'I thought you ate babies': Aussie conspiracy theorist's bizarre confession
A former QAnon supporter from Australia has apologised to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper for once believing the reporter ate babies.
In a bizarre insight into his previous beliefs, Jitarth Jadeja was confronted by Cooper in an interview from a special CNN report about conspiracy theories over the weekend.
When asked by Cooper if he believed high-level Democrats and celebrities were worshipping Satan and drinking the blood of children, Mr Jadeja revealed more than the veteran journalist had anticipated.
“Anderson, I thought you did that,” he said.
“I would like to apologise for that right now, I apologise for thinking that you ate babies.”
Cooper admitted being aware of some of QAnon’s most “outlandish” and “bizarre” conspiracies about himself and other reporters, including being linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr Jadeja said others also believed Cooper was a robot.
Mr Jadeja, who lives in Sydney, stopped believing in QAnon in June 2019.
“I was so far down in this conspiracy black hole that I was essentially picking and choosing whatever narrative that I wanted to believe in,” he said.
“I at one stage believed that QAnon was part of military intelligence.”
Twitter cancels accounts sharing QAnon conspiracies
The surge in QAnon followers stems from the belief former US President Donald Trump was set to out key public figures over unfounded claims they were Satan worshippers and paedophiles.
The movement began in 2017 following anonymous posts on message board 4chan that were simply signed off by ‘Q’.
Mr Jadeja said Cooper has been specifically mentioned by ‘Q’.
“He also talked about like, for example, your family. I’m going to be honest, like people still talk about that to this day.”
Twitter cancelled more than 70,000 accounts for spreading conspiracy theories associated with QAnon following the US Capitol riots on January 6.
“These accounts were engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale, and were primarily dedicated to the propagation of this conspiracy theory across the service,” it said.
Former QAnon believer to @andersoncooper: "I apologize for thinking that you ate babies" pic.twitter.com/IcVIwpYykd
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 30, 2021
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