TOPIC / Birds Aren’t Real: Fighting Misinformation with More Misinformation

2.10.22

Several years ago, a group of Gen Z kids started a movement proclaiming that all our birds have been replaced with government surveillance technology. My kids say it’s old news, but the media has just take it up, and it’s a interesting story.

The movement is tongue in cheek, of course, totally pushed to the extremes as a way to “fight lunacy with lunacy” in the words of one young activist in a fascinating New York Times expose by Taylor Lorenz (herself an excellent interpreter of the internet generation). Catch up by reading the article or listening to an episode of The Daily featuring Lorenz and the founder of this crazy moment, Peter McIndoe, who has gone on the record so as to disperse any Q-Anon comparisons. It’s an organic response from a generation that grew up online who are fighting the rampant misinformation in the world with misinformation of their own. 

The founders are supporting the movement by selling merchandise such as this tee shirt.