Sure, it's all fun & games when everyone is in on the joke. Just like the flat earthers, up until some musician gets into a twitter spat with Neil Degrasse Tyson over the flatness (or lack thereof) of the Earth.
Only with birds, we'll have non-ironic activists burning down chicken coops and claiming the so-called "meat" we buy in supermarkets is some kind of mind control or Soylent Green, and all evidence that it started as a joke will be taken as evidence of a coverup.
True, unironic Flat earthers are still an extreme fringe of mostly mentally ill people. If anything, the most common conspiracy theory about flat earth is that it's a psyop to discredit...other conspiracy theories lol. You'd be considered as a complete weirdo for believing in flat earth even amongst qanon types.
It's funny though since the "5g tower burning, covid denying flat earther" caricature has become so overused that some believe that it's actually a real thing. But in reality it's so incredibly uncommon
That was speculation of where the fledgling #BirdsArentReal movement could end up, but I'm really not serious about my criticism of the meme.
As a sibling comment to yours pointed out, true believers of things like a flat earth are an extreme minority and I'm not particularly concerned that a parody conspiracy theory will cause much harm. I doubt the few true believers will be burning chicken coops any more than flat earthers are blowing up globes. (I really hope I'm not wrong about that, I do like chicken quite a bit).
And we, as a society & individuals, can't and shouldn't be 100% serious about everything 100% of the time. We should be able to laugh at things, even very serious things. For example I find it pretty funny that some Russian tanks are being abducted by Ukrainian farmers w/ tractors. I can also see how deadly serious it is: It's not like they're just a few viral videos made by influencers, it's everyday people like farmers trying to take deadly resources out of the hands of an invading army.
I like your points about the necessity of humor and i think its the only way to the future for us without mass psychosis and cultural schizming. When biomorphic-engineered bird-drones can fly autonomously, and pigeons have been carrying IP for the ruling class for thousands of years, we are going to need some comedy to settle the #birdsarereal issue
Only with birds, we'll have non-ironic activists burning down chicken coops and claiming the so-called "meat" we buy in supermarkets is some kind of mind control or Soylent Green, and all evidence that it started as a joke will be taken as evidence of a coverup.