the CDC about updating the guidance on masks?

You'll have to ask the CDC. The CDC moves at the pace of data and science. Meanwhile, New York plans to drop its stringent indoor mask mandate, ending a requirement that businesses ask customers for proof of full vaccination or require mask wearing at all times. But the change does not affect the mask mandate at New York schools. Today's episode was produced by Rochelle Bonja, Chelsea Daniel and Austin Mitchell it was edited by Rachel Quester and Paige Cowett fact-checked by Caitlin Love contains original music by Dan Powell and Marion Lozano and was engineered by Chris Wood our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonderly. That's it for The Daily.

I'm Annie Correale. See you tomorrow.