‘You know that birds aren’t real, don’t you, Dad?”
This was the latest premise presented to me as I sat quietly over my Weetabix – the latest in a long line of absolute guff that my 15-year-old daughter peddles my way in an attempt, it would seem, to make me angry.
It was one of the more interesting and inventive ones I’ve heard from her of late, the theory being that every bird in the United States is a surveillance drone under governmental control, and that when you see them perched on power lines, they’re actually recharging.
To be honest, I don’t think even she believed this one, but was just desperate to get a rise out of me so she could immediately go to her socials and report to her friends what colour her dad’s face turns when he’s about to lose it.
It started with TikTok, which is a never-ending source of this drivel, with accounts devoted to various theories that instantly acquire hundreds of thousands of followers. Thankfully, she hasn’t gone as far as to start spouting Covid cover-ups yet; it’s more low-level than that, which almost makes it…
