{"id":1465029,"date":"2022-05-05T12:29:51","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T16:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1465029"},"modified":"2022-05-05T12:30:12","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T16:30:12","slug":"raheem-kassam-what-connects-birds-arent-real-the-roe-v-wade-leak-and-a-new-era-of-american-censorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/raheem-kassam-what-connects-birds-arent-real-the-roe-v-wade-leak-and-a-new-era-of-american-censorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Raheem Kassam: What Connects \u201cBirds Aren\u2019t Real,\u201d the Roe v Wade Leak, and A New Era of American Censorship?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">38<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fraheem-kassam-what-connects-birds-arent-real-the-roe-v-wade-leak-and-a-new-era-of-american-censorship%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1465029&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h3 class=\"subtitle\">Let me enlighten you. <\/h3>\n<div dir=\"auto\" class=\"body markup\">\n<p>Combatting disinformation is the new going concern. Ukraine can stuff it as far as yestermonth\u2019s internet evangelists are concerned. Just wait for the hot new emoji\u00a0to drop. A thumbs down in a black circle, perhaps, as a means by which to express solidarity with decent and innocent and serious and fact-oriented and neutral reporters like Taylor Lorenz. <em>Long live the fact-ionistas!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yes, yes. Next month we\u2019ll be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/fact-checking\/2021\/fact-checkers-will-meet-oslo-for-the-first-in-person-global-fact-conference-in-two-years\/\" rel=\"\">treated<\/a> to a cacophony of pro-censorship activism masquerading as both a public good and an academic endeavor. Fuck the nurses. It\u2019s time to TikTok to the tune of Big Brother. If the trend sounds anything like Nina Jankowicz (and it will), then we\u2019re all in for a summer of suffering far worse than any impotent fear struck into us by Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019ll be death for our ears, for sure. The further mortification, that is to say necrosis, of Western civil society too. But the victim is much more specific than that. This is not just about what you hear. This is about what you say. Yes, you. Not just me. Not just the pugilistic desk jockeys, or disc jockeys. We are about to see a fresh new wound carved into the Western body-politick. It\u2019ll make 2016\u2019s \u201cfake news\u201d panic \u2013\u00a0and subsequent role reversal by Donald Trump on his assailants \u2013\u00a0look like quite an enjoyable game. I remind you it was not.<\/p>\n<p>Poynter\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the same corporate cartel of pseudo-newsmen who <a href=\"https:\/\/raheemkassam.substack.com\/p\/a-google-funded-fact-check-team-appears?s=w\" rel=\"\">accredited a shanty-town cadre of \u201cfact checkers\u201d in India<\/a> to censor Westerners \u2013\u00a0is hosting its \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/fact-checking\/2021\/fact-checkers-will-meet-oslo-for-the-first-in-person-global-fact-conference-in-two-years\/\" rel=\"\">Ninth Global Fact Checking Summit<\/a>\u201d in Norway at the end of June. It\u2019s headliners include <a href=\"https:\/\/thenationalpulse.com\/2022\/04\/13\/applebaum-defended-polanski-in-resurfaced-oped\/\" rel=\"\">pedophile apologist Anne Applebaum<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/thenationalpulse.com\/2021\/02\/13\/harvard-shorenstein-center-ccp-ties\/\" rel=\"\">Chinese Communist-affiliated Joan Donovan<\/a>, and perhaps most curiously of all, the founder of the satirical \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/video\/the-founder-of-birds-arent-real\/\" rel=\"\">Birds Aren\u2019t Real<\/a>\u2019 movement.<\/p>\n<p>So, cue the propaganda. Uh, I mean \u201cPR and marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On May 1st, CBS\u2019s 60 Minutes \u201cinterviewed\u201d Peter McIndoe, the head honcho of Bird\u2019s Aren\u2019t Real, which coincidentally \u2013\u00a0ahem \u2013 began at a Women\u2019s March event protesting the election of President Donald Trump. McIndoe tells the story of how he spontaneously made a sign that said \u201cBird\u2019s Aren\u2019t Real\u201d and that his friends simply filmed him making fun of pro-Trump counter-protesters.<\/p>\n<div class=\"captioned-image-container\">\n<figure><a class=\"image-link image2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffac2cd35-8935-480a-bb8e-7ddec9cee8ad_1668x946.jpeg\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" \/><img src width=\"1456\" height=\"826\" data-attrs=\"{\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"image-caption\">Birds Aren\u2019t Real founder Peter McIndoe during his first ever stunt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The exceptional quality of footage from a spontaneous video made half a decade ago reveals a URL \u2013 TheCollegeCompany.com \u2013 scrawled on the bottom of McIndoe\u2019s homemade placard.<\/p>\n<p>The College Company LLC in fact owns the trademark to Bird\u2019s Aren\u2019t Real, its co-founder being Connor Gaydos, who McIndoe has credited with helping him reach the status of \u201can experiment in misinformation,\u201d for his work.<\/p>\n<div class=\"captioned-image-container\">\n<figure><a class=\"image-link image2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5e3a9167-2ae6-47bc-801d-b95456a863e8_1993x1111.jpeg\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" \/><img src width=\"1456\" height=\"812\" data-attrs=\"{\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"image-caption\">The College Company URL was written on the very first sign.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Another of McIndoe\u2019s partners is Cameron Kasky, who he describes as \u201cone of his best friends.\u201d Kasky appears to be a political activist from Parkland, Florida who helped organize the 2018 \u2018March for Our Lives\u2019 protest against gun rights.<\/p>\n<p>Kasky is explicit about his political views, calling Donald Trump a \u201cproto fascistic bigot\u201d:<\/p>\n<div class=\"captioned-image-container\">\n<figure><a class=\"image-link image2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc946da2c-fc6c-411d-8ad8-15c2485ac58b_1197x620.jpeg\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" \/><img src data-attrs=\"{\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>He also had this totally normal and neutral reaction to the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court draft opinion leak on Monday night:<\/p>\n<div class=\"captioned-image-container\">\n<figure><a class=\"image-link image2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8068eed3-d070-4744-a22b-ae8ec2cfed81_858x1581.jpeg\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" \/><img src width=\"858\" height=\"1581\" data-attrs=\"{\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"image-caption\">They want these guys policing misinformation?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Kasky is also a little more open about what he\u2019s up to, politically. When asked what he as a critic of centrist Democrat strategy has done to help Florida Democrats, he replied: \u201cFor now I work with an organization where I consult on how we can try and find creative ways to get young people fighting for voting rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"captioned-image-container\">\n<figure><a class=\"image-link image2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1d83933d-166e-4f9b-8375-19cc1a88c525_1197x986.jpeg\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" \/><img src width=\"1197\" height=\"986\" data-attrs=\"{\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"image-caption\">\u2018Voting rights\u2019 is often a euphemism for voter fraud.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Of course, \u201cvoting rights\u201d is a catch-all euphemism as calling abortion \u201chealthcare,\u201d and has been used as a concept to defend \u201cballot curing,\u201d as well as corrupt practices like harvesting, and mass mail-in voting.<\/p>\n<p>But wait. There\u2019s more. And it involves our old buddy Taylor Lorenz. Because of course.<\/p>\n<p>In an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&#038;rct=j&#038;q=&#038;esrc=s&#038;source=web&#038;cd=&#038;ved=2ahUKEwiLsoWqu8b3AhWDgGoFHa41AZgQFnoECAgQAQ&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2021%2F12%2F09%2Ftechnology%2Fbirds-arent-real-gen-z-misinformation.html&#038;usg=AOvVaw2_CUGPhZ-5kMQxhgfNwfxk\" rel=\"\">interview from December 2021<\/a>, McIndoe tells Lorenz that \u201c[f]or his first 18 years, he grew up in a deeply conservative and religious community with seven siblings outside Cincinnati, then in rural Arkansas. He was home-schooled, taught that \u2018evolution was a massive brainwashing plan by the Democrats and Obama was the Antichrist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The hoaxster further reveals he\u2019s ready to take his satirical movement and make something far more \u201creal\u201d from it:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Birds Aren\u2019t Real members have also become a political force. Many often join up with counterprotesters and actual conspiracy theorists to de-escalate tensions and delegitimize the people they are marching alongside with irreverent chants.<\/p>\n<p>In September, shortly after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/10\/us\/politics\/texas-abortion-law-facts.html\" rel=\"\">a restrictive new abortion law<\/a> went into effect in Texas, Birds Aren\u2019t Real members showed up at a protest held by anti-abortion activists at the University of Cincinnati. Supporters of the new law \u201chad signs with very graphic imagery and were very aggressive in condemning people,\u201d Mr. McIndoe said. \u201cIt led to arguments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the Bird Brigade began chanting, \u201cBirds aren\u2019t real.\u201d Their shouts soon overpowered the anti-abortion activists, who left.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This part of the equation is especially interesting when you consider Birds Aren\u2019t Real is enjoying newfound publicity at the same time the White House announces its disinformation czar, and as an alleged leak of a Supreme Court draft showed Roe v Wade is close to being overturned. What a lucky and totally unrelated coincidence. Ahem.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, McIndoe is pretty open about using his operation as a means to influence the nation\u2019s politics, which Poynter is probably hoping none of us notice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a lot of excitement for what the future of this could be as an actual force for good,\u201d he told the <em>New York Times<\/em>. \u201cYes, we have been intentionally spreading misinformation for the past four years, but it\u2019s with a purpose. It\u2019s about holding up a mirror to America in the internet age.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lorenz\u2019s interview broadly coincided with renewed interest \u2013mostly from the left media \u2013\u00a0in McIndoe and his movement. VICE <a href=\"https:\/\/video.vice.com\/en_us\/video\/the-truth-behind-birds-arent-real\/618d509f2b5e414b16210b73\" rel=\"\">followed up<\/a> shortly after, with a documentary released on Jan 9th 2022, wherein McIndoe reflects on being ready to move on from the joke, calling his next steps \u2013\u00a0presumably including the relationship with Poynter and the fact check networks \u201ca new chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the VICE piece, he tells of growing up homeschooled, in a \u201chyper closed off, conservative environment,\u201d and pontificates publicly \u2013\u00a0and at length \u2013 about his character being an extension of the people he grew up around, who he says, \u201chave an idea like that, about these elites, or these villains.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because nothing says \u201cno one\u2019s out to get you\u201d like maligning a large group of people, parodying what you think of them for five years, then committing your life to censoring them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo start something new, there has to be a death of what was,\u201d comes the sophomoric McIndoe philosophy, before he accepts that much like a \u201creal\u201d conspiracy theorist, he has used Birds Aren\u2019t Real as a crutch for his own lack of belonging.<\/p>\n<p>The more I read of McIndoe, the more he seems like a rebel without a clue. Raging against the people whose voices are being taken away. Cheering as the corporate media class indulges his own atomization.<\/p>\n<p>The notion of \u201cmisinformation with a purpose\u201d \u2013\u00a0as he told Lorenz \u2013\u00a0suggests McIndoe and his friends should take a look in that same mirror he claims to hold up to America. <\/p>\n<p>The fact that he is now a headliner at a so-called fact-checking conference is cause to believe that McIndoe\u2019s \u201cnew chapter\u201d is about begin with censorship and propaganda in support of his political preferences, in support of the architects of anti-First Amendment activity, and mostly notably, in rebellion against his own upbringing.<\/p>\n<p>As much as Birds Aren\u2019t Real has been humorous to witness, and was probably even fun to be a part of, I suspect much of the audience McIndoe and company have amassed is going to move on when he turns into the less masculine Nina Jankowicz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let me enlighten you. Combatting disinformation is the new going concern. Ukraine can stuff it as far as yestermonth\u2019s internet evangelists are concerned. Just wait for the hot new emoji\u00a0to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1465029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1465029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1465029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1465029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1465029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}