"Disturbed" caller tells James O'Brien: "I've lost a great friend to conspiracy cult Q-Anon"
25 September 2020, 13:48 | Updated: 25 September 2020, 13:55
"Disturbed" caller lost friend to conspiracy cult Q-Anon
This "disturbed" caller told James O'Brien how she has now lost a friend of 18 years to the conspiracy cult Q-Anon and urged listeners to watch out for friends.
The Q-Anon conspiracy theory is a widely-debunked theory that a cabal of left-wing elites have created a global child sex-trafficking ring and are plotting to bring down Donald Trump.
The theory, which is growing in popularity, suggests that coronavirus is fake and is simply the Government's method of controlling the public. It also suggests that a raft of Hollywood celebrities, labelled the "Glitterati", are injecting themselves with a substance "Adrenochrome" taken intravenously from young children's bodies in a bid to look younger.
Caller Emma told James, "I found all this really disturbing but highly amusing.
"I obviously know they're nothing more than these alt-right sheep deluded brainwashed cult members, but what's really sad is they've managed to red pill my friend with all this propaganda."
Read more: James O'Brien on why it is so important to dismiss conspiracy theories
Read more: Caller's tale of Covid conspiracy theory left James with his head in his hands
Emma reflected that this particular friend was headstrong and the least likely person to be influenced; she attributed it partly to joining online groups while in lockdown, the fact her friend had lost a job, and also because he had been abused as a child and may be using this as an avenue to outlet his anger.
"I think groups like this make you feel important, like there's a sense of belonging," she said, and James suggested a sense of self-importance.
Emma continued of her friend: "He actually ended his ten year relationship with his boyfriend and stopped speaking to his brother because they both challenged his belief system."
"And then you boast about that and that gets you more kudos because you say I'm so committed to the cause, I've sacrificed my own relationship and my own brother," James said.
The caller told James she had even researched how to deal with a brain-washed friend before approaching him yet after attacking her personality, he told her she doesn't "offer any value to his life and [said] that I'm dead wood."
Emma said she would forgive him if he did realise he had been manipulated and urged listeners to watch out for their friends.
