North Austin Council Candidate's Beliefs Tend Toward The Conspiratorial

AUSTIN, TX -- There's a fine line at times between healthy skepticism and conspiracy theory. The former represents not cynicism or preconceived notion devoid of independent research, while the latter, more often than not, suggests a rebuke of scientific data and longitudinal study in otherwise formulating an opinion.

Depending on your world view, District 4 City Council candidate Gonzalo Camacho can be seen as intermittently straddling both camps of thought. As the Austin American-Statesman reported, Camacho has a penchant for conspiracy theories, including a belief among other conspiratorial-minded people that the Smithsonian Institution is hiding from the public oversize fossils of humanoids that suggest giant people once roamed the Earth.

"Honest government requires a skeptical voter," a slogan welcomes a visitor to his election website. Given his social media sampling, the slogan is a study in understatement.

The range of the candidate's beliefs are in full display on his Facebook page. They range from the widely shared among skeptics (such as an assertion that flouride in municipal water systems poses a threat to public health) to the more exclusive (such as a belief among 2nd Amendment mavens that the shooting in Newton, Conn. was a staged affair, orchestrated by those espousing gun control).

Camacho, a 53-year-old transportation engineer, is one of three candidates vying for the District 4 seat representing North Austin constituents currently held by Greg Casar, a 27-year-old community organizer who bills himself as a progressive urban advocate. Louis Herrin, 60, an environmental engineer, also is running for the seat while casting himself a a more conservative choice.

But back to Camacho. When Casar kicked off his re-election campaign in June, the transportation engineer posted a meme on his Facebook page, the Statesman reports, depicting a log cabin completely covered in tinfoil. "Checkmate, government," the caption, a nod to the idea that government is watching our every step and move.

That's among the more mild assertions, what with enhanced authority given intelligence agencies in a post-911 world -- a meme that could be easily attributed to hyperbole. But others are a bit more outlandish. Among Camacho's other beliefs, f one is to judge from his Facebook postings and musings, as reported by the Statesman, are:

Former Vice President Al Gore was paid to lose the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush in order to perpetuate "a global warming scam."

Vaccines are a weapon of mass destruction, and the Zika virus is a hoax meant to promote them.

Cancer is something "the system" gives to people for financial gain, and the distribution of the polio vaccine back in the day actually was a plan to give 98 million people cancer.

The political newcomer's actual campaign platform is a bit more conventional, calling for increasing the homestead exemption to 20 percent and pursue an alternative to a proposed $720 million transportation bond among the key planks, as the Statesman noted.

A July 27 post did display some level of self-awareness: “I live to practice my newfound insanity,” he wrote. “Why not, if people like to be governed by corruption and criminals I am entitled to be a little crazy – after all I contribute to their salaries and retirement plans.”

Camacho didn't return numerous requests for comment from the Austin American-Statesman. Why? Not sure, but we can only assume the truth is out there.

>>> Read the full story at the Austin American-Statesman

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