Dear Dr. Phil | What dad believes – Does he need help?

By AI X

Note: My 15-year-old son, who has been trapped in a distance learning nightmare for nearly a year now, was recently given an opportunity by his sophomore English teacher to makeup a couple of missed assignments by writing an essay about coronavirus and/or current events. There were no other stipulations made. He chose to write a letter to television’s Dr. Phil, about me, his “conspiracy theorist” father. The boy even sent it to me out of concern. Well, at least I know he loves me. The following is what he wrote.

Dear Doctor Phil,

I am writing you because I am worried about my father. Maybe you can have him on your show and find out what his mental problems are about coronavirus. He refuses to believe anything the government officials or health experts say about it on television. Could you talk some sense into his head? I don’t like to label people, but sadly, I think he is a “reality denier.”

I’ve always respected my dad’s intellectual prowess. Over the years he has had many jobs that require a good deal of smarts, including teacher, air traffic controller and sports journalist. He even wrote a couple of books, although he won’t let me read them until I’m older. So it really baffles me when he goes off the rails about COVID-19. Even before the virus hit the USA hard, he was calling it a big hoax. I’m afraid it has only gotten worse. After 500,000 people have now died, he still questions whether this virus even exists! Really?!

Doctor, in case you’re wondering, Dad doesn’t even drink or abuse any drugs that I know of. He was never a Trump supporter either but says anyone with the sense God gave a goose can see the presidential election was stolen. He’s always been smart about politics, even though he no longer votes. When I told him last year I was a Bernie Bro, he warned me not to get my hopes up, because Sanders would fold his tent like Ringling Brothers.

I refuse to spend time at his place anymore. My parents are divorced, and I used to go there a lot. My mother found out he has been attending a church which refuses to practice social distancing, where nobody wears masks, in violation of county health orders. We don’t want him to give me coronavirus. His suddenly finding religion has me worried, too. Mom told me the authorities are going to crackdown on that church. She thinks some jailtime might do my father some good. I don’t want that to happen. I just want him to get better.

He refuses to wear a mask outside and sometimes calls people names who are wearing them. I’ve seen him get in shouting matches at stores when they order him to put one on. Sometimes he won’t do it, and we just leave. I find this embarrassing and dangerous. When he does comply, he gets mad when I pull the mask over his nose.

We live in California, and my dad really hates Governor Newsom. He calls him “Newsollini” and says the lockdowns, destroyed businesses and “tyrannical” illegal mandates he has forced on people should get him thrown out of office. I believe the governor is only trying to help the citizens get safely through this pandemic.

Father gets so mad at the governor and mayor he threatens to quit his job and move to Florida. But Mom tells him if he does that, he’ll never see us again.

It’s even worse with Dr. Fauci. My father calls him the “covid point rat,” whatever that means. He says America’s favorite doctor has flipflopped on wearing masks and keeps moving the goalposts about when society can reopen. Dad says Dr. Fauci has bad history with the AIDs crisis and pushed for funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China – and that’s a bad thing? Father’s face turns red when he tells me that with Fauci it is always about the vaccinations and never readily available therapeutics that can easily cure people of COVID-19. Wouldn’t Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN be all over that if it were true?

Dad gets tears in his eyes when he literally begs me and Mom not to get the covid vaccinations. He says they are experimental gene therapies and Big Pharma and government are using people as guinea pigs, even injecting us with harmful things. What?! The school nurse spoke to my history class on Zoom the other day and said we can choose for ourselves about getting the vaccinations when we turn 16. I might get the shots just to prove my dad wrong.

My father reads a lot all the time. Unfortunately, he goes to websites that promote all kinds of hysterical nonsense about an elite evil agenda having long been planned to cull and enslave the human race. Although I believe in the free exchange of ideas on the internet, these sites are spreading disinformation and should be banned. I will not click on the links he sends me. He rants about some guy named Klaus Schwab. The only Klaus I know of lives in a fishbowl on a cartoon.

Dad gets almost deranged with his hatred of Bill Gates, too. He says the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has used big bucks to buy off the media, higher education and medical industry and is also in on the plans to depopulate the planet. And he insists Gates is buying up all the farmland in the USA, too. What does that have to do with coronavirus? Dad insists Gates has bad vaccination history with children in India and Africa.

My English class is currently reading Brave New World, which my father says could be right around the corner. I tell him I wish he could just take a Soma and chill. He says I should go right into reading 1984 on my own, but I won’t have time since we’re gong to read The Color Purple next.

Dr. Phil, I love my dad. We used to get along great during my driving lessons, as long as we didn’t talk about politics or the virus. Mom has stopped those because he won’t wear a mask in his car. She wears two now, even when driving.

Is there any chance you could have us on your show to straighten him out?

Sincerely,

XXX

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal.

The authors live in Ventura County

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