Thousands of young people are convinced that birds were constructed by the U.S. government. These young people theorize this because birds are everywhere. People believe that the U.S government is using birds as spy drones. Thanks to social media like Twitter and Facebook, it is likely there will be an increase in the numbers of followers that believe in this conspiracy theory.
But in fact birds are real. First of all, the conspiracy theory started as a joke.The origins of the conspiracy theory started with Peter McInode, who held up a poster that stated “birds aren’t real” at a women’s march in 2017. Peter later told the New York Times that it was all a joke back in 2017. Despite this, Peter continued with this joke by sharing it on the social media platform Facebook. By doing this, it increased the popularity of this conspiracy theory.
Second of all, birds have been roaming this planet way longer than us humans. Fossils that have been found show that birds have existed for 150 million years, which is 50x longer than us humans. The first humans that appeared was 2 million years ago. This is a major fact because it tells us that birds have existed way before humans. This would suggest that it would be impossible for the U.S. government to be able to create birds because they existed way before the U.S. government was founded.
It’s also impossible that the U.S. government created birds because globally there are 200 billion to 400 billion birds, with the U.S. alone having about 10-20 Billion birds. Although it could be possible to construct bird drones, it’s likely to be near impossible to do because of the large number of birds we have in the U.S. Where would we get all the workers needed to construct these spy birds? With the amount of people needed to construct the birds, how would the U.S. government be able to keep these sky birds undercover from the public?
Additionally, the technology in these birds would have to be really advanced, which means it is likely to cost a lot of money to build them. Even the most expensive drones, which cost around $18,000 – $2,000,000 and are really advanced, can still be heard from far away. The U.S military also has advanced drones, but even the small ones make noises as well. It would be really impressive if somehow the government could construct bird spy drones that include wires, chips, tracking, small cameras, etc. in a bird’s small body.
The U.S. military has been making UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) for almost a century, and the most popular U.S. military UAV drone is the MQ-Reaper. While this is the military’s most advanced drone, it’s able to fit all these technology components because they are the size of a car. The price of the Reaper is $30 million. This is significant because it shows how costly it is to create advanced drones. If only one Reaper is $30 million, can you imagine how much more expensive it would be to make a large amount of bird drones?
In conclusion, it’s hard to believe that the U.S. government constructed bird spy drones. First, birds have been around way longer than humans. Then the person who created the conspiracy theory admitted that it was a joke. Also, it would be impossible to make billions of spy birds, without a huge cost to make them. It would also be difficult to fit all the technical components needed for a drone inside of a small bird. After considering these reasons, do you think birds are fake?
Josiah Thompson – Chicago Waldorf School – DMSF Class of 2027