Okay but the whole 'birds aren't real' thing is a joke and people keep missing that

I mean, I was at a coffee shop in Denver last month and this guy next to me was dead serious, telling his buddy that all birds were replaced by government drones in the 1970s. He was pointing at a pigeon like it was proof. The whole thing started as a satire project to make fun of actual conspiracy theories, but now I keep seeing people online who think it's a real belief. It matters because it shows how hard it is for some folks to tell a joke from a real claim, which just makes talking about actual weird stuff way harder. I know because I followed the original artist's page back when it was just funny stickers. How do you even start to explain that to someone who's already convinced? Has anyone else had to point out the satire to a totally straight-faced person?

2 comments

2 Comments

daniel5111mo ago

Tried explaining it once to a coworker who brought it up at lunch. I just pulled up the original website on my phone, the one that calls itself a "mass psyop to expose conspiracy thinking." Showed him the clear "satire" tag and the artist's statement. He got quiet for a minute, then said he thought it was funny how far it had gone. Sometimes you just have to point directly to the source, because the joke has spread so far without that context. It feels like playing a game of telephone where the punchline got lost.

knight.xena1mo ago

Exactly, and that's why I always check the source first. Too many people just share stuff without looking into it at all. Your story with daniel511 shows how easy it is for satire to lose its context and get taken seriously. Once it spreads far enough online, the original joke disappears and people just run with the fake facts. It's frustrating because a simple click to the original site clears it all up. Why do you think people are so quick to believe the spread version instead of looking for themselves?