Bobby Feldstein

        Bobby Feldstein is a mysterious and untrustworthy person. The likelihood he actually exists is little to none. There are no photos of him online, so the only known appearance we know about him is he has grey hair and a beard in a pixelated drawing of him from The Polybius Conspiracy Podcast. On top of this, the only time he is mentioned in any form of media is when Polybius is mentioned. Bobby Feldstein’s story is considered to sit at the “heart of the Polybius conspiracy” (Brogan) because without his kidnapping, there would be very little evidence to the Polybius theory. However, with the details of his lack of media presence despite him hosting “Portland’s first and only Polybius walking tour”(Radiotopia) and the other fact of him only being mentioned when Polybius is, he becomes this mysterious and untrustworthy person.                       

        Bobby Feldstein is mysterious because of how little we know about him. The most prominent example is the walking tours Feldstein has claimed to lead when he said, “doing the tour is a way to exorcise my demons on a daily basis”. (Buren) Despite having said he does these tours; a quick google search will pop up nothing. This lack of online presence makes people know hardly anything about him. With the internet being our main source of knowledge and communication with each other in our time, someone who does not show up when you google them is mysterious and unknown. With all this speculation and uncertainty about him, Feldstein presents himself as a mysterious person.                                                       

           The mystery around Feldstein can also be explained by the fact that he is a very untrustworthy person. For example, no one at Portland’s Ground Kontrol Arcade remembers the time when there was a “Tempest Tournament where supposedly Feldstein had a breakdown” (Brogan) despite him having claimed it. Being caught actively lying is a huge way to make you seem untrustworthy, but that's not the only reason we can believe this. In certain situations, people can turn violent when caught in a lie. We can see this is the case for Feldstein when during the Polybius Podcast “he rages at Frechette and Luoto”. (Brogan) Feldstein turns to yell at the podcast producers, maybe feeling like he has been caught. While we can’t know for sure that this is how he feels, his previous lies that he has been caught in, plus the psychology behind getting angry when caught, suggest that he is a liar. This makes Feldstein to be an untrustworthy person.