Cameron Weaver speaks at the candidate forums during the student elections of the spring 2015 semester. Weaver, who was elected as Los Rios student trustee, recently cast doubt on the historical account of the Holocaust and said that being a conspiracy theorist is "a title I wear proudly." (File photo)
By Barbara Harvey and John Ferrannini
Los Rios Student Trustee Cameron Weaver cast doubt on the historical accounts of the Holocaust and the Sept. 11 attacks and discussed his views on antidepressants and high-profile shooters during a 55-minute sit down interview with The Current where he said that being a conspiracy theorist was “a title I wear proudly.”
Weaver said that he doesn’t know if the Holocaust happened.
“I’m definitely not going to go out and venture and say anything like ‘Oh, Holocaust didn’t happen.’ There are tons of people that make that argument,” said Weaver. “From a really unbiased perspective, I completely disagree, but I also completely agree. What I mean when I say both is that I don’t know the answer.”
Weaver compared knowing the facts of the Holocaust to sports fans discussing a football game.
“It’s unfair of me to sit there and say ‘Oh, well because I was told something my whole life, I know this to be the truth and you are incorrect.’ People do that everyday about everything,” said Weaver. “We don’t even have to use Jewish people as an example. Even the smallest detail: ‘Hey, 49ers sucked this game, I watched it, it’s a fact.’ Other person’s like, ‘Nah dude, they rocked, they did great.’ Neither side is right or wrong because neither side can really make that connotation.”
Weaver specifically cast doubt on the figure that 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust, saying that newspapers had been reporting on genocides against the Jews since 1915.
“I don’t have the physical copies of those newspapers. Is it possible that there were some changes to those newspapers? It’s possible,” said Weaver. “But in these newspapers, there was a very conflicting thing I noticed: there was continual reporting that 6 million Jewish people were facing a lot of — they were facing starvation, being evicted from their homes, over in Russia, and then three years later it changed to Ukrainia (sic).
“There are people that are unfortunately being pillaged and being killed and it’s terrible, but where’s the updated statistic?”
If anybody would consider me a ‘conspiracy theorist’ because I entertain looking at the outside aspects of things that affect our country, that’s a title I wear proudly. I have no shame in that. –Cameron Weaver, Los Rios student trustee
Weaver, who was the Associated Student Body Student Senate director of public relations last year and was also a member of the Current for two semesters, including one as opinion editor, styled himself a skeptic. He said that he respects people who disagree with him, even though he asserts that their opinions are based on feelings.
“If you ever want to come up to me and say ‘Cameron, this is a fact,’ my very first inclination to you is going to be ‘I will totally entertain that you feel that’s a fact—what is your supporting anything to assert that?’ ‘Oh, well, I feel it deep down inside my heart.’ ‘OK, (laughs), I respect your right and ability to feel what you want to feel in your heart is true, that does not mean I’m going to concur with you. But I can respect how you feel.’”
Aaron Breitbart, a senior researcher with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization in Los Angeles, said that the Holocaust is “the most documented crime in history.”
“The people on trial at Nuremberg answered that they were just following orders. They never said it never happened because it obviously did,” said Breitbart. “It’s not scholarship, it’s really pseudo scholarship. Essentially, what they’re saying is that Jews and their supporters are liars.”
Weaver won the position of Los Rios Student Trustee in April’s election on eServices.
The Los Rios Student Trustee is elected by the students of the district and serves a term of one year. Weaver sits on the Los Rios Board of Trustees but does not cast a binding vote.
The Student Trustee is paid 75 percent of the elected Board of Trustees compensation, according to the 2015-2016 Student Trustee Handbook.
According to state records, Weaver’s predecessor Omba Kipuke received $4,907 in regular pay for the first five months of his year-long service during the 2014-2015 academic year.
Kipuke also received $7,481 in total benefits, including health, medical and dental insurance from the district.
ASB Sen. Laurie Jones, who ran against Weaver in April’s election, said she had never heard him discuss conspiracy theories in her presence, but firmly disagrees with his stance.
“As far as I know there wasn’t a lot of photoshopping in the 40s,” said Jones. “It’s not something I’m skeptical about.”
Tamara Dunning, who acted as ASB Student Senate president last year, worked closely with Weaver on the board. Dunning said she was “shocked” when she learned of Weaver’s comments.
“He is the trustee on behalf of all the students. It doesn’t matter where you come from, what you did, what gender you are or identify as,” said Dunning. “That’s leadership. He’s supposed to represent the students and not conspiracy theories.”
When asked about the shooting that left one dead and two injured at Sacramento City College on Sept. 3, Weaver said that antidepressants play a role in high-profile shootings — something he alleges the Food and Drug Administration may be covering up.
“All the school shootings that have been nationally reported, every single shooter has a very interesting thing in common. They’re all taking antidepressant medication. What kind of antidepressant medication were they taking? Oh, Prozac,” said Weaver. “If I was to tell you that I think there’s a stake from the FDA and the people that support the FDA, who get financial kickbacks from being supporters of the FDA, to not let that conversation happen, somebody might consider me to be a truther or a conspiracy theorist.
“I’ve never, ever heard on TV in a national conversation anything about antidepressants in this … I would love to be on the Senate floor and say ‘Hey, we’re talking about guns all day and night. What about this? How come nobody’s discussing this?’”
He’s supposed to represent the students and not conspiracy theories. –Tamara Dunning, former ASB Student Senate president
Weaver, who is majoring in political science and has high political aspirations, said that he was motivated to go into public service following Sept. 11, expressing doubt that the 9/11 Commission Report included all the facts.
“As the months and the years progress, you get a little bit older, you get a little bit more able to think for yourself and I just look back and you go over what has transpired since 9/11, the facts or the data that’s publicly available since 9/11, and I’m disgusted,” Weaver said. “I’m disgusted that there’s been so many things given to the public that omit the key things that really detail what the 9/11 Commission didn’t go over when they did their report.”
Weaver said he personally believes that Saudi Arabia was involved in the planning and execution of 9/11.
“It’s come to my understanding that there was a lot of background involvement to some degree in 9/11 with the least likely suspect a normal American may think: Saudi Arabia. And—and this is kind of why I want to get into politics—you read documents that pinpoint Saudi Arabia,” Weaver said.
Weaver also critiqued those who emphasize the safety of childhood vaccinations.
“I won’t come out and say ‘Hey, all vaccines are bad, let’s get rid of them immediately.’ That’s jumping the gun. We don’t have all the meat on the table,” said Weaver. “But still, looking at these side points, well dude, why aren’t we talking about this? Why is there such a perceived negative connotation if somebody looks at these and says ‘Hey. This looks a little—’ ‘No, you’re a conspiracy theorist!’ (imitates whine) You see what I’m sayin’?”
Weaver said the title of “conspiracy theorist” is one he wears proudly.
“If anybody would consider me a ‘conspiracy theorist’ because I entertain looking at the outside aspects of things that affect our country, that’s a title I wear proudly,” said Weaver. “I have no shame in that.”
Breitbart said that casting doubt on the historicity of the Holocaust was “insulting.”
“When you trivialize the suffering of others, it’s like killing the victim a second time,” he said.