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Cambridge council election turns from usual issues, like bike lanes, to transphobia and racism

Cambridge Day reports on allegations involving two candidates.

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Nothing funnier than a group that threw their only legislator out of the group because he wasn't being socialist enough for their liking and actually working with non-socialist legislators.

They are a bunch of self-righteous Maoist morons. They are just J6ers with Birkenstocks. Same narrow focus to their causes, which to them is the only path, with more blinders on than all the horses at Saratoga.

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You don't have to like the DSA, but the DSA throwing someone out of their group is nothing like the January 6 putschists marching into the Capitol waving the flags of a treasonous rebellion, assaulting police officers, and threatening to lynch the vice president for doing his job by certifying the electoral vote that their candidate lost.

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Yet, their detrimental resolution for orthodoxy is troubling.

The underlying lunacy is there and will fester if given a chance.

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DSA members have not been told from birth that they are God's chosen and that the world and all those in it are their rightful property. That and a historical legacy of power is what you need to get a J6, and DSA has neither.

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were actually doing Maoist insurrections -- with sandals on, of course -- I'd probably attend more general meetings.

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Head off into the mountains and keep infighting. The rest of us are all set.

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...and the mouse in your pocket?

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You can agree with the DSA's past decisions or not, but they're not wrong to criticize these candidates' public views.

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Winters funneled hatred at the Cambridge public library and children attending a drag queen story hour by sharing it with libs of tik tok. He also created the potential for actual violence to the point that the library had to add security. That is more serious than any beef you have with DSA.

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What ended up happening at the library event? Was there any disruption?

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But CPD had to send a presence which … is not normal for CPL events.

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Robert winters forced Cambridge to waste tax payer resources to protect people from hatred he helped stir up. Disqualifying.

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But he's "pro-police" I'm sure.

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Maybe you should read the article that Adam posted.

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Winters attempted to at minimum direct online abuse and death threats towards queer people in Cambridge. He should be disqualified. Candidates that continue to support him show themselves for who they really are.

Pasquarello’s co-signing of “neo-Aryan” propaganda is also vile.

What an awful bunch.

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Winters is accused of being guilty of "making quippy replies to posts making fun of a plus sized mermaid". This is actually in there. Things are really floating off into la la land.

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and know him to be an intelligent and fair-minded person. These attacks make me think much less of the DSA (whose issues I mostly support).

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Which of these is fairer-minded?

“Islam and democracy rarely mix well”

or

"I'd rather have a military takeover than Islam in power."

Or is it fair-minded to support, like, encouraging white supremacists to come to a queer event in Cambridge?

Enlighten me, please.

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on whether you're part of a sinister emailing cabal started by Dan Totten, as Winters is alleging?

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Yes, we're all in a sinister cabal that got Robert Winters to follow a bunch of far-right Twitter accounts and start parroting all sorts of racist and transphobic stuff online, then got him to run for Council, then got the CCC to endorse him, and then several weeks later went "aha, look what he's been saying for the past several years."

Yeah, that's exactly what happened. We started this con in like 2016. It's been a wild ride.

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Telling winters in evoking antisemitic tropes in his defense.

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Ron, I've met you before and you seem like a smart guy. I would recommend looking into the evidence first before coming to judgement. Another woman at the protest today gave the same pitch "i've known him for years, he couldn't have done this". It's not uncommon for somebody to present themselves as friendly and accepting in person, but hold bigoted views underneath. The internet has a strange way of drawing those views out. Here is a place to start looking into things, Burhan is a sitting councilor and would not risk his reputation by making stuff up.

https://twitter.com/realBurhanAzeem/status/1707795314592174524

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It's not uncommon for somebody to present themselves as friendly and accepting in person, but hold bigoted views underneath.

It's also entirely on brand for a bigot to present themselves as friendly and accepting to the right sort of people, but to behave very differently towards those they regard as inferior or nefarious for some crackpot reason - and with Winters, it appears that the latter category is large indeed.

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It's REALLY REALLY COMMON for someone who engages in oppressive behavior to seem completely reasonable and normal to people who don't belong to marginalized groups.

This isn't even always a matter of blatant bigotry from people who know to turn it off when people are present who would say something. People who don't belong to marginalized groups miss a lot of more subtle statements and behavior that people in marginalized groups are attuned to, and they're not going to be on the receiving end of a lot of the more blatant ones. This is why we don't go to cishet white people to ask for recommendations of doctors and so forth; why would you have any idea how your doctor behaves toward trans folks of color?* This is why you can only say something like "well, he's decent enough with me, but I'm a cishet white guy who only speaks English and has no disabilities, so I would defer to marginalized folks in terms of getting the whole picture of who he is."

(*And I'm honestly not even sure why I'm posting this, since this is the type of site where if someone did ask for a recommendation of a doctor who was culturally competent with trans folks, the resident racists would ask why "skin color" has anything to do with doctors and the resident transphobes would say transphobic shit about how no doctors should be mutilating people since that's apparently what happens at my asthma checkups.)

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if someone did ask for a recommendation of a doctor who was culturally competent with trans folks, the resident racists would ask why "skin color" has anything to do with doctors and the resident transphobes would say transphobic shit about how no doctors should be mutilating people since that's apparently what happens at my asthma checkup

You forgot "why does it matter if it's an ASTHMA CHECKUP?" (although the first is close).

Some days they can't land planes at Logan for all the clues flying over people's heads.

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I would also add that Burhan is not DSA and in fact is basically an enemy of DSA since essentially ousted one of our candidates last election. Also, Marc McGovern and Ayesha Wilson have also condemned Robert's actions. I can assure you neither of these candidates are friends of DSA.

https://twitter.com/MarcGov/status/1707800336813973777

https://twitter.com/Vote_Ayesha/status/1708299938147250244

This is not about DSA, they are simply one of the few groups to organize and make sure transphobia, Islamophobia, and other bigotry is stomped out of Cambridge politics.

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yeah I used to read his website (and a few others he did) Plus he's an occasional poster here.

Rather disappointed in him for spewing such homophobic and racists nonsense.

But its par for the course today, so many people are infected by this maga nonsense that yes even people we least expect become one. Eliminated alot of people in my life lately for this.. Winters is just another one who's been added to that list.

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This reply is really problematic not just because it utterly fails to accept the damning evidence of repeated acts of bigotry, and denies a cause harm to marginalized groups he’s seeking to represent. Facts don’t care about your feelings.

Ron you’re a white guy (at least last I met you). Why on earth do you think a bigoted guy who wants you vote would treat you any other way? The fact he didn’t spit in your face or try and organize a mob to harm you personally doesn’t make him a good person. It just makes you not a member of a marginalized group this man truly hates and wants to hurt.

Finally, your choice to empathize with this despicable person and show zero empathy for marginalized groups this man has chosen attack and even attempt to actively harm in your community is more than a bad look. Then you blame the messenger to boot?

Ron you are truly better than this. You may be smart but you’re an old white dude and your personal experience being tolerated by bigots is a piss poor litmus test. You should know better.

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What you call "attacks" are simply drawing attention to evidence that Winters is a transphobe willing to bring @libsoftiktok attention to a Cambridge Library drag queen story time, an islamophobe, and, at minimum an individual lacking sympathy for minority groups by calling Black Lives Matter "Stupid Lives Matter". The DSA didn't make that stuff up.

Evidence here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1BYfUITEHDL_F0mRT2zGTCUJh_aC0...

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Haven't they read their history books? I know nothing about this group so maybe I'm way off base, but "Citizens Councils" have a terrible history in our country. I know it's actually called the Cambridge Citizens Coalition, but it's a little too close for comfort here.

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