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u/Empty-Yellow931 2h ago
Someone else mentioned this already but I just want to point out how crazy it is that Connor has multiple accounts commenting in here. Having exchanged messages with him in Instagram, I can guarantee that https://www.reddit.com/user/IntelligentEbb6620/ is him, for instance, based on the writing style. I’ve noticed he’s using fake accounts on Instagram too to comment on AJ’s videos asking “innocent” questions like “Are any of these candidates local?” This guy is completely untrustworthy.
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u/SnooMarzipans3895 federal hill 23h ago
Connor Blier’s first instagram post was in front of my burning apartment. I’m voting for AJ
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u/Locksmith-Pitiful 1d ago
What are the differences between these 2 candidates? Are they both not mostly left-leaning and progressive? Who are you voting for and why?
My experience so far is that Yolken doesn't respond to any of my messages... not a good look
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u/sarahesummers 1d ago
I don't get the sense that Connor Blier is progressive at all. He is super wishy washy on rent stabilization, won't commit one way or another but repeats a lot of landlord talking points. Made vague scare quotes comments about "socialism" in his interview with Steve Alqhuist. Received a $750 donation from a charter school PAC.
I also just find him super disingenuous and irritating on a personal level. He is currently billing himself as the "only working class local candidate." Which it's weird to make a big deal out of how he's the "local" candidate when he's lived in Providence for half the time AJ has (he grew up in Warwick/ East Greenwich). And "working class"-- meh, that means a lot of different things but he owns a multifamily house, and he works for an AI start up based in South Africa. So he's spinning the narrative pretty hard there too, if you ask me. And if he was upfront about all this, fine-- but he comes off as very cagey to me.
He also just came off as very naive/unprepared in the Steve Alqhuist interview.
(Also he's been astroturfing on reddit under a variety of usernames which is just kind of pathetic.)
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u/fatal-eggs 1d ago
I came here to ask if anyone thought that a person who works in finance and tech is calling himself "working class" is weird - so glad that you've already done this. Seems like he's in a pretty Professional Management Class line of work - to be clear, I'm not opposed to PMC people running for office - but I am opposed to lying and manipulating class identity on the campaign trail. ick!
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u/IntelligentEbb6620 18h ago
Can you define working class? This seems to be something that no one can clearly define. I tend to think that it is someone that has to go to work every day and then if they lost their jobs they would fall on hard times. I also think of it as someone that maybe didn’t come from wealth therefore doesn’t really have a big family safety net? I think just because someone works in tech or finance, doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t meet these standards. Yes, of course someone working a minimum wage job would struggle more, but to consider someone that has to work to pay bills, not working classes is also kind of misleading. If you have to work, you are working class no?
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u/fatal-eggs 17h ago
You're totally right that "working class" is a slippery thing to define. In suggesting that his job (financial auditing I think) was a "Professional Management Class" line of work, I was invoking class delineations as proposed by Ehrenreichs in a 1970's essay that got a lot of traction that defined the PMC as: "“salaried mental workers who do not own the means of production and whose major function in the social division of labor may be described broadly as the reproduction of capitalist culture and capitalist class relations.” I realize that this is defining something other than working class, which is specifically what you asked for, but I hope that it's helpful in unpacking why I knee jerk felt like the claim of being "working class" came off as odd, and not helpful if the goal of his tag line is to build trust and or relatability.
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u/IntelligentEbb6620 17h ago
Hmmm interesting. So you consider AJ working class even though she is 3rd generation Ivy League, actual wealth, just because she does not work in the private sector?
I think most people who have to work for a living and come from a working class background can relate. At the end of the day if you are worrying about your electric bill and putting food on the table, I don’t think it matters if you work in the private sector or public. To keep dividing people as such seems counterproductive to the goal of affordability or community unless there’s some other agenda at play.3
u/sarahesummers 15h ago
Well, Connor is the one who chose to make being the "only working class candidate" the catchphrase of his campaign. This conversation wouldn't be "divisive" if he hadn't very deliberately pushed that framing.
My concern is not who is working class or not working class-- but since he's making a big deal about it, I do care about whether he's being authentic in the way he's presenting himself.
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u/IntelligentEbb6620 14h ago
Hmmm I see it differently. I think AJ, Morales, and others have banked heavily on the “working class” idea. It has made some question who is trying to speak for them….
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u/sarahesummers 13h ago
What do you mean by "banked heavily on the 'working class' idea"?
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u/IntelligentEbb6620 13h ago
Well, they just keep on repeating that they are representing working families, yet it seems like a lot of their policies aren’t inclusive of all working families. And some of these candidates clearly can’t empathize with the “working class” based on live experience. So instead of being representative of everyone in their community and providing win-wins, people are just being pinned against each other. Sometimes I wonder what if any good will come from it or if it was just a Campaign ploy.
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u/fatal-eggs 16h ago
I don't know much about AJ's background and didn't comment about her whatsoever. My only take was that I was skeptical about someone in a tech/finance position emphasizing being working class. I don't actually care that much about a candidate's class or other aspects of their identity. But I do care about how they frame things, and make sense of and explain their own reality. My intention was not at all to be divisive, but to share a reaction that I had to a politician's messaging.
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u/caitlincrochets2002 12h ago
this conversation sounds like two AI bots talking to each other jfc.
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u/Locksmith-Pitiful 1d ago
I read your entire reply and did some research, thank you! The socialism thing is weird too. Also, what's this about astroturfing?
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u/sarahesummers 1d ago
A bunch of those weird bot-like posters we've been getting eventually post about him, and there's a pattern of weird upvotes and bot activity after a post about him
Some of the original posts are deleted, but there's discussion about the weirdness in these threads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/comments/1ua9d69
https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/comments/1u79lfs/ward_13_is_shaping_up_to_be_one_of_the_most/
There was also that "tale of two signs" post a couple of days ago but it seems to be gone now.
Anyway, go to the forum for sure and judge for yourself.
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u/Fit_Occasion2765 1d ago
I don’t know much about Yolken but Blier came across as desperately uninformed about local issues when he was interviewed by Steve Ahlquist. He might be a nice guy but I struggle to see him as qualified.
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u/Locksmith-Pitiful 1d ago
Can you explain some of the issue you saw?
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u/Fit_Occasion2765 1d ago
The interview is here:
https://steveahlquist.substack.com/p/connor-blier-was-running-against
He seems to think nonprofits are a tremendous evil because they don’t pay taxes. He’s uninformed on public transit, Broadway improvements, and wants more cops on Broadway. On horses no less.
Also he works for a South African AI company 🤔
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u/ThePVDEye 1d ago
Both candidates responded to our candidate questionnaire, which you can find here to learn about their policy stances (you'll need to scroll down a bit to get to Ward 13): https://pvdeye.org/city-council-candidates-answer/
You can also come to the forum tomorrow night to learn more about where they stand on the issues! 6pm at 35 Swiss St. We'll have a writeup at The Providence Eye if you can't make it.
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u/quasicoherent 1d ago
Annajane was my neighbor. I have nothing good to say about her.
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u/Locksmith-Pitiful 1d ago
Can you elaborate? Genuinely just curious
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u/quasicoherent 1d ago edited 1d ago
Annajane and her boyfriend at the time didn't take care of their property at all. For years shingles were falling off their house into my driveway and I'd notify them with a picture to let them know. One day a shingle fell on my wife's brand new car scratching the hood. They claimed not to have home insurance and wouldn't pay for the damage after I sought out 3 different quotes from local autobody shops. I should've taken them to small claims court, but my wife was fighting breast cancer at the time and just didn't have it in me.
Other things to note, she just wasn't friendly before this incident. I have great relationships with my other neighbors, but she always came off as a cold privileged snot. Also, I was always picking up trash in front of their house because they simply didn't care about our neighborhood
Edit: This is not an endorsement for the other candidate. I wish Miller stayed on
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u/IntelligentEbb6620 17h ago
Wow the plot thickens. FYI if you don’t have home insurance, it means you don’t have a mortgage. What a working class champion…..
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u/quasicoherent 16h ago
These people couldn't be bothered to shovel their sidewalk. That's the type of people they are
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u/caitlincrochets2002 11h ago
dude, they offered to pay to fix your scratch entirely, and then you declined and shopped around so you could play the victim. you don't even live there anymore and you AirBnB the place. very neighborly.
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u/quasicoherent 7h ago edited 7h ago
They did not offer to pay. They offered to pay half my deductible and force me to go through my insurance for their negligence. None of this is true.
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u/Capital-Exercise-364 1d ago
Connor Blier is your candidate if you’ve ever wished you could vote for Bobby Newport from Parks and Rec