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

Wearing a hat that said “Birds aren’t real” and a shirt that said “bird watching goes both ways” was honestly one of the best conversation starters when I was in college.

I’ve been a bird truther for years and couldn’t be more thrilled to see Peter with his own TED talk. Goes to show how well-crafted satire is so uniquely powerful in its ability to get to the heart of issues

Followed this over the years, really was surprised by the eloquence of his final take away. Never thought chanting birds arent real could lead to a genuine conversation about inclusion and community. 10/10

Dude deserves a Tony award. He was acting on the world stage for years and played the part so well he fooled the mainstream.

I love when a talk is structured like initially being goofy, playful, fun to reel the audience in than to suddenly shift to a more insightful and profound message when the audience is all in on the talk and will absorb the message. Well done.

This has to qualify as a top ten social experiment for me. A silly thing about conspiracy theorists becomes a jump point about basic human interaction and eliminating ostracism. This was super dope.

I thought this was going to be a continuous bit, but him dropping it halfway through and explaining it from another perspective was fascinating and really interesting. He changed my views on conspiracy theorists!

Fascinating, especially the way he pivots to reflections on how NOT to deal with seemingly irrational beliefs. Treat people with respect, even when your first reaction is to dismiss or ridicule them. It's not easy.

This is the real reason why Twitter became X. Don't let Elon convince you otherwise. Hats off to you sir, brilliant work!

“If it flies, it spies.” Hilarious! But the message is excellent - people will listen when they feel they have been heard. Shaming others won’t change the world but listening then sharing with others will. This guy is brilliant.

I was only expecting something like the critique on the infodemic, irresponsibility of media, and so on, but this surpassed expectation. One of the best talks I've seen in this year.

This is why I never argue online. I've never seen it change someone's mind. People online may feel emboldened by anonymity to be more scathing than they would irl. People online are less likely to empathize due to a dehumanization of the entire exchange. A sparse medium of communication increases the likelihood for misunderstandings. Often it promotes shouting down the other individual, and a lower likelihood of trying to listen and inform oneself about the other perspective. The times I've had my mind changed, or changed the minds of others, typically involved a preexisting relationship. A disclaimer: I know my perspective is greatly limited by my narrow slice of the human experience. I'm not saying no one's ever benefitted from an online debate. But you might be able to at least agree that at least most of the time, it doesn't seem to solve anything.

I relistened from 10:25 to the end multiple times (not that the rest of the talk wasn't excellent, it was). But this section is an immensely articulate discussion of the issues we face today. It is compassionate, unifying and reasonable. So well done!

Throughout the entire talk, I only thought about the people who genuinely believed that birds aren't real. I wonder how they felt when he broke character. The cognitive dissonance must have been at 1000% when they heard about it.

After watching Peter's gig for years, I am again so impressed with and surprised by his compassionate insight and conclusions that are far more important than what we even thought they were. Turns out he wasn't mocking anyone after all with his parody. Yes, he's clever. Yes, he's committed. Yes, he's pretty insightful about conspiracy theorists. I'm delighted to also see that, yes, he's thinking about and sharing his insights about how to solve the problem instead of just showcasing it in a humorous way. One more young person again gives me hope for our future.

As someone who has loved birds and watched them for many many years, I wonder how I would have approached Peter, upon seeing him with his Van and "Birds Aren't Real" paraphernalia. I really hope I would have tried to have a sensible conversation with him and be able to communicate with him in a friendly, open manner.

I've been following the journey of birds aren't real since Vsauce introduced them and I was wondering what the end goal would be. This man, instead relying on the very internet that forces people to believe in alternate truths went out and actually understood what it's like to be a part of a community that believes otherwise and how that affects the society and the individuals participating. Sharing the results was the best he could do to us. The public. The blind us who looks down on anyone who believes otherwise and at the same time believes and pursues truths of our own. Thank you. And thank you.

Damn, the government got to him

The birds coming to my bird feeder do seem to be paying more attention to me lately. And they act strangely also. One of them shot sparks all over the place when it jumped in the birdbath

He's so right and it's hard to be that better person. When it's too hard to try to change minds and connect, sometimes the best bad choice is to leave it be if you're only going to make it worse.