How a son spent a year trying to save his father from conspiracy theories
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This story is an accompaniment to a podcast series released by NPR’s Embedded called Alternate Realities. You can listen to all three episodes here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
About a year ago, my dad bet me $10,000 that he could foretell the future.
It all started when he texted me a picture of a list. Writing in barely legible cursive, he had scribbled 10 politically apocalyptic predictions. My dad was foreshadowing verdicts of treason for Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and the Clintons, who would go down for murder as well. Biden would ultimately be removed from office, and so would the governor of New York and the mayor of New York City. It went on. Donald Trump, who was seeking reelection, would have all charges leveled against him at the time dropped, all while being reinstated as president without the need for November’s election. He also thought that the U.S. would come under nationwide martial law.
For all his catastrophizing, I wouldn’t describe my father as a paranoid person — I tend to think of him as an optimist. He’s very friendly, the kind of father who cracks a lot of dad jokes with strangers. But like so many Americans, Dad had gotten swept up in conspiracy theories. Chemtrails, Biden body doubles, the idea that a shadowy cabal he calls “the globalists” is secretly running the world — these are just a few secret plots my father believes in.
The list, however, was something new. My father was now predicting the biggest shake-up in the country’s history, and he was absolutely certain that it would happen within a year.
At the bottom of the page was a challenge: $1,000 for each of the 10 predictions that were supposed to happen sometime in 2024. My father is not a betting man; nor is he rich. This was easily more money than either of us had ever wagered. Shortly after seeing the list, I called him to discuss the terms.
“When all these things happen,” he told me, “you will realize I’m not as big a crackpot as you think I am. These are not conspiracy theories — these are reality.”
The bet seemed over-the-top, but I was intrigued by the opportunity it presented. My dad and I have never been particularly close. Unless we are discussing our favorite college football team, the Ohio State Buckeyes, we disagree on just about everything. Our family dinners had been dissolving into heated arguments for some time. Instead of quarreling until the end of time, we were actually going to settle the single biggest source of tension between us: our diametrically opposed senses of reality. Either he was right or I was. Jan. 1, 2025, would be our deadline.
Content retrieved from: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/26/g-s1-50605/conspiracy-theories-politics-family-alternate-realities.
