My Father, the QAnon Conspiracy Theorist

After my parents got divorced, Dad began a slow slide into isolation. Eventually he found consolation in the darkest corners of the web. Can I help him get back out?

Illustrations by Jackie Ferrentino | Edited by Brendan Spiegel

It’s March 14, 2020, and my dad hurries to my brother’s house to warn him that “the government is going to be seizing things.”

Rarely has my dad ever gone to my brother’s house, especially unannounced.

“I’m worried about you,” my brother tells him. “And I wish the reason you came over was to say hi like a normal person.”

“Here we go again,” my dad says. He tells my brother to take what he’s saying “with a grain of salt,” then leaves in hurry.

It is then that my brother and I realize my dad is lost in an abyss of conspiracy theories.