Birds Aren’t Real? How a Conspiracy Takes Flight | Peter McIndoe | TED

Comments

• SinningStromgald@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Wait? This isn’t just an Internet joke?

  source

  • marcos@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Turns out you can’t make a joke so absurd that a dozen trolls won’t pretend to believe on it, some 3 or 4 journalists won’t take it seriously for the clickbait headlines, and 1 crazy idiot won’t actually believe is true.

    source

    • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That crazy idiot’s name? Rusty Shackleford.

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  • bemenaker@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It was at first. Like Qanon, it was a mockery conspiracy that became a real conspiracy.

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    • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Same with the modern "The earth is flat" bullshit. It started as a 4chan troll in the early '00s.

      All are an weird corollary of Poe's Law:

      without a clear indicator of the author's intent, any parodic or sarcastic expression of extreme views can be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of those views.

      Corollary to Poe's Law

      If you post a joke conspiracy theory, some idiot will believe it.

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