Text by ISHANI RAHA and SOFIA ANTEBI
Birdwatching MOVEMENT OR CONSPIRACY?
around the idea that between 1959 and 1971, the CIA took out 12 billion birds and replaced them with avian-like robots designed to surveil the American population. It has amassed an estimated 276,000 LL OF THE BIRDS DIED followers across Instagram and Twitter, in 1986 due to Reagan kill- most of whom are teens. ing them and replacing “It [Birds Aren’t Real picked up] probthem with spies that are ably around 2017, when some of our flynow watching us. The birds work for the ers began making the rounds on Reddit,” bourgeoisie.” McIndoe says. “It was part of our moveThis iconic line is recognizable to ment’s strategy to ‘weaponize virality’ in an hundreds of thousands of effort to get past people. From circulating government cenaround Reddit, Instagram, Sometimes I see a bird sorship tactics. TikTok and ironically, and it’s like, are you The thought was Twitter, this peculiar ideol— how can they ogy has won over the hearts real?” censor some— MARINA BUENDIA, senior of teens and young adults thing viral?” alike with its seemingly abAlong with surd nature. government cenThe Birds Aren’t Real movement was sorship on the Birds Aren’t Real movement technically created in 2017 by college stu- — however crazy that might sound — dent Peter McIndoe, but he likes to say what makes the movement stand out is that otherwise. it doesn’t even make an attempt to sound “I did not start Birds Aren’t Real,” plausible. For many teens, the absurd and McIndoe says. “The movement has existed far-fetched humor is what draws them in. since 1976, I am simply a representative!” Most recently, in a message released on The ideology of the movement centers the movement’s Instagram account in Sep-
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38 OCTOBER 2020
tember, McIndoe announced Birds Aren’t Real’s candidacy for president — as a whole movement. “If you consider yourself to be a bird truther or part of the movement, you are now running for president of the United States,” McIndoe proudly says. Spreading the feathered gospel Though it started as a social media movement, Birds Aren’t Real rapidly expanded into both a comical pop culture reference and an online clothing brand. From its large social media platform to its “Bird Brigade” — a group of “bird truthers” tasked to spread the message of the movement through social media and other means — the conspiracy has become a token of the Gen Z population. For Palo Alto High School senior Andrew Toteda, discovering the movement was as simple as scrolling through his favorite Reddit pages. Though Toteda frequents the site to stay updated on his hobbies and world news, he sometimes stumbles upon the latest in meme humor. “It [the movement] was one of the many satirical conspiracies that redditors like to discuss, because often many reddi-
