“ shitposters who have marinated in internet irony so long they have no sense of what true belief would feel like.”
I’ve noticed in the depositions of Alex Jones and Marjorie Taylor Green that there have been instances where they seem to acknowledge (or do they come to realize) that it’s all just shitposting that they don’t actually believe. As if in some sense they think it’s real at the same time acknowledging it’s a performance.
I think conspiracy theory culture, including of the right wing variety, can be parodied quite successfully. Good examples would be Dale Gribble on King of the Hill (particularly earlier years) and even in a way the X-Files. Of course these examples make fun of the phenomenon in a gentler, more loving way towards its subjects, as opposed to in a manner clearly designed to flatter the creators. Mike Judge does and seemingly always has known us better than we know ourselves yet never hates us for it.
The real question is can progressive leaning internet snark culture do this effectively. My response to that would be 'not of it involves being funny' since those people don't even know how to be funny to begin with.
This reminds me how the Church of the Subgenius thing became a parody of conspiracy theories (Scientology! The Bavarian Illuminati!) and took sort of the opposite tack, where they sprinkled in just enough self-awareness of real things with the obvious over-the-top pre-internet shitposting.
This seems like yet another example of rapidly diminishing returns when one burrows too deeply into an Internet phenomenon. If, like me, all you know about "birds aren't real" is the slogan, and maybe you've seen a few diagrams of gears inside a pigeon, it comes across as a funny and breezy way to gently poke fun at irrational thinking. When the media picks up on it and puts the guy on 60 Minutes to, apparently, pontificate insufferably about conspiracy theories (I couldn't bring myself to watch it), it becomes gross and counterproductive in all the ways you spell out here. Too bad supposedly serious media outlets feel the need, for whatever reason (limited resources? low ratings?), to spend time on something like this instead of a deeper dive into something actually relevant to people's lives. (Yes, I know, they do that too--but it's a wonder they find any time at all for something like BAR.) And, at the end of the day, it sounds like they didn't do the BAR guy himself any favors by asking him to explain the joke instead of letting it speak for itself.
I think this was the mistaken reading of Chris Morris's 'The Day Shall Come', a film I will go to bat for as far superior in insight and wisdom than the far more beloved 'Four Lions'. Because ultimately the conspiracy theorist and theories in that film aren't the point of the satire, but that the true operations of the American political establishment are far more grotesque than the conspiracy theories. Audiences found it much easier to laugh at the terrorists in 'Four Lions' than at the FBI.
Good points all around in this post. Makes me wonder about past political parodies that were successful. Can't think of any except for some SNL skits that relied more on exaggerated physicality. I remember the Gore debate "sigh" and the Ross Perot rants as making me laugh a lot twenty plus operas ago.
The biggest problem with Q-Anon in my opinion is there are enough kernels of truth in it to get people hooked. There really was a cabal of elites (the Jeff Epstein crew) engaged in a pedophilia/underage sex ring that the media more or less has swept under the rug. Mix that with the whole toxicity of online and political discourse and you end up with crowds of people on the grassy knoll waiting for JFK Jr to come back from the dead with Donald Trump at his side to usher in a cleansing of the US Government.
''conspiracy theories'' partly express a feeling of powerlessnes in the face of a wider and subtle social conspiracy which is perceived as dis-empowering. And truely the powerful do conspire to gain and keep power. I guess i am a "conspiracy theorist".
I was going to take issue with complaint number 1. I laughed at "I'm not going to go on news shows, but shows about clocks and time…" Unfortunately, so did he. Ali G may not have been overburdened with talent, but at least he could keep a straight face.
If Birds Aren't Real Guy did literally any research on the matter, he'd know that expert consensus is clear: you can't reason people out of an unreasonable position, and any extreme belief community worth its salt already has built-in defense mechanisms against outside disapproval. "Outsiders will shun and mock you because they fear your new power!" is, like, Cults/Conspiracies/MLMs/Crypto 101.
If you want to get people out, you have to solve the root causes: economic distress, fragmented communities, and institutional collapse. Flat earthers don't give a shit about Neil DeGrasse Tyson, but when you give them meaningful jobs that pay well, communities they can love and be loved by, and institutions that are effective at the local level, folks suddenly have a lot less interest in owning the spherehead libs. If Birds Aren't Real Guy wants to really make a difference, he should join a union or become a youth pastor.
The Birds Aren’t Real movements strikes me as a completely typical parody movement. It seems exactly along the lines of the popular Flying Spaghetti Monster parody from the height of the new atheist era. I guess the main difference is that serious news programs (I think they devoted a whole NYT Daily episode to it) feel the need to cover it like it’s an Important Thing. That tells me the difference is the news media, not the parody movement.
1. Donald Trump tried to steal USPS mailboxes before the election.
2. Cops are performing genocide on black men.
3. Murder of black trans women is frequent and pervasive.
4. Virtually every zoomer and millennial online believe qanon levels of pedophilia exist among Hollywood and east coast elites.
5. Most “Bernie-types” ( for lack of a better term) believe ( unknowingly) everything conspiracy theory about the Clinton’s that Richard Mellon Scaife funded.
6. Gender and biological origins of sex are dreamed up by the patriarchy to suppress people.
I could go on, but I have my day to begin. Birds aren’t real as a parody is just dumb vs a one line stale Reddit joke that outlasted it’s time.
I think the primary liberal conspiracy theory is that there are conservative conspiracy theories.
“ shitposters who have marinated in internet irony so long they have no sense of what true belief would feel like.”
I’ve noticed in the depositions of Alex Jones and Marjorie Taylor Green that there have been instances where they seem to acknowledge (or do they come to realize) that it’s all just shitposting that they don’t actually believe. As if in some sense they think it’s real at the same time acknowledging it’s a performance.
Damn it. I hadn't made the obvious connection here and had been enjoying 'Birds Aren't Real' as a purely absurd statement.
I think conspiracy theory culture, including of the right wing variety, can be parodied quite successfully. Good examples would be Dale Gribble on King of the Hill (particularly earlier years) and even in a way the X-Files. Of course these examples make fun of the phenomenon in a gentler, more loving way towards its subjects, as opposed to in a manner clearly designed to flatter the creators. Mike Judge does and seemingly always has known us better than we know ourselves yet never hates us for it.
The real question is can progressive leaning internet snark culture do this effectively. My response to that would be 'not of it involves being funny' since those people don't even know how to be funny to begin with.
This reminds me how the Church of the Subgenius thing became a parody of conspiracy theories (Scientology! The Bavarian Illuminati!) and took sort of the opposite tack, where they sprinkled in just enough self-awareness of real things with the obvious over-the-top pre-internet shitposting.
This seems like yet another example of rapidly diminishing returns when one burrows too deeply into an Internet phenomenon. If, like me, all you know about "birds aren't real" is the slogan, and maybe you've seen a few diagrams of gears inside a pigeon, it comes across as a funny and breezy way to gently poke fun at irrational thinking. When the media picks up on it and puts the guy on 60 Minutes to, apparently, pontificate insufferably about conspiracy theories (I couldn't bring myself to watch it), it becomes gross and counterproductive in all the ways you spell out here. Too bad supposedly serious media outlets feel the need, for whatever reason (limited resources? low ratings?), to spend time on something like this instead of a deeper dive into something actually relevant to people's lives. (Yes, I know, they do that too--but it's a wonder they find any time at all for something like BAR.) And, at the end of the day, it sounds like they didn't do the BAR guy himself any favors by asking him to explain the joke instead of letting it speak for itself.
I think this was the mistaken reading of Chris Morris's 'The Day Shall Come', a film I will go to bat for as far superior in insight and wisdom than the far more beloved 'Four Lions'. Because ultimately the conspiracy theorist and theories in that film aren't the point of the satire, but that the true operations of the American political establishment are far more grotesque than the conspiracy theories. Audiences found it much easier to laugh at the terrorists in 'Four Lions' than at the FBI.
Good points all around in this post. Makes me wonder about past political parodies that were successful. Can't think of any except for some SNL skits that relied more on exaggerated physicality. I remember the Gore debate "sigh" and the Ross Perot rants as making me laugh a lot twenty plus operas ago.
The biggest problem with Q-Anon in my opinion is there are enough kernels of truth in it to get people hooked. There really was a cabal of elites (the Jeff Epstein crew) engaged in a pedophilia/underage sex ring that the media more or less has swept under the rug. Mix that with the whole toxicity of online and political discourse and you end up with crowds of people on the grassy knoll waiting for JFK Jr to come back from the dead with Donald Trump at his side to usher in a cleansing of the US Government.
''conspiracy theories'' partly express a feeling of powerlessnes in the face of a wider and subtle social conspiracy which is perceived as dis-empowering. And truely the powerful do conspire to gain and keep power. I guess i am a "conspiracy theorist".
I was going to take issue with complaint number 1. I laughed at "I'm not going to go on news shows, but shows about clocks and time…" Unfortunately, so did he. Ali G may not have been overburdened with talent, but at least he could keep a straight face.
If Birds Aren't Real Guy did literally any research on the matter, he'd know that expert consensus is clear: you can't reason people out of an unreasonable position, and any extreme belief community worth its salt already has built-in defense mechanisms against outside disapproval. "Outsiders will shun and mock you because they fear your new power!" is, like, Cults/Conspiracies/MLMs/Crypto 101.
If you want to get people out, you have to solve the root causes: economic distress, fragmented communities, and institutional collapse. Flat earthers don't give a shit about Neil DeGrasse Tyson, but when you give them meaningful jobs that pay well, communities they can love and be loved by, and institutions that are effective at the local level, folks suddenly have a lot less interest in owning the spherehead libs. If Birds Aren't Real Guy wants to really make a difference, he should join a union or become a youth pastor.
The Birds Aren’t Real movements strikes me as a completely typical parody movement. It seems exactly along the lines of the popular Flying Spaghetti Monster parody from the height of the new atheist era. I guess the main difference is that serious news programs (I think they devoted a whole NYT Daily episode to it) feel the need to cover it like it’s an Important Thing. That tells me the difference is the news media, not the parody movement.
Left/liberal conspiracies theories I am aware of:
1. Donald Trump tried to steal USPS mailboxes before the election.
2. Cops are performing genocide on black men.
3. Murder of black trans women is frequent and pervasive.
4. Virtually every zoomer and millennial online believe qanon levels of pedophilia exist among Hollywood and east coast elites.
5. Most “Bernie-types” ( for lack of a better term) believe ( unknowingly) everything conspiracy theory about the Clinton’s that Richard Mellon Scaife funded.
6. Gender and biological origins of sex are dreamed up by the patriarchy to suppress people.
I could go on, but I have my day to begin. Birds aren’t real as a parody is just dumb vs a one line stale Reddit joke that outlasted it’s time.